I feel that I should preface this by warning questioning people that looking for signs is generally not a good way to find out if you’re trans. Different people experience being trans in different ways.
Thank you lady_scarecrow for the above disclaimer. Very good advice ❤️
I (mtf) used to have the classic embarrassment about going shirtless as a boy, took me years to somewhat overcome. Still somewhat feel it these days but I begrudgingly deal with it anyway because my area is warm as heck.
Also always thought being a man was meh and women were fucking amazing and interesting in pretty much every way but that was totally because I was attracted to them and respectful, still totally cis though!
A particularly sad/hilarious one is the intense and euphoric recurring dreams about being a girl followed by inevitably waking up devastated, that’s totally a thing everyone has, right? Right, guys??
I didn’t know about the shirtless thing being a sign. I did have a time like that but I had assumed it was because I didn’t like my fat body and later puberty body hair. It might have been more complicated that that 😅
I may have done something similar about the women thing too. Can’t say about the dreams though.
Haha yup, I didn’t connect the dots until I heard some trans folks bring it up a while ago, seen it mentioned a few extra times since. I definitely had some of the body image thing going on too but in hindsight there was some big, unknown discomfort I couldn’t quite put my finger on at the time. I legit couldn’t put into words just how deeply weird it felt to have my chest exposed and it bewildered people nearly as much as it did myself lol.
I forgot until later that somewhere nearish to that time I also felt weird about it because I thought somehow everyone messed up at my birth and thought I was a boy, but I wasn’t and no one knew but me. 😂 I was young enough to not know enough anatomy, but the thought still 😅
THE SHIRTLESS NIGHTMARE! I forgot about those, I got them so often. Now I want to know how common it is in cis boys.
A common trope in my history is, “Why do they get it and I don’t?”
Lots of envy regarding feminine folk.
Up until I realized that I am trans, I always felt really awkward going into the men’s restroom. I would always check the signs like 5 times and then I’d go in, see the urinals, and still feel like I was somehow in the wrong place.
I also hated having my top off, and I rarely swam until I discovered rash guards. In middle school we were required to do swimming for gym and they didn’t allow me to wear my rash guard and I felt so embarrassed the entire time.
I relate hard to the men’s restroom feelings. To the point I avoided going in public at all costs.
Over the weekend was actually the very first time I used the woman’s restroom. I would of held it but damn does Spiro make me need to pee, lol.
I waited till no one was in there and it was both exhilarating and relieving (more ways than one, hehe!). Had the added bonus of wearing a face mask to better blend in. Looked up in the mirror while washing my hands and saw a woman. I saw me ❤️
Congrats on using the women’s restroom for the first time! I know it takes a lot of courage, and the first time I did my mother and sister went with just in case there were problems, and it was still quite nerve wracking because there were a lot of other women in there too.
Spiro is indeed a bitch sometimes lol. I appreciate that it blocks my T, but damn does it makes me have to piss a lot. I can’t wait to get an orchi some day lol.
I was constantly thinking “damn I hate masculinity and I want to have as little of it as posssible, very normal cis thing”
Sometimes I feel like this is basically my gender 😂
I remember telling my sister when I was around nine “I wish I was the son he never had” (referring to my dad). She scoffed and said that was a stupid thing to say. Little did we know…
She is very supportive of me nowadays. We were kids then and she didn’t know any better. I got pretty lucky in the sister game.
I remember asking my brother something like “if you could come back and live another life after this one, would you want to see what it was like as a girl?” he was like “noo??” I was like “oh…” and years later it was like “OHHH!”
Every time I saw a shooting star I wished I would wake up as a girl with nothing else changing in the world. Same for blowing away an eye lash.
I desperately wanted to be the little mermaid.
I remember reading Calvin and Hobbes, with their transmogrifier, and thinking I would write “girl” on it. Bit of foreshadowing I guess haha
Lots of stereotypes like playing the female character in games, confusing envy with attraction, always being upset about male fashion or lack therof.
I feel all of those!
I feel that I should preface this by warning questioning people that looking for signs is generally not a good way to find out if you’re trans. Different people experience being trans in different ways.
