This was originally posted to the TGYouth support mailing list. She is writing anonymously as she is living stealth.
Transition is an unimaginably stressful process.
Many people told me before I started how stressful it would be. You may well lose existing friends, and worst of all, your parents, as a result of what you are doing. Transition is confronting an issue you have struggled to suppress for many years. As you open your mind to the gender issues, many other problems can surface. For me, this was having to learn to deal with the very bad bullying I had had at school - which until I started transition I had successfully ignored.