[bryony]

Thanks SO much for posting this. As has already been said, it is a shame people get pushed into the BINARY world of "....boy? or girl?, choose!"...
I am quite sure we ALL go thru the binary trap of questioning (I know I did) and it takes a long time, if ever, to finally "get it" that maybe, just maybe, we do not have to choose.
Someday society will allow it --- I hope.
I think one of the singularly MOST influential persons in this regard has emerged in the past year or so --- the Serbian-born Australian-raised model Andrej Pejic. Andrej seems so comfortable being WHO he is and making no excuses for it. My hope is so many of the next generation of gender-challenged boys (and girls) can see that there are more options than just boy or girl. In my case, my answer to the question "Are you a boy or a girl?" has now been "Yes, I am." for 15 years now --- but it took a long time to come to grips with that.
Just because we were born with male genitals does not make us men or masculine, not at all.

Thanks so much for sharing the learning, and my heart goes out to Gary that he finds peace soon as he deals with this heartbreaking situation.

I quite agree on all points!

The big problem with this poor fellow is that in order to relieve GID depression/anxiety, he needed the hormones which sent him down the path which was probably inevitable in those days. When I think of the state that my mind was in just over a year ago, it's like a bad dream.

What we need for the (possibly large) body of people who have this problem, but are too old to go through the all the shennanigans of masquerade, is a way to get the hormones without having to jump through the hoops - most importantly if in an established "traditional" family situation (getting rarer, I suppose).

I don't know if it's changing here in the UK; I have heard that some US states are addressing this now. I haven't enquired at the MD because PM fills the need for me.... I got here with a fascination for growing my own breasts, and found mental therapy.

That's the main reason I contribute from time to time - to make people like me, who may be new to the forum, aware that this is an option.


TTFN

B.