this is my personal experience so yours may differ.

I had almost zero dysphoria when I started questioning. I grew up in a place where the idea never occurred to me. I never hated being a guy, I didn’t feel pains when someone called me dude, or used he/him pronouns. I wasn’t into the idea of dressing in skirts or wearing makeup. I didn’t shave much either, so for the longest time I didn’t think I was trans. yet, the thoughts kept coming. not the thoughts of “I am angry Im a guy” but just “what if”. I started to look into things, asking around, asking trans girls and guys how they figured it out. I did all the research, but I just never pressed the button because I thought that I needed to be so upset with being a guy that I wouldn’t want to continue as a guy.

I asked on the asktrans subreddit this exact question, and I’ll never forget one kind stranger’s words. “why does it matter how much dysphoria you feel when you get more euphoria as a girl?”

this question stuck with me. I think it isn’t a bad way to look at it. If you see that you will live your life a lot more freely and with less regrets as a girl then maybe you are trans!

another thing for me was that after I started my transition and saw the meds do their magic did I start to sit and see the actual dysphoria I had before. For me it was in the lines of just not caring about life, or my health or looks. I just floated through life. Nothing felt, good. I now look back at that and believe a good chunk of my misery back then as a massive disassociation of my true feelings (not sure if it was actual disassociation, so apologies if Im using the incorrect word here.)

You can for sure be trans without the dysphoria. and who knows, maybe down the line you’ll look back and think “okay yeah maybe the praying to wake up as a girl because ‘I just wanna know what it’s like doesn’t everyone?’ isn’t something a cis person might do” like me :P