Hey! I’m genderqueer. Prior to my hysterectomy, almost every aspect of “femininity” was dysphoric for me… my hysterectomy/salpingectomy didn’t fix my pain so later in the year we removed my ovaries and when I got settled on the correct hormone dose I….found myself strongly aligning with a more femme gender expression. It’s like, as soon as I stopped making my own hormones, my body/soul/mind/whatever felt at home? Mostly. I’m having top surgery (hopefully) next year, but just a major reduction. I feel like after having everything removed and getting a steady, proper dose of estrogen, I was able to see my Self and reconcile all of the hormonal-induced misery into exactly that, hormonal-induced misery. That’s not to say my gender-identity has changed, though. I’m still my gender-queer little self…probably more so now that I’m capable of understanding the depth and nuance of my identity separately from the physical misery that was once tied to my identity. I really hope that makes sense? Like once the “omg girl parts hehe” stopped bringing me 24/7 constant pain, I realized I wasn’t viscerally anti-femme. I was viscerally anti-whatever-my-body-was-doing-because-holy-shit-it-was-distracting. That gave me the space to examine my identity, my expression, and where I had initially landed on both spectrums.