Gender Transitioning Tips | How to Better Manage the Mid-Transition Period That Can Feel Like Hell.
Mid-transition purgatory is the hardest space—Dr. Z explains why it feels like hell and how to get through it with little steps.
Mid-transition is the limbo space between your starting point (realizing you're transgender, getting on hormones) and your endpoint. It's socially emphasized—when you're starting to present as your true gender, expressing yourself, modifying appearance, picking pronouns and name. It feels like doing gymnastic splits—one foot still in gender assigned at birth (aspects of your body haven't been modified yet, hormones haven't produced changes), another foot doing a split toward your true gender. You're torn between two worlds.
A client called it "purgatory"—stuck in hell, being punished for being who you are, feeling like you'll be perpetually stuck with no possibility of coming out. Why it feels this way: you're working on maintenance goals (hair removal, voice training, waiting for testosterone/estrogen effects) that take time and don't give immediate results. Things are capitalizing but you can't see it.
Watch to find out the biggest mistake people make (doing too much at once—hyper-feminizing before voice training, then experiencing devastating misgendering and regressing), and why taking little steps builds physical presentation AND internal mental blocks of strength and resilience.
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