Is the Transsexual Grass Greener?

Every now and then we see a story where a transsexual person has decided the "change" wasn't for them and want to try to move back to their birth gender. Normally they are older people and even the most insensitive of us all are right to think "well good luck". When the extreme gender dysphoria occurs in a younger person then my heart goes out to them.
From the UK and Parent Dish comes the story of Ria Cooper:


"Britain's youngest sex-swap patient has decided she want to go back to being a boy – because she experiences too many mood swings as a girl. Ria Cooper, 18, from Hull, has had thousands of pounds worth of NHS treatment involving hormonal injections to turn her from a boy into a girl. But the hormones affected her so badly that she attempted suicide twice. Ria, formerly known as Brad, lives her life as a female. She has developed breasts, wears her hair in a feminine bob and has dated several young men. But now she questions whether she was too young to be allowed to swap sexes in the first place."


She started hormone treatment when she was 17, making her the youngest ever patient in the UK to receive such treatment. But she says her decision has had disastrous consequences. She has fallen out with family, got into dangerous situations with men and even worked as a prostitute. She is booked in for the full transgender operation in January but now says she will no longer go ahead with it. She said: "I just can't be what I want to be. My mum Elaine loves and supports me as much as she can, yet she doesn't allow me to live at home any more. My dad barely speaks to me and says I'm an embarrassment. "I think as the only boy in the family he thought I'd follow him into the steel business and pictured us working out together at the gym. "Obviously it s not turned out like that. I don't know who I can trust as friends. I feel really, really alone." The Sunday Mirror said that critics warned two years ago that Ria's tender years meant she was too young to make the decision to become a woman."

All of this begs the question, where does she go now? No family or friends? Hopefully this publicity will enable her to reach out to people who can really help her.

Getting "Weepy"

Damn hormones! Here I was actually needing my soft sweater jacket not for fashion-I was getting chilly. The next thing you know I will be jumping from the summer furnace I experienced into the winter freezer I really never have.  Over the years, I have loved cold weather. Be careful what you hope for? Kidding, I love I'm experiencing what I hoped for but never really understood. Specifically unexpected weepiness in this case.  I don't even really know if it's a word but it sure visited during a show we went to on the tour.
The show was country/gospel and mountain orientated which sort of fit where we were in the mountains of West Virginia (DUH!) Certain musical numbers for some reason sent me into an elevated emotional state and yes a few tears followed.
Fortunately it was dark in the place and I really didn't want to be the only person in the place crying-female or male or transgender. All was good...until:
At the end of the show, the performers wanted to thank all the veterans in the audience. Please hold your hand up if you are a veteran. My friend jabbed me in the side until I did raise my hand. OK, no big deal. I survived until..."all you veterans stand so we can thank you!" Well, I really didn't want to stand for not the reason you think but guess what-I did-to stop the abuse to my side.
Oh, one more thing I neglected to mention. Not only did the transgender girl end up sitting in the front row, I was in the middle of the front row. Where the hell was Jimmy Buffet when I needed him? But I digress.
I'm sort of funny about my Vietnam Vet status for a number of reasons which I won't bore you with. Mainly my deal is that as a group we were swept under the rug like the war itself and don't get me started on the mistreatment of Viet Vets affected by Agent Orange.
So being singled out and thanked for my service is as foreign to me as going in the first place and you thought standing as a transgender person would bother me.
I had to say, standing was easier than being drafted and I only had one very elderly lady thank me for my service in WWII. (Kidding-I hope!)

Summer Is Over

In my part of the world, fall has not quite arrived but the seasonal changes are close.
I love the seasonal changes. The trees change their colors, the fields are ready for harvest and the frost is on the pumpkin.
AND! I survived my personal late summer hormonal furnace!!! Perhaps I will have short respite from the knowing stares I get from my genetic women friends who know full well what I'm going through (even if they are not totally sure why I would.)
As I push towards the one year mark on HRT (at the end of the year), I wonder if the cold of winter will affect me more.
If those chilly blasts do make me shiver...then my women friends will once again look knowingly at me and smile. Little do they know, it's me getting the last laugh!

Getting HOT in the Condo

I've been in a "hormonal furnace" lately-positively burning up. Then I found this video and posted it to Cyrsti's Home Entertainment Center And REALLY had to kick in the air conditioning to cool this place off. It starts slow but then starts to pick up steam!

Trans Humor

Here are two or three comments I made in passing when I was talking to my VA therapist the other day which she found humorous.
I thought I would pass them along with the warning "Hey! The jokes don't get any better!"
Hormonal changes:
First major hot flash. I thought the stories I read as a kid about spontaneous combustion burning a human alive from within were true! Soon I thought I would be a pile of ash.
Skin changes. Need head to toe moisterizer. Recommendation? 10W 30 Quaker State.
Biggest surprise breast change? Under boob sweat.

I know if I was a stand up comic...you would want to throw your beer bottle at me by now...but that's why they make them plastic!!!!!

FYI, for those of you who follow my veteran's story, Friday I didn't go to the VA Advocate. A friend needed help and that took precedence. Going Monday- God willing and the creeks don't rise!

Jumping Transgender Fences

Perhaps you have heard the term "hitting the wall".
SPLAT! Sometimes you see the wall, sometimes you don't.
Some of you transsexuals can speak to a different level of the wall meaning surgery and all the ramifications.
All of the rest of us, transgender or cross dresser of course have a different set of walls.
Is your wall a closet?  Perhaps you are taking tentative steps into the public's eye.
Then again, you could be making your way through hormonal effects to your body such as I.
Once of the most rewarding parts of the cyber world is establishing contact with individuals of like experiences. I recently cyber met a person of the same age and transition who was working on moving partially to a warmer climate. I replied the way the very hot summer has effected me this summer on hormones, I'm looking north to the Yukon! Her reply was the cold has effected her more on the hormones.
Hmmm-interesting!
So, here I am looking dead ahead another of my walls.  I'm heading out today to my VA clinic to actually set down and state my case for further coverage. (I have written in depth and won't bore you.) I'm not going to put a lot of extra drama into this visit. This whole journey is an trip through an obstacle course and usually there are ways around walls that are too high to scale.
Let's see, it is Friday the 13th and I own a black cat who is happy to see me when I feed her- it's a great day for a trip to the VA!