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Karen, Love your patriotic finger nails! May everyone have a safe holiday! Grateful for the IDEALS of the USA, Monica

Yes that is a marguerita, first alcoholic drink since 2007. It was very hot and did not feel like soda, ice-tea or juice. And thanks for the compliment

Madame Christie, Vous recherchez une femme charmante et tres. No worries, now just believe in yourself !

In regards to the photo, if I saw you I would be drawn to your face thinking not female so walk into the ladies room with pride.

So far no mood swings but my nipples and breasts are swollen. I started estrogen about a month and a half ago and I cannot believe the change. I will need to start wearing a sports bra when I exercise. It is unbelievable. I have gone up at least one size. My mom and sister are big on top, so I don't know if that applies to me. However the changes have been really quick, so much so it is a little concerning. I went to a water park today and I had people looking at me. My son, who is 6 years old, poked my nipple which hurt and I snapped at him. I think he's noticed as well.

Dearest Friends, Must confess that more than once I went into a restroom cubicle only to find no toilet paper there . . . figuring out too late why it was available! Also always carry tissues with me with this in mind. Also heartily agree with you that dressing androgynously for a year or two before starting HRT is an important step in transitioning. Monica

Karen and Christie, In addition of getting as much done locally in advance, make sure you BRING a copy in hard copy, such as your EKG (tracings AND report), bloodwork, etc. Ask you internal medicine/family practice doctor to work with the surgeon on this, explaining that you have saved a long time for this. As my mother would say, may God rest her soul, "cry poor mouth." Monica

Oh & you look good by the way, sort of girl next door look....................

Karen, Is that a marguerita? I thought that you didn't drink! We were so shortsighted to have lost what has turned out to be the most successful place we ever colonised, but there we are, and I still have to put up with stupid British politicians............................... Happy independance Day, god bless you all. Cheers, Eve

Christie, you are indeed fortunate not to need a tracheal shave which will save you from $1500 to $2000. In regards to top surgery, something I forgot to mention which is a general recommendation is to wait for at least two years on HRT but that is not for everyone as some will grow faster yet the norm is slow growth and no larger than the largest cisgender female in your immediate family. I was a B cup and 1 1/2 years HRT prior to top surgery.

You might soon start to feel a small lump forming behind your nipples, as your breasts really start to bud. Some girls then experience growth for about 18 - 24 months at which point growth starts to slow down a bit or stop, but it doesn't always stop. However some girls who have gone all the way past GRS and taking HRT for 3-4 years or more are still relatively flat chested, but in all cases as Karen has alluded to, facial features noticably change, people tell me that mine have, but I didn't take any photo's because I never liked my face as a male, I regret not doing that now. I only have a couple of old crappy photo's as me as a male...................... Changes of mood or moodswing if you prefer are relatively common, it's rather like being a teenager, one day child like the next more adult like and so forth. You have to realise that you have to go through female puberty, no matter what your cis age is.

So far no mood swings but my nipples and breasts are swollen. I started estrogen about a month and a half ago and I cannot believe the change. I will need to start wearing a sports bra when I exercise. It is unbelievable. I have gone up at least one size. My mom and sister are big on top, so I don't know if that applies to me. However the changes have been really quick, so much so it is a little concerning. I went to a water park today and I had people looking at me. My son, who is 6 years old, poked my nipple which hurt and I snapped at him. I think he's noticed as well. The hair on my body has thinned out considerably as well, particularly on my arms. So, I was thinking things would move slow for me, not much would happen. But, it looks like that might not be the case. My wife told a family friend about me, who is the first person at our church that knows. Her husband knows about me now as well. She was extremely supportive. I basically told my wife to tell anyone that she wants or wants to talk to about. Regarding the church that I go to, I was going to tell our pastor about me, however lately the pastor has made negative trans* statements and the leadership in the church anti-gay statements which have been heartbreaking and disappointed over the last two months. I am not a person who is quick to judge, I usually need time to discern. But the more that I think and pray about it, the more heartbroken I am. There is more to this story that I am not saying right now, but I am tired. It has been a long day for me. I hope that everyone is doing well. Love and Blessings, --Lisa

This weekend, for those who are celebrating the Fourth of July please be safe if you have to drive consider that others will not. Yesterday I went to visit a friend for the day and on the way home so a horrific accident on one of the major highways which actually is not that uncommon but have to wonder on weekends such as this one if poor judgement was used and or any of them drinking. If you plan on drinking make sure you keep it moderate if you must drive afterwards. Happy Fourth!!!

