Gender affirmation is wonderful

From the age of eleven, I did not feel masculine. I wanted to be a woman, but it was not achievable in those days. I took great care not to have children with either of my two wives because I knew there was something wrong with me.

I began dressing as a woman in secret in 1988. Two of my marriages ended in divorce when my wives discovered my crossdressing. 

After my second divorce, in 2013, my urge to dress as a woman continued. I remember that I stood in front of a mirror, naked, wishing I had breasts. 

It took me many years to find out about gender affirmation surgery, procedures that help people transition to their self-identified gender. 

I was diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 2013 at age 45 and my doctor agreed with me that living as a woman and starting hormones might pave the way for gender affirmation surgery.

I moved from Florida to Burbank, California where no one knew me and began living as a woman, 24-hours a day for four years without incident or difficulty. I also earned the money for my surgery from an online company that I owned.

At age 49, I returned to Florida and got my gender affirmation surgery done at the Tampa General Hospital.

One day after my 50th birthday, I began working again. As a woman. 

I was delighted to finally have female breasts, soft skin, and to exist as an adult female. 

It was magnificent. 

Transitioning after 49

Lauren Patrice Gable 2017
Before gender affirmation surgery

How different life would have been, had I been able to have gender affirmation surgery when I was young. 

Many people conduct their male to female transition when they are thirty. 

Of course, for me, growing up in the 1980s, this would not have been possible. 

I know transitioning from male to female after 49 might be intimidating but it ended up being simple for me. As a grown-up with no living relatives, I was free to choose my own path.

Transitioning after 49 was easier for me because my two long term relationships with women had been over by 2013. 

When you are older, you need to look like a woman from the beginning. However, that was not a problem for me since I had cross-dressed for twenty-five years and lived as a woman for four years in Burbank before my gender affirmation surgery. 

I never went in for sexy clothes because I wanted to be a real woman. 

Soon, it would be true.

2007 Understanding gender identity

Susan Ashley Stanton was the city manager of Largo, Florida, until her termination in 2007.

She grew up as Steve Stanton and he was married to Donna Becker, and they had a son named Travis. 

Stanton became the subject of media attention in February 2007 after disclosing that she was transgender and would be pursuing gender affirmation surgery, leading Largo city commissioners to end her contract as city manager, a decision which Stanton appealed.

In 2007, I met Susan Stanton at a pride parade. She was the first transwoman I had ever encountered. We had an extended conversation, and I began to comprehend for the first time that a man could become a woman, something I had wished for since I had been eleven.

Susan explained that gender affirmation surgery would match my outward appearance more closely with my own gender identity. It would be a unique and personal process that included changing clothes, names, pronouns, and behaviors to fit my own gender identity. 

Susan said that the reason I had always aspired to be a woman was because my gender identity WAS female. That's the day I began dreaming of having gender affirmation surgery.

Ten years later, in 2017, it happened.  I am a woman.

I thank Susan for helping me figure out that I have been a woman as my gender identity.