Hello everyone, sorry for the lengthy post and possible english mistakes in advance, english is not my first language so I hope you can bear with me :) I hope I don’t come across as rude or disrespectful, I’m still fairly new to the topic gender identity in general.
Context For almost 2 weeks I’m actively questioning my gender identity, after i watched some trans youtuber. Some of their feelings resonated with my and at several points I thought: “huh, that sounds familiar…” I’m 27 years old and AMAB, I’ve never really questioned my gender actively (Exclamation on “actively”). But in the past 2 weeks many memories I had almost forgotten resurfaced. But many of these experiences are from the time before my current 7 year relationship. So I’m not really sure if could trust those “distant” memories or if I am just warping them to fit my current interest. I hope you get what I mean. When I was a child I had been diagnosed with ADHD and from time to time i fall into a hyperfocus where I’m extremely interested in specific topics. I think i might suffer from a mild case of imposter syndrom. I have many accomplishments i should feel proud of (I have a fairly decent bachelors degree in mechanical engineering and am almost finished with my masters degree), but I always have the feeling I don’t deserve them or am just more lucky than my peers. With these things out of the way:
Here are some of these experiences, with my instinctive responses These are in no particular order and I have even more saved in a .doc file :D
- Whenever I play a game i choose female instinctively, sometimes I don’t even play a game if there’s no female character the game is much less compelling to me.
- I think that’s true for many cishet men, atleast 3 of my close friends tend to choose female characters too.
- I draw, but when I’m drawing characters I always want to draw women
- I guess that’s also true for many cishet men (?)
- Eventhough I like to draw women and always wanted to draw myself as one, there was always some kind of barrier which prevented me from doing that…
- Last week I finally did it and somehow the picture gave me some… “interesting” feelings (almost like a longing?)
- When I have the feeling if another player in a mmo assumes that i’m female, it always feels kind of nice
- could be a roleplaying thing but i dunno…
- We have a Call of Cthulhu roleplaying group in which I’m playing a woman. Whenever I’m spoken to with female pronouns, referred to with her given name or if my character receives a compliment it feels really nice
- This year we had a murder mystery party where I played a women. I burrowed a nice dress from my girlfriend, put on some clip-on earrings and wore a pair of 6cm heels. I’ve felt surprisingly confident even more after i received some compliments from the female players for my appearance.
- Maybe the confidence boost came from the heels lol
- I’ve remembered in my last middle school year I went during the costume week in a dress from my mother and received some compliments then too and had similar feelings (11 years ago i think) and also felt weirdly confident
- I guess everyone likes to receive compliments?
- During high school my favourite manga which I read several times was a genderbender manga where the protagonist trasformed into a girl. I was kind of envious of the protagonist and was sad that I could never experience something like this. (8 years ago)
- That’s a normal feeling among adolescents right?
- During my apprenticeship (7 years ago) one of the other apprentices said to my drivers license picture “You look like cute lesbian”. In that moment I felt complimented
- Why would you even say something like that?! :D
- 8 years ago I played in the youth club of our local theater. Someday one of the others came out as Transmale. While always referred to him as male and respected his decision my instinctive thought was: “Why would anybody want to be a boy, they have nothing going for them”.
- Later this year when I watched some trans women on youtube about there coming out stories my instinctive thought was: “Yep sounds absolutely logical! I get why you would want to transition”
- If I had the option to change my gender in an instant without any consequences i would do that.
- I guess that’s quite the telling point, but the thing is, while I had these thoughts often during my time in school. Since my relationship the thought never (I think) came back to me. But my response to the question is still the same. Maybe it’s just curiosity?
As already said, there are some more points, but I don’t want to draw it out even further. I’ve also did my due diligence and read the gender dysphoria bible (which is fantastic open document imho) and there were a few points I could very much relate to, especially at the imposter syndrom chapter and the euphoria chapter… But the whole situation leaves my rather restless (and sleepless). Yesterday I confessed to my girlfriend about these feelings and she’s been really supportive and awesome, which calmed me down a fair amount.
