About social transition

SOCIAL transition is everything you can do by yourself. You might be surprised how much you can do without the help of a doctor or the permission of anyone else.

Research, read, learn, investigate

Read everything you can about transition. There’s plenty on this website (www.ftmaustralia.org) to get you started along with FTM Australia’s handbook (Transitioning female-to-male in Australia). These are only two of the many resources available. There are many books and websites from a female-to-male perspective (see Book List).

You can contact FTM Australia and we might be able to put you in touch with someone in your area who has been through transition themselves or other local support groups.

There are email discussion groups you can join (see email discussion groups). These groups can help you develop friendships with others who have transitioned or are also asking some of the same questions you have at the moment.

The internet offers an easy way to find this kind of information without having to front up in person. It’s an inexpensive storehouse of information and experiences. It’s still important to keep in mind, not everything you read online is accurate and not everyone you contact via the internet are who, or what, they say they are. The internet is no substitute for meeting people face to face.

The more you research, the more you’ll find yourself able to understand the journey ahead. Your family and friends will see a calm and sensible person who is thinking things through rationally. Your health care providers will realise you’re looking into transition seriously and carefully.

Make a plan

As you learn about transition, start to make a plan for your transition. This plan will change and evolve as you learn more about what’s possible and what you want to do. Many people have misconceptions about transition at the beginning, so counselling can be useful at this stage to help you make plans and sort out reality from any misconceptions you might have.

Your general health
What steps can you take to get yourself as healthy and fit as possible to go through with transition?

Medical help
Do you have a friendly GP to talk to? Do you want chest surgery? It’s not expensive to start transition but if you want any kind of surgery think about health insurance. How far do you want to take your physical affirmation? Do you want to correct your birth certificate?

Family, Friends, Colleagues
Will your friends and family be supportive? If you need to, are you independant enough to manage without them for a while? Are you in a relationship and how will your partner take the news? If you have a job, do you have any leave available? A few weeks can make all the difference when you transition in the workplace.

Presentation and Disclosure

Presentation is all about your clothes, haircut and the way you present yourself socially. A very common step in social transition is throwing out clothing like dresses, skirts and blouses. Many people in your shoes never wear these items or have already discarded them. Hairdressers are trained to cut hair for men and women very differently. Even if you say you want a ’male haircut’, sometimes it can be difficult to achieve that just by asking. Some people find attending a barber, instead of hairdresser, is helpful to them in the early days.

Presentation is also about pronouns and involves telling the important people in your life about your plan to transition (disclosure). Some people actually find a change in pronouns, name and personal presentation makes all the difference to them to feel more comfortable and they don’t want any medical treatment. That’s okay if it makes you feel more comfortable.

Be very wary of rushing too quickly into treatment. You may be transgendered (rather than transsexual) and serious irreversible medical treatment could be the very last thing you need (or want!). So keep an open mind about your destination and learn all you can.

Name Change

Changing your name can be one of the first things you do in your transition journey. Anyone can change their name anytime at the local Birth, Deaths and Marriage Registry. You only need to fill out the form, pay the fee and you’ll get a legal name certificate. This is a legal document you can use to change your name with everything from your bank to your workplace.

When you’re changing your name legally:

You might have a name you’ve always called yourself or have a nickname friends and family use for you;
Often the masculine form of your name you’ve already got works okay – ie., Samantha/Samuel; Antonio/Antonia; Christine/Christopher; Davina/David; Jackie/Jack; etc
Names that are particularly feminine usually end with -elle, -ette, -lene; You might want to avoid names ending in ‘a’ such as -ella, -etta, -lena or names ending in ‘y’ or ‘i’;
Names with a short vowel sound/single syllable tend to sound masculine, so they seem more suitable as a boy’s name;
You might look up meanings of different names and use those meanings to decide on a name (google -’name meanings’);
It can be a good idea to choose a name common to your generation – Joshua, Jack or William was common from the late-1990s while Thomas, James and Ryan were more common by mid-2000;
If you’re from an ethnic background or culture, it might be important to you to find a name which fits in with your ethnic or cultural background;
Ask your parents for input – what would they have called you if you were born looking like your innate-sex (boy);
You might take the name of someone you already admire or choose to use a common family name already used by the men in your family;
Aussies tend to shorten names – so check you’re comfortable with the shortened version of your name – eg Bill for William, Ted for Edward;
Lastly, check the name you’re chosing is going to sit well with your surname and sounds okay when you say it out aloud.