Having said that… There were so many signs. Daydreaming about being a girl. Being uncomfortable about being shirtless in public. Feeling a deep admiration for women. Nearly only relating to female characters. Never falling in love for gay men despite being attracted to men.
I remember when I was playing the sims. I made a female character and the game was so much fun. Then after my sim died, I decided to make a male character, and suddenly I lost interest in the game. It was the exact same game, but being a woman just seemed so much more fun… I should’ve known.
Thank you for that. And you are absolutely right! Questioning people looking for signs is not a good idea because it all comes from within. It is self discovery and not something other people can put on you.
Do you mind if I use your first paragraph as an actual preface in my post? I will of course give you credit.
Feel free to do that.
I feel that I should preface this by warning questioning people that looking for signs is generally not a good way to find out if you’re trans. Different people experience being trans in different ways.
What is a good way to find out if you’re trans?
As I see it at least, the one thing that actually matters is finding out if you’d be happier living as a different gender than the one you currently live as.
I put that disclaimer there because I’ve seen many posts from people saying they think they might be trans, “but I didn’t have any childhood signs”, “but I don’t see myself as [insert gender here]”, “but I don’t have dysphoria” (very often they do, they just fail to recognize it as such). My sibling in Christ, none of that matters. If you know you’d rather live as a different gender than the one you’re living as, just do it.
At around 8, I told my cousin’s friends I was a girl, I didn’t understand their laughter. At 10, I distinctly recall thinking that it would be nice if I could live half my life as a man and half as a woman. Around then, I started reading through my mom’s medical books and found GID listed as a diagnosis. At the time, I remember thinking a diagnosis would be scary and something that I couldn’t walk back, so I became obsessed with finding an alternate diagnosis that could get me a prescription that would have a similar effect.
Hitting subscribe on egg_irl.
They’re just funny relatable memes, still cis tho
Along the same lines: being amused by egg_irl and yet feeling a vague and nebulous yet irresistible sense that it would be dangerous to subscribe and therefore avoiding it.
Still cis tho.
Yeah totally. All boys dream of being a girl some day. If only we were trans. But ya know
Still cis tho. 😂
An entrance exam for some psychiatrist thing as a kid asked if I wanted to be the other sex/gender (idr the wording). I cried and took a while to answer that. And then I forgot about it for a decade.
I remember I went to school mental health counseling sessions in 7th grade (Christian private school. Yuck.) and the counselor asked me “do you wish that you were born as a different gender?” (I have no idea how that even came up) And I replied “uhhhh I don’t care, I wouldn’t mind either” trying to play it cool and in my head I was like “holy shit I want to be a boy” but immeditely felt this weird shame and fear about it.
Yeah, I lied too
Probably the biggest one for me was always feeling discomfort when being referred to or referring to myself as a “man”. I didn’t have any problem with words like “male”, “guy”, “dude”, “lad”, “boy”, “fella”, etc., but “man” was just one step too far, apparently.
Always figured it was just a reaction to my strong distaste for toxic masculinity, and/or a reluctance to grow up. With hindsight, it seems silly that it wasn’t a dead giveaway.
I also explained away my feelings with my disgust of toxic masculinity 😄
“Maybe I’m not a guy but a girl”, says me in primary school, “but no, it’s not possible”
Rediscovered this memory a decade and half later, a whole year or more into questioning my gender. Big “oh fuck” moment.
I knew I needed to feel desired in order to fall for someone. And I kept running into women who just didn’t get it and acted all entitled. It just seemed like incredibly bad luck to me. Looking back, I’ve only ever really gotten anywhere with women who made me feel special. And they were always bi or lesbian.
Like sure, I definitely tried taking charge many times. I’ve certainly never lacked in courage or stupidity. But there always came this point where I was like: ok now you… when will you take me someplace special? And it would fall flat and I’d stop caring.
But let’s be honest I bet that’s the same experience a lot of hetero women have gone through with boys.
And now it’s totally different. There’s men who can give me that feeling with just a glance, and I’m up for exploring that. I’ll also keep dating lesbians but so far it has been lacking in intensity and has been quite lame.