You almost reached the End! If you have any thoughts about any of these points please, please share them with me! And also, when did you “realise” you were transgender, were there points in your live where you didn’t even thought about it or was it more of a constant nagging feeling? I can’t even really tell why all this confusion surfaced like this with such strong emotions. Maybe because it never occured to me until recently that changing your gender is an active and possible choice you have, but maybe its just my ADHD lol.
Thank you very much for reading!
TL;DR: Got complicated feelings about resurfacing memories and am questioning my gender, please share your stories :)
I want to start off by assuring you that all of these confusing and sometimes contradictory feelings are very normal. I highly recommend the Gender Dysphoria website which is what helped me realize I am a woman back in October.
For me, a lot of this website resonated with me on such a deep personal level that it made me realize that all these small intimate moments and memories actually added up to a lifetime of dysphoria being AMAB.
Sure, a lot of your examples could be interpreted to be something that cishet men like to do. But you have quite a large list of examples plus more in a word doc. That tells me this is more than a “typical” cis man would experiment with or experience.
I would suggest maybe looking back on your life and try and think of how you felt when doing typically masculine things. Or being perceived as masculine. For me, I’ve mostly felt uncomfortable and even unsafe in situations where I felt I needed to put on a “macho” persona to fit in. And on the other side of the coin, when I was perceived as feminine, that gave me a sense of safety and comfort. For example, many times as a child I was mistaken for a girl because I had really long hair. People would profusely apologize but deep down I was happy to be thought of in that way. Even just for a second. I would get uncomfortable when someone would correct themselves and assure me that “I’m definitely a boy and very handsome” or some nonsense.
I think you realizing you enjoy being referred to with female pronouns might be something you should reflect more on.
And you’re right on that last point. The fact that if you could wave a magic wand and instantly become a woman, tells me that maybe you need to explore that some more.
Nobody else can tell you if you are transgender or whatever identity. The only person that can do that is yourself. So this involves a lot of deep personal self reflective time in order to sift through all of the defense mechanisms and internal transphobia we have all developed in order to survive.
I will say this that has been my northern star through my journey.
Listen to your deepest self. Follow those moments of happiness and learn to care for yourself. You will find your peace ❤️
Good luck in your journey and no matter where you end up, know that there are people who support you! Feel free to reach out and DM me if you have more questions or want to talk :)
EDIT: I have terrible reading comprehension skills sometimes. I see you have already read through the gender dysphoria bible. Good starting place!
Thank you for your thoughtful replay oNevia, reflecting on masculine situations is a great advice! Actually I do remember there were instances i felt quite uncomfortable putting on a “fake” masculine facade. Especially during school sport events and when in changing rooms with other men/boys. On one hand are these moments relatively rare for me, but on the other hand I also don’t really feel accomplished when acting in a typical male behaviour. I think I will pay closer attention to that aspect now.
I think in the future I need to leave my comfort zone and experiment more often. For a while now, I have the feeling im living on autopilot, so that’s hopefully something that can help me!
Totally feel you on those masculine moments. Especially the locker room stuff in school. Those were some of the most self conscious and terrifying moments for me growing up.
If it helps. I started exploring outside of my comfort zone by focusing on what aspects about my body or expression that seemed to give me the most dysphoria.
So for example, I have always hated my body hair. Not that I am particularly hairy, but I realized I viewed body hair as a masculine trait. Hated how it made me feel. So the first thing I did when trying to explore my feminine side was shave everything. And not only shave but also take care of my skin. Moisturizer and better hygiene in general.
One, this gave me those bursts of gender euphoria and made me feel pretty and just a little more attractive. And two, I started actually taking care of my body which gave me the momentum to learn to start loving myself. And loving the woman inside.
I hope that helps ❤️
I think that’s true for many cishet men, atleast 3 of my close friends tend to choose female characters too.
A lot of trans people find out a lot of their friends were trans as well, even if none of them knew that they were trans when they became friends.
