The dry skin and eyes I very much get. Feeling hot though is basically nonexistant now. Within about a month or so of starting HRT, my comfortable temperature range crept waaaay up, from ~21°C to ~28°C. Everything below the mid to high twenties is cold to me now.

Sugaring is probably the best hair removal experience I've had, but I can't afford it often enough to make it worth it. I've had 3 laser sessions on my face and 1 on my chest and I'm only just starting to see the effects on my face. Epilating my calves and arms has been cheaper in the long run, but more painful than sugaring.

My facial hair hasn't been effected at all by HRT, but the body hair I've had sugared or I elipate a few times has lightnened and thinned a fair amount. My thighs only got sugared once and they were an ingrown hellscape for about 2 weeks, so they've been left alone, and the hair hasn't changed much on them.

The fact that a gender identity clinic doesn't take self referrals when the only way I know of doctors diagnose gender dysphoria is making sure you understand what dysphoria is and asking if you feel that way is wild to me. I'm Canadian and the only barrier to a diagnosis I had was my doctor wasn't knowledgeable enough about it, so he referred me to another family doctor who specializes in gender identity. My new doctor started me on HRT at my first appointment with him.

I never really had any difficulty with sex before realizing I was trans, just a low libido. My wife and I would have sex maybe 2 or 3 times a month, but now, being the "man" during sex just doesn't feel right most of the time and I just can't get myself to want sex more often than not. Anal doesn't do it for me, and using a vibrator on eachother at the same time doesn't work because we're both focused on what we're doing, and taking turns feels weird. Hopefully it'll be better after I get bottom surgery and my genitals stop occasionally scaring the shit out of me lol. Just another part of being an awkward teen again I guess 😅

An interesting way to think about routine my wife brought up to me recently is to take any kind of time component out of it. My morning routine doesn't have any kind of time constraints beyond not leaving for work late. I think of a routine now as a series of steps, regardless of it if I'm consistent day to day, the routine itself doesn't change. Shave, makeup, manage my hair if I need, feed the pets, get dressed. The fact that if I don't do my routine in time my wife is late for work helps me keep to it, but if I do step one, the rest just follow because that's just what I've convinced my brain the thing I do next is. Even on the weekend, if I'm going out and end up shaving, it's very hard not to do the rest of the steps in order, and the clock and calendar straight up do not matter. If there's a task you already do on a mostly daily basis, try to just do a new task after it every time, and when you get used to that, add another, and continue until your routine is built and ordered in a way you like.

I wouldn't have figured it out if not for comic. I had a moment of unanticipated envy over a picture of two girls kissing and went through the rest of the comic word for word.

It is somewhat shocking just how there they are. Mine are maybe a B cup and only a cm or two farther forward than the before times and I brush them with my arm constantly. Picking up large appliances for work sucks because the straps I use go across both boobs and sqush the shit out of them 😵‍💫