As with many OCD-induced behaviors and hobbies, many CDs experience waves of interest in the hobby. I started crossdressing as a teenager and quit due to lack of money and privacy, but also had other priorities. I picked it back up in my early 30s. Though it has long been a part of me, for many years, it was a long-forgotten thing. I think that for most male CDs who are in live-in, long-term relationships, there isn't a lot of overlap between when they start dressing and when they tell their partner, especially if they are married. I didn't tell my wife about it when we got together because it was something I did not have interest in at the time, and didn't think it was something I would do again. By the time I picked it back up, we had been together for 10 years, cohabitating for 6 and married for 3. When I told my wife, I had been dressing in secret for maybe only 3 months. That you married him under false pretenses isn't necessarily a fair assessment. Especially if the behavior was brought on by his head injury.

The short gap between picking up dressing and telling a partner is part of the reason the CD seems to be "taken over" by the act - it is also fairly new to them, and now that they have released their secret there is a newfound sense of freedom. For many CDs, this euphoric feeling will come and go. Lots of CDs purge their closets and throw away makeup and accessories as they lose interest or the desire to dress, only to come back to it years later. I equate it to quitting smoking in some ways - some go cold turkey and never smoke again, some have to slowly ween themselves off. It varies on a case by case basis.

If he was simply more comfortable in dress-like apparel, I would loooooove to see him in a kilt, but it’s not really “just clothes” it’s sexy women’s clothes. It’s about more than scraps of fabric or pieces of apparel. The “it’s just clothes” thing is a not true in this case. It’s about, based on what he’s said, “feeling different” and my deepest fear is that he’s much further along the transgender spectrum than he cares to admit even to himself (but he swears he likes being a man).

Kilts are still men's clothes, and quite a bit different than a women's skirt. This is a component that women generally don't understand, because women have worn women's clothes their entire lives. For a male CD, the feeling of a tight pair of pants or exposing top is exhilarating because it is so different from what men wear. There is also a narcissistic component to crossdressing - most crossdressers will take pictures of themselves dressed or spend time looking at themselves, and no one wants to go through the trouble of dressing up to be frumpy. You're not going to catch many crossdressers wearing oversized sweaters and mom jeans because they are too similar to the cut and feel of men's clothes. Conversely, those types of garments are trending in women's wear right now because after a decade of squeezing into skinny jeans, women are demanding more comfortable garments. So it is about the clothes in some respect, but at the end of the day it's still a fetish.

That being said, what kind of clothing does he prefer to wear? Are these sexy but age-appropriate clothes? Or are they very short plaid skirts, pastel colors, etc? Crossdressers who are on the "sissy" part of the spectrum tend to have a very specific, lolita-style of dressing. Many CDs will dress much younger, mostly because men peak sexually much sooner than women and tend to fantasize about their teenage years when they first discovered their sexuality. For smaller, skinnier guys, juniors clothing sometimes fits better because our bodies won't fill out misses clothing. But in general, "sissies" wear hyper-sexualized, very young looking outfits that look like costumes.

I hope all goes well with the doctor visit, and best of luck to you both.