Not going to say there aren’t cis men who tend to choose women, but of the 3 cis people I know, one teases me for choosing female character and clearly likes styling their male characters, one always chooses masculine characters and clearly cares about styling their main characters, and I think the last pretty much always chooses male characters and he’s got a bit of a femboy side.
Cisman here to add another data point. I usually pick female models bc they usually have the better voice actors
The VA was my excuse for picking the female character in Genshin. Couldn’t get why my cousin didn’t choose her and I made fun of him for choosing the male character.
Theres just obvious choices sometimes. Like Mass Effect for example the male va does a good job but the female one does incredible
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Multiple of these points here do remind me of myself. Before I started questioning my gender many years ago, I felt like I had to be hyper-masculine, although being hyper-masculine made me feel depressed. I think it was because deep down I felt feminine yet society was telling me otherwise so I felt I needed to overcompensate masculinity to cancel out the femininity. I think that if I didn’t have this hyper-masculinity, I would have realized that I am trans a lot sooner.
During this point in my life, I was so depressed I could hardly function. I got put on anti-depresants and I was happy for about 2 months. Then I went back to school in the fall and I started getting depressed again. It was then that I realized that I was envious of women and that it was making me depressed. Not long after that realization I started expirementing with my gender and I noticed that it was making me very happy and that being masculine was making me depressed so that is what led me to conclude that I am trans. Many years later and I am on HRT and I’ve never been happier.
Honestly I think the barrier to you not being able to draw yourself is that you are not ready to accept yourself as potentially being trans. Being trans, especially at first is very scary. There are so many new things to familiarize yourself with and on top of that you have to deal with people potentially being dickheads. Coming out is like taking a leap of faith, and hopefully you have supportive friends and family who will catch you or else you will smash into the ground and have to lift yourself up on your own. However, taking this leap is the best decision I ever made because I am so much happier now. I hope this didn’t discourage you at all, it’s just the reality of it, but I swear you will feel so much euphoria when you finally step out of your comfort zone and draw yourself as a woman. I know I did when I shoddily photoshopped long hair and makeup on me many years ago.
Hey Lumelore, it makes me extremely happy to know that you found yourself and are now happier than ever before! ❤ When I was little I had extremely low self esteem, for that reason (and bad eye-hand-coordination) I started Karate at 5 years, which gave me a significant boost in confidence in acting more like my usual weird me. So thankfully even when I was mocked for not being (or trying) to be especially masculine it didn’t bother me too much. But maybe without 20 years of Karate lessons I would have reacted differently in the past.
Actually I did draw myself as women after a small (large) amount of loud sighs and nervosity (is that an english word?). And it made me feel really weird insight. When I was finished the feeling I got was a mixture of longing, confidence, warmth and a tiny bit of melancholy? Its hard to put in words.
Maybe I will share the picture with this community if am confident enough.
Thankfully I trust my friends to accept me even if I’m not cis. My family, even though they are all “boring” cishet people, is also very open and liberal in that matter, but it still makes me nervous especially when thinking about my brother which I have a good relationship with.
but for now:
- Step 1: figuring myself out
- Step 2: dealing with close people
Yeah it can take quite a while to figure yourself out. I was questioning for about a year to a year and a half after I had my realization, but the experiments I did with my gender were very helpful to me finally commiting to being trans. I never actually read the gender dysphoria bible at first, because I was afraid to accept myself and commit to being trans and then when I finally did accept myself I didn’t need to read it anymore. Recently (like last month) I went and read it since so many people recommend it and it would have been a really helpful thing if I actually read it when I needed it lol.
Trust me, I also was extremely hesistant, but I’m glad I’ve read it. Regardless if i’m a man or a woman the document taught me some really important lessons and inspired me to do further self inspection. I think the part about assuming that being cis is the norm, is something many people should reflect upon, because there is really no reason for it being this way!
Tangential, but since you asked…
Turns out “nervosity” is a word in English. It’s used so rarely, though, that I had to look it up to be sure. What you wrote was perfectly correct, but in that context, most people would probably say something like “nervousness” or “anxiety” (at least in my U.S.-centric experience).
