it becomes a larger full screen, technicolor Cinerama which is as different from my previous life even when I hopped back and forth across the river as real a technicolor Cinerama production is from a regular small screen, black and white movie.

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In contrast, the full time complete physical change involved in the surgical transformation looses much of this effect. Among other things, and something usually overlooked due to ignorance of the biochemistry involved, is the effect of castration on mental attitudes etc. Sure one can take estrogens, and temporarily overwhelm the normal androgen production from the testes enough to permit the development of breasts, but the androgen is still there. The brain effects are the summation of the presence of both male and female hormones in the blood stream and in the fluids bathing those specific parts of the nervous system whose function is affected by such hormones. This dual effect at a chemical level is probably partly responsible for the 3D effect on a psycho-social level. But in the sex change, there is no longer an adequate source of androgen (although small amounts are probably produced in the adrenal cortex even in females). Thus it is out of the frying pan and into the fire a trading not only of the undesirable aspects of masculinity and maleness for the pleasant and positive aspects of femaleness and femininity, but (and this is generally overlooked in the eagerness of so-called TSs to get the surgery) there is also a trade of the desirable pleasant and rewarding aspects of maleness and masculinity for the limitations and hardships of femaleness and femininity. One wonders whether, if menstruation "the curse" as women often call it, were an essential part of the "bargain" whether as many would still seek surgery.

So my counsel to TVs would be this:

(1) Try to arrange your life SO that you can have opportunities to express "her" but not at the cost of destruction of "him".

(2) If you are married and have a family give due consideration not only to your responsibilities to them but to the very real value they are to your life. Moreover, consider that your wife and your children need YOU in the role of male, man, husband, and father too.