Older and experimenting with gender identity

Not necessarily. You're talking here about gender expression which isn't the same as gender identity, although gender expression can point to gender identity. How comfortable do you feel identifying as a man? Oh, and welcome to the forum!

 

Hi there,

I wanted to write a bit sooner but just having a chance now. Only you can know if you are trans, as that’s a really personal sense of understanding, but i wanted to share a bit of my own feelings too because I’ve been exploring my gender for a long time. First there’s such a diverse range of identities and expressions in the trans umbrella, some of us are non binary, gender fluid, genderqueer, bigender. And even if you’re not trans, you might be gender nonconforming or maybe you like to cross dress. Think about what feels good and what feels difficult about your gender, what feels natural and necessary to your sense of self - do you need to dress in female clothes all the time? Sometimes? What about using a female name and pronuns? You say you’re happy identifying as male and happy with your body. Do you always feel this way? Sometimes? Just thinking that through can help you start to work towards answers.
Myself, I’m starting to understand that I’m non binary, assigned female at birth; i don’t identify quite as female, but I do in some ways still identify that way, and I don’t quite identify as male. I’m somewhere in the middle really and prefer to present androgynous to masculine. I have some feelings about my body that relate to this feeling of being in the middle but a lot of it is not really easy to explain, just that I know I’m not quite one or the other. I think it’s helpful to realise that gender is not actually binary and that it’s more of a spectrum, some people are much closer to each end and some are in the middle.

I hope this helps a little, happy to keep talking if that helps at all.

 

Also, you don’t need to know your label just now, or maybe you never really want a label. And also consider the fact that being trans might mean you feel a need for medical changes and it might not. There are many different experiences to being trans.