For the record, having learned it, I now like “nervosity” better, and (unless I forget, which is likely) intend to start using it.
I guess I learned something new today :D thanks!
You’ve already got a ton of great advice, and it sounds like your next steps are lined up, so I’ll just throw in some words of encouragement and further reading in case you’re interested.
Since I had my moment of realization, the mindset I’ve tried to stick to is “the only way out is through.” For me, at this point, that means transition, but it doesn’t have to - that’s up to you. The reason I bring it up is because it’s very easy for this kind of thing to be derailed by the complexities, distractions, and dramatic events of regular life - especially if you turn out to be repressed and looking for excuses to kick the can down the road, like I was. You will likely benefit from sticking with it, in the sense of really engaging with this question and carrying through until you find a satisfying answer for yourself, whatever that answer will end up being. If you are transgender, delaying it will only mean coming back to it later in life, after having suffered needlessly. And if you’re not, there’s no harm in having taken the time to know yourself a bit better.
I’d also like to share some links that were instrumental to me getting through the questioning phase to the other side, in the order I encountered them.
- These two are related, and are about symptoms of gender dysphoria that are not obviously related to gender. Since you already read the Gender Dysphoria Bible, it probably won’t be news to you.
- This one paints a vivid picture of the kinds of experiences you might have had growing up if you happen to be a trans woman who likes women, and really drives home how it’s possible to grow up without realizing you’re trans. It did a lot to help me recognize myself in trans stories and really see it as a possibility.
- This one gives more of a logical/philosophical argument that helped shift my thinking in terms of the possibility of being trans.
- And this was the killing stroke, as it has been for so many others. The link is just to page one; to get the full story/effect you need to click through for the whole conversation that follows.
Hope some of that helps, or is at least interesting.
Thank you very much for the links. At the moment I only read the article about “tranbians” and parts of the article about depersonalization. There were definitely parts I could relate to alot.
I am in a very similar situation to yours (adhd + autism), and just wanted to say that most of your experiences line up with mine even the tabletop rpg stuff (although i havent dressed feminine before in a social setting). as the only place im actually out for being trans is online; and havent dressed up for any dnd/events before.
But personally i feel like the most important part here is “if i could be a woman without consequences i would” which is the reason im only out in online places.
because i personally dont have gender dysphoria; just gender euphoria when gendered as a woman (and i think you aswell but i cant speak for you but that is my gut instinct). So i don’t mind going through life as a man because i fear the work i would have to do to change would be more annoying than just keeping the satus quo. but for you seeing as people complemented you dressed feminine might not be as big of a barrier, as you seem to have great people in your social circle.
apologies for grammar or typos currently writing on a phone while slightly drunk and dyslexic. if anything isnt clearly written let me know but i already reread this 3 times >.<
in the words of the great Timothy Dexter: “salt and pepper these as you see fit ,…‘’‘’:::;;;;”
Don’t worry Silvana, I’ve just spotted some typos and mistakes in my post, even after rereading it several times :) I also think the part about changing my gender without consequences is a big sign, but what do I know, I’m shortsighted :D I can relate strongly to your third paragraph, it does seem like a lot of work, but maybe if its a missing piece in my life, it might be worth to take the risk. But that’s a problem for future me, when I know whats currently missing.
I wish you all the best and thanks for your reply!
Aw I love this community, so many wonderful replies already <3 I don’t have much to add that hasn’t been said already, so I’ll just say that everything you’re feeling and thinking is real and valid and even though we’re total strangers I’m really proud of you for taking the time to reflect and deepen your understanding of yourself because it can definitely be really scary but it’s so worth it in the end <3
Thank you very much, it has been a wild and sometimes scary ride so far, but I’m glad I took it :) And this community really is wonderful!
Thank you all very very much for your stories and advice! I’m absolutely floored by the support I’ve already received! I also appreciate your advice to explore myself without trying to push any label on me. It doesn’t matter where the road leads me to, the trans community will always have a special place in my heart. Thank you.
