I’m a methodical person, I check everything twice and follow the rules. The one aspect of me, which does not follow conformity or the norm is my gender. So, recently, when I came out TG to my fiancé, I decided to educate myself on me. I have gone through books and websites, I was amazed at how many reference materials there are, and how broad the terminology can be. Once you start looking it is everywhere, from the dry definitions to the dubious guesses, it’s all out there to find. I don’t know how I didn’t see this until now. I know in the early 90’s I had tried looking but I couldn’t really find anything, unless you were looking in psychology texts, which is just fun <sarcasm> to peruse.
Anyway, I am wondering something I can’t really find, it seems to be glossed over a bit, either due to what I imagine must be painful memories, or it didn’t seem important after the fact. How does one transition (even start it really) and maintain a career, friends and family? Has anyone done it and kept the people and job that they love? Is there a way to approach this with your company (I work for the US side of a german-owned company of about 500+ employees)?
I don’t want to fully transition, I think I will leave the penis alone, it hasn’t done anything to me personally. It’s an aspect I can hide away and I don’t have to worry about anyone but my fiancé seeing it anyway. (one of the many plusses of getting married to an awesome woman.) But I want to do everything else I think. I feel drawn, despite my concerns, to attempt to make myself who I am on the inside. It’s in my thoughts night and day now. I just don’t know how to get started. I don’t want to freak my co-workers out, I don’t want to alienate my family. I know they will, and I am fairly sure I might on both counts. I would like to minimize it as much as possible if anyone has done it even moderately successfully.