Transition for people Assigned Male at Birth
For most people Transition starts with experimenting with new names and pronouns to find out what works for them. From there, many will experiment with growing out their hair, trying on feminine clothes and developing a sense of style, experimenting with makeup, or engaging in other coming of age traditions that are generally coded for women, such as getting their ears pierced or shaving their legs.
The process of transition is a process of self discovery and as such takes a lot of slow periods of experimentation and reflection, while most trans people know they're trans, it still takes a lot of time to figure out not only what gender means to them, but to what degree they want to express it and share it to the world.
From there, depending on their age, many trans women who've already gone through puberty, begin to experiment with making their bodies appear more feminine. This can be done by wearing things like breast forms, which are prosthetics that can be worn with a bra to give the appearance of having breasts, they can be more professionally made of silicone or can be improvised out of socks or any other breast sized and shaped materials.
-Trans women also sometimes tuck which is a process used to mask the presence of their penises. Tucking can be essential for trans women who choose to wear tight pants or a swimming suit given bottom dysphoria, or discomfort with the penis being visible to ones-self or others. Recently trans activists have moved to de-stigmatize women's bulges but tucking is still an important element of gender presentation for some. Tucking can be dangerous to a persons health if done for too long or incorrectly, so its always important to pay attention to your body and take pain as a signal that something isn't working. Generally though by dressing in clothes that were designed for women, or simulating a more traditionally feminine body shape, trans women are more likely to be read by people as women which can be very helpful in the process of self discovery.
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Alternatively Trans people who have recognized they're trans and have access to gender affirming care before puberty can take puberty blockers to give them more time to explore their options without having to go through the traumatic process of the wrong gender's puberty. Some processes of puberty such as facial hair growth and voice deepening are irreversible so, as a result Puberty Blockers are much sought after by trans people even thought they are rarely prescribed. After puberty, sometimes as early as 16, trans women are allowed to start hormone replacement therapy (hrt) which involves taking supplemental estrogen and testosterone suppressants to allow for the body to experience a female puberty. Hormones soften skin, redistribute body fat to give a more feminine shape including growing breasts, and decrease muscle mass. Hormones can also make trans women sterile though this isn't always true and largely depends on the person. Hormones, just like more traditional puberty, take several years to take complete effect.
After hormonal treatment has been explored, some trans adults receive gender affirming surgeries to fix parts of their bodies that cannot be corrected medicinally. This can include breast augmentations, facial feminization surgeries, and/or bottom surgeries which can turn the penis into a vagina. Surgeries are only legally allowed for people over the age of 18. Not every trans person chooses to undergo gender affirming surgeries and not everyone has to have every surgery, it is rude to ask people what surgeries they've undergone.
Ultimately transition is just the process of aligning a body to more closely match a persons gender and so a person can mix and match any of these techniques to match how they feel their gender, a person might change their name and dress and feel perfectly comfortable without ever having to go on hormones, just as a person might get bottom surgery and decide to still present masculinely, ultimately transition is about aligning yourself with your gender and not the other way around.
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