[ransvestia

5) When you have worked this out and are clear then just get yourself a new apartment or house, put on your feminine attire and sally forth into the world. Live 24 hours a day as a woman, get acquainted with other women, learn what it is like to be a woman over and above wearing dresses, earrings and lipstick. DO THIS FOR TWO YEARS AS A MINIMUM! During this time consult an endo- crinologist about taking hormones and do so under a doctor's care. They can and do have side effects that have to be watched for.

6) Now that you have been a woman for two years and have learned to function, to work, and to enjoy the role, stop and ask your- self what more could you get out of life with the surgery than you are presently getting. Be honest about it, make a list, put it down on paper. You will, if you are really honest, find that you have a very short list. Because as an FP you yearned to be a woman and now you are one. You know it, your friends, coworkers and neighbors know it. What else do you need to prove? If you go ahead and have surgery are you going to go to those same friends, relatives, co-workers and neighbors and life your skirts, pull down your panties and say, "Look what I've got now! Before I was just fooling you about being a woman, but now I'm for real, see!" Of course you aren't, nobody else has to use their genitals to prove themselves in the world (except for prosti- tutes). So these people wouldn't even know what happened. You could have been on a vacation or been in the hospital for appendicitis, hemorrhoids, or a hysterectomy yet for all they know. So how are you better off? Ah, your list has at least one entry—a) I can now have sex with a man. Big deal! In imagination this might even seem pretty great because "now I'm so real that he can put it in me." But after the novelty of that "proof of femaleness" has worn off, how often are you going to want to submit to that for his benefit since you won't get much out of it-the great majority of operatees no longer have sexual feelings in their genitals. You'll even get tired of squealing and breathing hard to "prove" to the partner that he gave you a real great orgasm. Men want to feel that they did that, you know (remember when?) and if you don't put on a good fake show they get unhappy, suspicious-or friendly with another girl. But even if you should find the experience enjoyable there is still the problem of do you get it by just "sleeping around" like an unpaid prostitute or are you going to be orthodox and get married? If you take this path are your abilities as a cook, housekeeper, companion, etc., all that a husband would expect of a wife. Since half of all regular marriages end in divorce in spite of all the training girls get in homemaking,

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