Dysphoria causes distress, and it makes it that much harder to succeed in other areas of your life.

It’s hard to overstate this, before I transitioned I thought transitioning was selfish and mostly a way for me to finally wear women’s clothes outside my house, etc. - I focused on the social and personal benefits, which were small compared to the risks.

But the reality is that testosterone was destroying my mind and made me a completely miserable, dysfunctional person. I didn’t transition because I finally could prioritize what I thought was a trivial desire to be a woman, but because I learned it could be the cause of a lot of my mental health problems. I realize now that testosterone was wrecking my life and I was hurting the people I love.

Now I realize transition is more medically necessary than I could have understood (or more importantly, been willing to believe). I still, even now, have a hard time believing this, and I regularly doubt my experience.