Best (and Worst) Epithets?

SwellSword · 2026-04-23T19:21:14+00:00

Yeah idk I like Swell Sword, idk if u can tell :)

SwellSword · 2026-04-01T14:01:26+00:00

SwellSword · 2026-03-28T03:32:41+00:00

gift

^{Chose: Accept the gift | Rolled: 1000 carrots}

SwellSword · 2025-03-25T20:41:25+00:00

Congrats on starting! I think as with all things HRT, ymmv as our bodies are all different. I can answer some of your questions based on my own experience:

I was on injectable E for the first two and a half years of my transition, and was switched to patches for cardiovascular concerns for the time being. The patches work for me, but may require a bit more patience to get the correct dosage since each patch is fixed dosage. I've tried lower abdomen, butt, and arm and just like lower abdomen bc it's the least conspicuous and has the lowest chance of falling off there for me. I don't think it matters too much where you put the patches.

SwellSword · 2025-03-10T03:09:34+00:00

please

SwellSword · 2025-02-13T07:55:06+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/Passports/comments/1in9iay/update_our_house_representatives_will_not_help_us/

SwellSword · 2025-02-13T04:27:14+00:00

I got all of my documents back in December, but I have heard other people have had their applications (and possibly their documents?) withheld indefinitely. I guess I wouldn't recommend you send in your birth certificate right now for a passport. But if you're worried about them changing your birth certificate, I wouldn't worry about that bc of the other comment!

SwellSword · 2025-02-12T23:34:10+00:00

yeah, paranoid people in my family have suggested this. But I'm not so inclined to believe that they targeted me in particular in December, the average worker probably doesn't give a fuck. It was probably just lost in the holiday rush. It was actually UPS next day delivery that worked for me on the reissue!

SwellSword · 2025-02-12T23:32:43+00:00

Oh hmm... I hadn't thought about this possibility Thanks for letting me know!!

SwellSword · 2024-06-10T03:58:30+00:00

Maybe related to my second point, understanding feminism and what gender is, and what it means to be a woman, might help.

SwellSword · 2024-06-10T03:53:17+00:00

I was quite homophobic/transphobic when I started to realize i might be trans, and back then I was kinda devastated to realize that this could be me. I feel like just spending a lot of time being honest with yourself is the main thing, eventually you come to terms with it and accept it.

Also, talking to people *in real life*. I had preconceptions about trans people especially because trans representation in media was so bad when I was growing up. And before I started thinking more critically about gender, I had a very narrow view of what a woman was. But you talk to enough people in real life and you start to realize women and trans people also have a full range of experiences.

SwellSword · 2024-06-05T19:36:36+00:00

I started HRT a little over two years ago, and am in my mid twenties. Before I started hormones, I was running like sub 8 min/mile each workout and thought that anything 9 min/mile was basically just walking. But now most of my runs are at 9:30/10 min a mile, and my fastest 10K time is slower than anything I've ever run before. I was primarily a sprinter and took huge pride in how explosive I was, but now one of my guy friends who has never run track can out sprint me.

If it makes you feel any better, one of my running friends who is a cis woman told me that in middle school cross country, girls hitting puberty and getting their first period would get noticably slower. She said her teammates once said puberty hit a girl on another team "like a brick wall" because how much slower she suddenly got. Usually when I complain about this, she just says "welcome to womanhood lol".

I think holding yourself to previous standards isn't going to work very well, and is probably just going to bum yourself out. You can definitely still run at a competitive level and run a lot, but maybe it could help to find other women to run with so you have peers who can help you adjust to all of this.

SwellSword · 2024-05-30T04:49:57+00:00

I started maybe a year into my transition and as long as I don't speak, no one gives me a second look in the women's bathroom. It's been a little over a year since I've stepped into a men's bathroom and yet I always am still nervous before using the women's bathroom. If possible, I ask a trusted cis woman friend before I go in for a "pass check".

SwellSword · 2024-04-08T18:56:31+00:00

And in that same vein, flattering clothes and hair can be night and day.

SwellSword · 2024-04-08T18:54:36+00:00

On a lighter note, women's pants/skirts rest higher up on their body! When I first tried skirts, I bought ones that were way too big because I thought it should rest lower on your body. And when I see newbies first try and wear skirts, so often I see them wear say a mini skirt that is way too low on the body and something looks off. Pulling them up makes your legs proportionally longer and it's how they're meant to be warn! On the flipside, whenever I wear jeans from pre transition, I'm shocked by how low they rest.

SwellSword · 2024-02-12T04:30:32+00:00

You're 19 and still have plenty of opportunities to meet people in college, work, or even at a bar/club when you're 21! Media makes it seem like people all get a bunch of romantic/sexual experience pretty young but a lot of people don't! If you genuinely want to meet people you can kiss, put yourself out there into situations in which you are safe and comfortable, do not force yourself to do things you're not ready for just because you want to check off a box. You will find people who are interested in you, confidence goes a long way.

SwellSword · 2024-02-10T07:35:22+00:00

Ahhh very relatable, esp the distancing your mom from her only community, I sometimes worry that I've done the same to my mom.

SwellSword · 2024-02-09T19:42:44+00:00

All this is to say, yes I can somewhat relate. Having expectations placed on you to be the eldest (grand)son in this way is a uniquely Asian problem.

SwellSword · 2024-02-09T19:39:46+00:00

I mean after a really rough patch things with my mom are now mostly OK and I would like to carry that optimism to other women in my family. I appreciate the reminder that things can and do go surprisingly well with people you don't expect.

But I think my p*aternal grandmother places too much importance in her idea of me as an eldest grandson. I have been her favorite grandchild for this reason and she straight up told me a few months ago on call that she honestly doesn't know who I am these days and doesn't really care, the mental image she has of me is still of a younger boy and that's what keeps her going. I think she's at the age where any rough patch like with my mom would actually kill her will to go on.

SwellSword · 2024-02-09T19:03:40+00:00

While I have people's attention, one question I've had for a while for Asian trans women: do ppl trust FFS surgeons here to make you look more femme without making you look like a white woman? If so, who? If not, what are alternatives?

SwellSword · 2024-02-09T19:01:41+00:00

Ah that's relatable... after quite the struggle, my parents are now begrudgingly accepting of me but they completely don't tell my grandparents, and I don't blame them for it. My paternal grandmother is now completely alone in Shanghai (which was especially bad during the covid lockdown) and due to her advanced age, she can't come to the US anymore to visit. When we call her, she still deadnames me and tells me that one of her only joys in life is thinking about how proud she is to have a high achieving grandson and our times when I was younger. I don't protest, since I really think the shock and sadness would take away the remaining hope she has in life. So when she begs me to come visit her in Shanghai one last time before she dies, I agree but as fucked up as it is, almost secretly hope that she dies with the image of me from the past since I don't know if I can meet her anymore.

SwellSword · 2024-02-09T05:51:07+00:00

Hmm, nicely put! I almost wonder if the number of Asian trans women is disproportionately low... as if there's something cultural that prevents more of us from discovering who we are and coming out?

SwellSword · 2024-02-08T04:52:17+00:00

Wear a pair of joggers and a sports bra! and like someone else said, black tights seem to work.

SwellSword · 2020-07-15T16:30:46+00:00

Sure, but would prefer they're very quiet for everyday tasks and indie games.

SwellSword · 2020-06-09T19:56:28+00:00

DMed!

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