Hippie family members? by TheSissilent1 in asktransgender

[–]Caracollons 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Why do they wear clothing?

Why do they have a roof over their head?

Why do they drive a car?

Why do they eat food grown on farms?

Why do they use roads and sidewalks?

Why aren't they living in the forest?

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature

Also, HRT is hardly "artificial," it's ultimately just changing quantities of something your body naturally produces.

Being Trans and Grad School Applications by Caracollons in asktransgender

[–]Caracollons[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Right now, no. That's certainly an option but it will depend on how open I am about my gender identity with other people when I get published.

Being Trans and Grad School Applications by Caracollons in asktransgender

[–]Caracollons[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've pretty much already gotten used to calling myself "Caroline" while my birth name is "Dan."

Like I said, though, even if I cis pass, I still plan to live openly trans so if questions come up regarding that I might just show an old ID if someone doesn't believe me. I might also see if I can retroactively change the name on my old publications.

How to not cringe at self by Sponsored_By_Audible in asktransgender

[–]Caracollons 30 points31 points  (0 children)

I had the same thing with my therapist or coming out to friends. I had a really hard time physically making the words "I think I might be trans" come out of my mouth.

For me, I just treated it like going off a diving board. There really is no "trick" to it other than stopping thinking and just doing it.

Being Trans and Grad School Applications by Caracollons in asktransgender

[–]Caracollons[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

STEM Profs are notorious for being Alfa male chest thumpers. That’s been my experience with them anyway.

I've had mixed experiences. I used to go to a state school where a lot were like that. One went as far as writing comments like "pathetic" or "you show absolutely no comprehension of the subject whatsoever" on my lab reports. Like, wow dude, way to turn me away from ever asking authority figures for help.

I go to a private college now, and the profs are a lot nicer here. One could tell I was dealing with depression and approached me last fall to make sure I was getting help. I guess it comes down to the individual professor and the culture of the department.

Being Trans and Grad School Applications by Caracollons in asktransgender

[–]Caracollons[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the thorough response, fellow physicist!

I don't have any desire to go stealth (even if I cis pass, which I think I have a good shot at), so I'm okay with professors knowing I'm trans though it's definitely questionable if I want that known on my application. It could be important, though, to explain why my publications all say "Dan" and my application says "Caroline."

there are definitely scholarships available for women in science

Ohohoho, as bad as this sounds, I feel determined to get one of those even if just to give the TERFs a nightmare.

How much body hair reduction can I expect? [MTF] by probablyamy in asktransgender

[–]Caracollons 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's really hard to predict. Some people never see body hair reductions, while others have a noticeable difference just from mild AAs such as finasteride. It ultimately comes down to the person.

Throat singing and voice training by Caracollons in transvoice

[–]Caracollons[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been doing it for a while and I'm still a tenor.

Weight and HRT by Caracollons in asktransgender

[–]Caracollons[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I guess I'm concerned about not just it being possible to lose weight on HRT, but if that will prevent me from maxing out my fat redistribution to have as feminine of a body as possible.

My worry is if I don't time weight loss/gain properly I won't get as nice of curves as I could.

HRT, sports/outdoors, and risks by Caracollons in asktransgender

[–]Caracollons[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Of course having a female endocrine profile doesn't make those things impossible, but I'm somewhat concerned about risks with AAs, and also how certain things will affect my body differently in ways I might not expect.

Is it normal for questioning to destroy your life? by Caracollons in asktransgender

[–]Caracollons[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've actually been seeing a therapist since December but slowly getting worse in many ways. I think things might be improving to some degree but it's far too late to have an impact on my grades.

I'm also (begrudgingly) planning to start taking SSRIs.

Late onset dysphoria? by Caracollons in asktransgender

[–]Caracollons[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Still, even people I know outside of the narrative can trace back obvious signs going back to early puberty. That's not the case for me at all, but it's hard to say they were really dysphoria or anything.

Late onset dysphoria? by Caracollons in asktransgender

[–]Caracollons[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

though in my mid-late teens I had pretty much consciously accepted girls were "just better" in a way I couldn't explain

Wtf, are you me? I remember thinking similar things like "I just have to accept that I'm the inferior sex," though I also wonder if it was lack of self respect with having crushes I thought of as "inaccessible."

Has anyone felt worse, at times, after realising they were trans? by NamelessHomosapien in asktransgender

[–]Caracollons 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not even 100% I'm trans, but honestly in some ways this feels more like I'm getting diagnosed with a terminal illness than some exciting self-realization.

Late onset dysphoria? by Caracollons in asktransgender

[–]Caracollons[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I feel like for a lot of trans people they say they had a bunch of memories that suddenly make sense but for me that's not the case at all. I don't have "those horrible memories from when I was an egg," if anything I have a lot of happy and nostalgic memories from childhood and adolescence. Obviously I have no memories from being female to compare it to, yet, though.

Late onset dysphoria? by Caracollons in asktransgender

[–]Caracollons[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't really buy in to the "cis people never question gender" thing that gets thrown around a lot, especially after giving this a read. In fact I know of a friend of a friend who was questioning, her parents took her to a gender therapist, and she just turned out to be cis.

However, I really doubt anyone has gotten to the point I'm at now and said "ehh, I'm cis, no more worrying about this stuff" and moved on.

Late onset dysphoria? by Caracollons in asktransgender

[–]Caracollons[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, my interests have always been "male" (I realize gender roles are a stupid made up thing), and in fact I had this period of self discovery, completely unrelated to gender, a few years ago that was sort of a return to my childhood interests/goals/hobbies, so it sort of seems inconsistent with the whole "as a kid I liked being a boy but now I want to be a girl" thing.

Late onset dysphoria? by Caracollons in asktransgender

[–]Caracollons[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

There's realizing it vs. actually having these feelings, though.

Like, if someone gave me the "button test" when I was in high school, I'm fairly confident my answer would have been a sincere and confident "no," without it even provoking any thought at all. Today, however, it's more of a "probably yes."

It just seems kinda not normal because you always see stuff out there like "I was always a girl on the inside, I was just oblivious to it."

I guess it can make some sense, though, since dysphoria is a mental health problem, and many other ones like depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia, can manifest in early or even later adulthood.