Hi All,   I work in the healthcare sector and there are a multitude of questionnaires out there to assess and measure the impact of different situations on peoples lives and that help to direct treatment, support, or therapy (eg https://www.hiv.uw.edu/page/mental-health-screening/gad-7).    Is anyone aware of a questionnaire that measures the distress that gender dysphoria causes? Often questionnaires have scoring levels with recommendations for treatment/therapy.    I can imagine a questionnaire where if you scored above 70% say hormone therapy would be highly recommended or perhaps less than 30%,  the recommendation might be find little ways to be yourself here and there.     I know it's difficult and perhaps not always the correct course of action  to try and put people with their feelings, emotions and anxieties into different categories or "boxes," but it might help a lot of people to see where they are in the scheme of things.   Hope this is a valid question and if you know of a questionnaire please let me know.   Jess xx  

This forum is an absolutely brilliant place. So many positive responses and each with a different take. Thank you so much everyone. I have another question but I will start a new topic. Glad you are all as helpful as you are. Jess xx

Hi, Becca!! Welcome to TGP!! We are so happy you found us. Many of us here fit into the "autumn years" category...perhaps even into the "winter years," possibly. What's important is that we are living our truth and finding happiness.   I'm thrilled to read that your wife is so supportive. What a difference having spousal support is.   Feel free to wander around. Ask questions and jump into conversations where you feel comfortable.   You are safe and loved here.

I am a cross-dresser. I have been a CDer since about September 2023, so not very long at all. I started by just wearing a skirt about the house because it was just comfortable, but as the weeks went by, I moved more and more into the 'full works'.  Now, some eighteen months later, I have learnt makeup, dressing, walking like a woman and often can be seen in the local city fully dressed as Becca. My wife and I regularly go to the theatre with me dressed and we have also been to garden centres, shopping et al.; I have even managed to alter my voice a little bit, and while I can 'pass' at a short distance, close up might be a different matter; mind you, I seem to get away with it for the most part. I am not transgender, I am male and fully intend to stay a man, however, since becoming a cross-dresser, I have learned that describing someone as 'male' or 'female' is just insufficient. I support TG rights as well as women's rights (although recent event int the UK courts have made the distinction rather sharper), and my own son is gay. He knows I cross-dress and while he has seen pictures of me, he has yet to meet Becca. I am in my autumn years, unfortunately. I hope to be able to make interesting contributions to this platform.   Hugs Becca  

One member played in each band for a time?  

True.  My life was nothing like that. I did want to be a girl, but growing up in the 50's &60's, that was not an option.

Grins really? navel rings were popular when cropped tops and the summer was in full swing

That seems like it could be a problem.  It's one reason I've never done those - bellybutton or nips.  There are times when I need to wear clothes.

I don't think any of us are born "in the wrong body" as is frequently said.  If there is a "God" or "Goddess" for that matter, she knew exactly what she was doing.  I don't think there is a right or wrong involved, we just are what we are.   I'll admit that this can come with difficulties at times.  But that is just life.  We don't need to make apologies for who we are.  It's not our fault - because it's not a fault.

And right back at you, @Davie

I would agree with you on this.  Perhaps parents should be allowed to "opt out."  But holding the whole curriculum hostage to a few's "sincerely held religious beliefs" is not doing the rest of the community right.   If parents want to teach their kids that queer people are an abomination, and will burn in hell for eternity, I guess that's their prerogative.  The problem is when they expect the school to reenforce this view on all the children of the community.   Trying to erase any knowledge of queer people's existence will eventually backfire.  Their kids will find out about us eventually.  And they may wonder why it was suppressed.   A similar thing is happening now in higher education (and news media I should add) with the current regime trying to force the universities to toe the party line.  Yeah, this is what happens under the policies of the "F" word.  It has already happened in places like Russia and Hungary.  And they claim it is in the name of christianity.

Yes. For Heather Shay. You two make my day. Hooray!

Peace and Freedom is on the wind . . . believe.

I also believe his heart was in the right place.

I love my brother very much, he is very protective of me, which i really appreciate, in some ways he seems detached? so matter of fact, he often tells me not to dwell on things and to move on or throw it in a bag and straight in the bin. His outlook tends to be if something has happened and it's bad move on from it and do not dwell, he would often say this to me over the years. I would internalise and beat myself up over the slightest thing.   The difficulty i had with navel rings was if i wore a top and the top got caught, ouch!!

I wouldn't say i was a girl, or that i wanted to be one, because i don't know what one is, this then is  my soul perhaps? what is it to be a man? what is it to be a woman? what is it like to be me? or you? i cannot answer. We might say we are shaped by events around us, fate? destiny? perhaps even our lives are mapped out with junctions, where we can go this or that way? an event unfolds, an opportunity arises out of the blue, an event takes us in another direction? My Journey then, very different to most. I had stunted growth, and was small for my year at school, I had to kneel up on a chair for the year photograph, I had a nick name too, diddy (meaning tiny) or the usual was hey dids!!! My mother took me to the doctors and one option was medical intervention or Ballet school? Mum picked Ballet school, i liked it and the teacher suggested that i had talent and should apply to go to stage school, if you showed potential or was a gifted child then the state would pay your fees, I went along to legat school of ballet a live in Ballet school, which you did your ordinary school work along side various types of dance. First lesson of the day started at six in the morning and matron made sure you were up on time. We did Yoga first lesson, then breakfast at eight followed by assembly at nine and then either your first academic lesson or limbering up class followed by either Ballet, Jazz, contemporary or character lessons. For those that do not know, Character dance, was regional dances of the world.

When I was in my self administered pain mode I tried various piercings, Prince Albert, Reverse Prince Albert, nipples and belly button. The only thing that remains is my ears.  I almost kept the nipples but I had nearly invisible surgical plastic bars so I was the only one who knew about them until I switched them to stainless  and lost the ends of the plastic do I couldn’t re sterilize them. I gave up after that.

Good morning    I guess it’s Tuesday. I loose track of the days with no consistent schedule.  Grand daughter went home Sunday but will be back in June. And we will see her in May.   @kat2 I can’t imagine trying to recover from the loss of a home do to war or anything where I would loose everything.  I don’t know all the things happening in GB, it hard enough to sort out what’s real and what fake here.  And then there is the back and forth with tariffs and no tariffs Canada, not Canada the only thing fairly consistent is trying to stop 1,000s from crossing the border in Texas Arizona and California but they will just find a different way to get drugs into the US.   Then there is all the people worked up about us.  They don’t understand that we aren’t looking to commit crimes against anyone, not those of us who are genuinely LGBT.  We just want our rights and medical care just like everyone else.  Even the Pope, may he rest in peace, had opened up to accepting LGBTQI+, and that was a long standing refusal of the Roman Catholic Church to accept.    I have the first of two assignments from my class “done”. Although I may make some edits.  I should get the second one done next week.    

Lol, thank you @April Marie. I’m glad to hear you are happily moving forward too. It’s such a relief that my life is flowing freely again. 

well, Manic Monday is over, been out shopping, more fudd for Mias customers, a mixed day today one minute bright sunshine the next overcast. I am pleased with my hair colour it gives it more body. I am out this evening and again on Wednesday as well as visiting my councillor. A couple of photos of the peak district of the UK taken last year whilst on a walk, looking forward to re starting the walks again