@taedryn I feel this super hard. I didn't deny myself, per se, but did a lot of equivocation, using of alternate statements of identity, shut down my level of need for a transition since I wasn't "really trans" like those "really trans people", etc, etc, until I made it to 40 and experienced actual internal crisis.
And over what? At the end of the day, over some words, some clothes, some makeup, and some grooming. Like, why did/does this have to be so hard?