Christie, Am a cisgender female and I feel you pass perfectly! Monica

Here is a picture I just took (after battling with my phone camera - it kept making my face red). Anyway, this is with wig and some make-up (eye liner, mascara, blush, and lipstick). I'm curious how female people think I look in this? For example, if you saw me in a ladies room would you wonder why a man in a wig was there

Nipples usually are sore for a very long time and at times itchy. Size of immediate family members do dictate roughly how large you will be. For me the largest was C and I got to a B. Great to hear that the hair on your body is thinning woo-hoo. In regards to your pastor, if it was me and going there was important to me I would ask to have a one-on-one with them, be prepared and discuss trans. and be the one to educate them but be forewarned it may go against you if they have their mind set.

All great suggestions! I think the hang-up for me is figuring out how female I am presenting. Chances are good that it's more than I think. I met an old friend for lunch last week (we were friends since we were 3 or 4 years old), we went to a restaurant in a small town near where we grew up (so very suburban). Each time the waitress came over she referred to us as "ladies." What made it nicer was that I hadn't done much as far as make-up, so even with fairly minimal effort I seen to present fairly female.

Karen, This information is great, thank you for sharing it! I suspect I wouldn't do the tracheal shave as my adam's apple doesn't show at all (unless there are other reasons for doing it?) And top surgery I guess would depend on what the HRT does Bur there's still much time for all these questions. Xoxo christie

Eve, I totally agree about carrying paper hankies, in my case I carry tissues and several pantie liners.

Christie, Similar to Karen when I dressed androgynously I used the male toilets, but if I dressed female I used the womens loos. There's an almost protocol over here that if you dress female and are reasonably convincing you use the womens. Anyway it reminds me of my first time out dressed as female, my boobs were nothing more than mole hills at that time, so I didn't have much confidence at all. Anyway two of my full-time trans friends decided that it'd be good to take me out shopping in Birmingham city centre............. I was nervous as hell. Anyway out we went and it came to pass that I needed the loo for more than a pee, nervousness I guess. Anyway we went into the Bullring (really large new shopping mall), and I nervously went into the ladies, and darted into the first cubicle available to me, conducted my business and reached for the toilet paper.....................which wasn't there, so that's why there were queues for the other cubicles and not this one , Eve you're such a Jackass! I couldn't ask next door for some paper because my voice is not very female, and I envisaged screams of there's a man in the ladies loos, and security guards coming in to remove me...................oh shit what will I do? I then remembered that my wife had made me put two packs of paper hankies in my hand bag. Anyway you might be able to imagine my relief............and it makes an amusing story now. Point of the above parable is to be prepared and keep paper hankies in your handbag! Cheers, Eve

Congratulations on moving forward!!! From personal experience dressing androgynous before surgery before actually publicly announcing my gender change I had a discussion with my boss then HR about changing gender. HR when I asked about restrooms said there was no policy so i was free to use either or. Since dressing androgynously I used the men's room. Now mind you I was not wearing skirts or wearing makeup (and pretty much 99.99 percent of the time don't wear makeup to this day). I thus was fine using the men's room and told HR once I had my surgery a public statement would be given by me which included I would be using the woman's restroom. Guess what I am saying is that my recommendation is use the restroom which fits how you are dressing rather than how you feel. If you do this most likely others will feel comfortable which should mean you will be more comfortable. If you do decide to use the woman's restroom I would recommend sending a company wide email out alerting others of your intentions so they are properly prepared.

Monica, In regards to medications being prescribed locally, I guess this may be possible but things like the poop extraction formula (bowel prep) would be difficult to pack if travelling. For EKG they are required a month prior to surgery. I had an EKG done locally, the doctor faxed the results to Marci and was confirmed by her assistant Robin. Morning of surgery they said "we can't find your EKG so we must do one now" and now is less than one hour before scheduled surgery thus not a time to argue the matter. So with that said one can be totally be prepared but the unexpected may happen as it did with me. Concerning bottom surgery + tracheal shave + top surgery. That should provide a discount but one must also consider their tolerance for pain. I had the shave and bottom surgery done and looking back would had been fine with top surgery also considering I do extremely well with pain. During my recovery and exiting the hospital I was told many times I was in a one percentile for dealing with pain. Now if someone were to do all three they must be totally honest with themselves in how they deal with pain. After surgery between the legs has been totally remapped and been told many need all the meds that are allowed. For top surgery it's best to be in a incline position while bottom surgery it's best to be laying down, the two contradict each other. The shave for me was zero pain so no comments there. So again, honesty is paramount else be a big girl and big girls don't cry as the song goes. PS By no means the above is to scare others from doing the three surgeries but to educate.

If I may suggest, take pictures of your face every month. In about 12 months look back at the first and the last, you should see changes that are not seen over the duration of the 12 months. This happened with me, could not believe the difference.