RANSVESTIA

can, and finally to those that are happy, making a go of it and are

successes as woman.

If anyone cares about my views and recommendations based on not only my own life experiences but knowing closely a number of operatees and having spoken and corresponded with many others, I would set them forth like this:

1) If you are married and a family man, forget the surgery at least until that situation changes. Fulfill your male sex life and your masculine gender role as best you can and confine your feminine nature to your cross dressing adventures. Try to get the best out of both worlds instead of trying to trade off all of one for all of the other. Learn to be androgenous (see previous Virgin Views articles) and be more expressive of your feminine side even though as a man. Show a little guts in this regard and don't be so macho as a man.

2) If you are not married and are contemplating a change of gender then consider carefully the economic aspects of it. You probably make more now than you will be able to make as a woman. You have some sort of a position that you have been in for some years, you have a work history, some sort of a reputation and ability. As a woman you will not only make less money but you probably can't make it in the same business unless you are presently self- employed as the owner of a very small business or a profession such as an accountant or a photographer, etc., in which the change wouldn't have much effect.

3) If you are determined to live as a woman with or without surgery, then arrange things in order. The first thing to accomplish is to get your beard removed now, before you start living as a woman because it is terrible having to allow it to grow long enough for the electrologist to get hold of it yet having to be in public as a woman with that much stubble. That will take you two to three years and two to three thousand dollars.

4) Aim ahead about five years when you will be financially better off, when electrolysis is out of the way, and when you can take up another line of work. This will take some careful planning, in most cases, to find a line of work in which you can make a decent living, be happy and productive, can get into it as a woman without having to go through insurance examinations, produce a lot of references and past work history, etc.

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