It’s getting kind of late here in Germany, so if i’m not responding to your comments I’m probably sleeping :)
Your story sounds very familiar to me! I recently came to terms with the fact that I am transgender, so i think i am in a similar place to you right now, or at least i was very recently. When I had my “awakening” it helped me recontextualize a lot of feelings that i didnt even know were there. I played a female character in a Pathfinder game and felt really attatched to her in a way that i hadn"t felt with my male characters. I even has some art commissioned of her that i use as a profile picture, and i use her name as my username on lots of sites (including this one!).
It made me remember a time in middle school when i was at a birthday party with mostly girls and we had a scavenger hunt at the mall. One of the objectives was to take a picture with a bra on over your clothes, and i quickly volunteered. At the time i thought it was just funny as the only guy in the group, but in retrospect i was very excited to try it on. Ive had a girlfriend give me a full face of makeup and it made me feel really good about myself. Ive been painting my nails and doing nail art for several years. Some of my guy friends paint their nails too, but it was always a different vibe. They would do solid dark colors and i would do bright colors, sometimes with patterns or shapes, and it always felt really nice.
Throughout all of these experiences i never seriously questioned my gender. It only occurred to me around a month ago that I might actually be a woman, and thay made me recontextualize all of these things years afterward. I’m 26 AMAB and i kind of thought it was too late for me to discover something fundamental about myself like this, but that’s not true! It’s never too late to be yourself.
Ultimately nobody can say what gender you are except you, but i feel a lot of kinship with the experiences you have described. I reccomend that you experiment a little, maybe buy some women’s underwear to wear under your regular clothes, or if your girlfriend is supportive and you feel safe, try some of her clothes on. The thing that solidified my feelings on the matter was shaving my legs. It was a huge moment of euphoria for me and basically removed any doubt i had.
I hope you find the answers you are looking for!
Thank you very much for the reply, Ravindra! It helps my to know, there are people in a similar age bracket with similar experiences. I think i will follow your advice with shaving my legs and maybe let my gf put some nail polish on my nails! Buying women’s underwear seems like a step too far at the moment, but who knows what the future brings ;)
Others have already written a lot about their experience and therefore I will keep it short. One thing that made a big difference for me was that feelings like the ones that you are describing are certainly normal - to an extent. But when all of them come together, then there is “something there”. No smoke without a fire, so to speak.
There is a little game “What’s your gender?” that helped me. It’s short. If you have a little time, I recommend checking it out.
Wherever you may go, may Blahaj be with you!
Thanks Squirrel, I guess if there would be nothing for me to question myself, I wouldn’t be doing it…
Tomorrow I will check out the game, and may Blahaj be with you too!
“Eventhough I like to draw women and always wanted to draw myself as one, there was always some kind of barrier which prevented me from doing that…” Self image. Just come back to this one when you want to make progress and consider what the barrier is. My very low stakes advice would be start drawing, and see where it goes. No risk high exploration.
I’m in a not dissimilar position to you, right down to the childhood karate, and really resonate with your post. Except I’m 4 years older and my relationship has been going for 4 years older. It’s always weird and scary to understand these things, and can be very hard to share with your partner. I’ve been talking to a therapist about some of this stuff recently and they recommended reading the work of Meg John Barker, particularly the material on plurality. They have a lot of material available on line for free and it’s all short, really worth a read. The guist of it is that as a person you are likely plural, made up of multiple different “personas” that can be thought of the sources of various emotions/feelings, and it’s likely that one of more of them are not the gender you’re assigned at birth. You can embrace this at times without fully transitioning, or use it as a way to experiment 5o see if you want to live full time as a woman. I have so much respect for the girls here who have done it, but it looks like a challenging ordeal, even once you’re passing, and it is further complicated by already being in a cis het relationship with someone you love, means there is a lot more on the line. Wish you all the best in figuring all this out (and maybe when you do you can let me know xD )
