Angela Rippon's legs...

The title of this post won’t mean much to my USA or younger UK readers unless I remind you that in the 1980’s the BBC TV had a ground-breaking female news reader by that name.  As she sat behind a desk to read the news, jokes were made about whether she had legs and/or what she wore ‘out of sight’.  Famously, she appeared on the Morecombe and Wise Christmas TV special to perform a dance routine that demonstrated beyond doubt that she had legs....

Over the winter I have had my leg hair virtually eliminated by laser and now the weather is warming up here in the UK, MY legs are coming out to play....  At the moment they are pasty white from years of long-trouser wearing, glimpsed only occasionally on the annual seaside summer holiday.  NOW I intend to be working on the garden in the next few weeks in short shorts and a bikini top, to give the real me  a chance to catch some sunshine.  I will be taking proper sun-protection precautions, of course, but I don’t intend to start my new life in August the colour of a piece of cod waiting to go in the fryer.

Angela, eat your heart out....

Lol

Moira

Keeping a stiff upper lip......

Well, this just got a lot easier.

I have been having electrolysis since last September, mostly every Saturday to fit around work.  I started with three hour session (three times one hour, with an hour gap between each hour) and now I'm down to about 45 mins and the remaining hairs are getting sparser and thinner and lighter in colour all the time...

The most painful are those on the thin skin of the neck and around across the upper lip and under the nose.  Boy! (note to self:  should theat now be 'Girl!' ?)  are they painful.  The therapist does one side, then neck, the front, the top lip and then the other side, so I know when we have finished the top lip that the end is nigh.  (Sometimes it feels like 'the end of the world is nigh', I can tell you.

Well today, she started on the top lip and I steeled myself for the usual 100 or so insertions of the needle and....it was only 30 or so.  I was so surprised but when she handed me the mirror at the end nothing had been missed.  Hooray!  Hooray! the electrolysis end of the tunnel may still be a long way off but it is certainly in sight.

I also don't look anywhere near as red as I did in the early days as the finer hairs I mostly now have needs a much lower current / shorter time to 'zap' them.

Only 75 days to go now until my facial surgery.   I had dinner with a female friend in the week and she remarked how happy I now seemed.  It is true.  My head hits the pillow and I drop off to calm sleep now, in a way I havent really known for many years.  I'm sure that there are some scary times to come but 'good scary', if you know what I mean...

Oh, and by the way, I can see that I seem to be developing a following in the good ol' U S of A.  Do I make sense when read in American?  If you are one of my readers from 'across the pond' do drop me a comment.

lol

Moira

Another milestone.

I passed another milestone this week.

I am a lawyer and regularly appear in court in my area of specialism.  Blog readers will remember that I am off to Belgium for facial surgery at the end of June and expect to begin living full-time as a woman in mid-August.  Several times recently I have had to explain that I will be having a 6-week break from court work this summer – very unusual for me.

This last week I was conducting a case in front of a lovely Judge who I have known for nearly 20 years.  We had 3 days allocated for the case and it was pretty obvious from early on that it wouldn’t be enough time.  When we compared diaries we could not find another suitable time for the necessary 2 extra days until November.  Only the other lawyer and I were in court sorting out dates with the Judge, the parties were back in their waiting rooms.  It seemed like a suitable time to explain to the Judge that an ‘alternative version’ of me was likely to turn up in November!  I have told 50 or 60 people so far but I was SO nervous (unusual for me in court).  Perhaps that was because this was the first time I was officially ‘out’.  The Judge was plainly very surprised but SO nice and also appreciative of the chance to be surprised away from the parties.  I can’t wait for November!

In fact my return to practice is set for mid-August and my first court case thereafter is set for Monday 22 August, so I guess I will be pretty nervous the week before.  I can remember when I first started going to court.  I would get there early and have to rush off to the loo as the flood of adrenaline affected my bowels.  After about 6 months this calmed down until I got my first appeal case – I was right back in the loo at the appeal court..... It feels rather like that.

Lol

Moira

Hello Boys!

Just a word to say how wonderful it is to have cleavage!

The hormones are working wonderfully well and I am now beyond an A-cup and my nipples are still sensitive, which I understand is a sign that development continues.  As a later-transitioner we tend to react a little less strongly to oestrogen and I had expected to have to have breast augmentation surgery at a later date but I will be quite happy as a 'B' and it seems I might get there under my own steam.  The only downside (temporarily) is that I now need to wear a bra the whole time and my changed shape is impossible to hide in anything other than the sloppiest sweater.

I saw my gender consultant on Thursday with the results of my latest blood test.  My oestrogen was '397' and my testosterone only '4' on whatever scales are used.  Apparently that means that my testosterone is down in the female range without using the nastier androgen-blockers and my oestogen is close to the female range (400 - 600) and I am reacting well to it.  There have been no unfortunate side effects and liver function is normal.  However, Dr Curtis did reccommend increasing my oestrogen patches from 100 microgrammes per day to 150.  It will be interesting to see what difference that makes.

Whilst there are wonderous times in prospect, this all adds to my feeling of 'oddness' at the moment.  I am just back from my Saturday morning electolysis session.  This is going well, in that we are down to mostly fine hairs now, but I cannot wear make up before or after the session for a while and it does make my skin very red in the 'beard and moustache' area from the time of the session for a couple of hours.  (I should say that witchhazel or aloe vera gel from the fridge helps enormously.)  However, with a distinct bust combined with pre- facial surgery features it is difficult to know what to wear, and I end up as a compromise.  All a bit frustrating, and not a little confusing for the other salon customers.

Lastly, a small request.  I can see from the stats that this site generates that there are quite a few of you reading my posts now.  It would be lovelly to get a comment or two in reply,

lol

Moira