[-Tasha-]

Late onset is quite common. But about 'gender dysphoria'... not all transgender peeps experience dysphoria at all even though it is the main thing the docs look for. And even those that do, experience it in varying degrees and it manifests in different ways.

There is also gender euphoria. Maybe you are perfectly comfortable in your skin. But before your first cd experience you had nothing to compare it against. Like a man who has slept on nothing but solid wood all his life. His wooden block is perfectly comfortable and it never occurred to him that there was anything else he would rather sleep on. Then a friend introduces him to a mattress. ^_^ The next night his wooden block is no more or less comfortable than it had been his entire life but he had realised how much more comfortable he felt on a mattress.

Sorry for the cheesey parable. Just I believe gender euphoria is equal to gender dysphoria but is rarely talked about. Before I started PM I thought I would live perfectly happily as a guy for the rest of my life. I was comfortable. Now I can look back and see just how hard that wooden bed was. ^_^

It's also worth remembering that not all trans peeps even transition full time. Alice Novic (an author who I think may be nonbinary) self identifies as trans though only feels the need to spend one or two nights a week in female mode. Other people need less, some need more, not just in time but I suppose depth as well.

It's a gender spectrum after all. Just do whatever feels right to you.

And nice post, Dianna