I just wanted to bump this as I posted my response kinda late and I was wondering if anyone had any opinions on my particular situation.

I want to speak to testosterone for women. I was on a HRT cream that included testosterone for several years. Earlier this year I had to stop it for awhile because I had endometrial hyperplasia and had to have a D&C. Once the effects of the cream wore off I found that I actually had an increase in interest and have since decided to not go back on it. Also as I mentioned in my thread about IF I currently weigh more than I did premenopause which supposedly helps with estrogen levels post menopause because fat cells either make or store estrogen (can't remember which). Recently I have been reading about the effects of hormones on the libido of post menopausal women and it seems that estrogen is the most important factor. There are not many studies but the few that there are seem to show that estrogen alone is more effective than estrogen/testosterone. This only applies to post menopausal women though. The results may be different before menopause.

We start by telling the truth, the actual facts of history - the who, what, where and when. This action/situation occurred at such and such place at such and such time involving these people. Then maybe present both POVs regarding why something happened. This seems like the most basic place to start.

Literally everywhere else. 🙄

Book number 19. I once had a few books go missing, most importantly book number 19 from a set of encyclopedias. We tore the house apart looking for them and never found them. I eventually bought a replacement book for the set of encyclopedias. Roughly two years later as we were moving to a new house I found my youngest dd's small rolling suitcase in the basement. It was very heavy so I opened it up and it was filled with all the missing books. She was pretty young at the time and had apparently forgot that she had filled her little suitcase with books and then misplaced the suitcase. We still talk about book number 19 everytime something goes missing.

I am all for seeking to understand. That is why I suggest a complete medical exam checking for all the currently known reasons that could cause problems as well as ongoing medical research to help determine unknown causes. As a person who lives with mental illness I guess I don't see as any worse than a physical illness that could be causing a problem. I know that with the right treatment, therapy and support people with mental illnesses can also live complete and meaningful lives. And as I also stated, if GD persists and an adult is not able to bring their mind in line with their body then they should be able to bring their body in line with their mind. In which case I would assume they would present as the opposite sex and no one would have any reason or business asking which bathroom they should use.

I have so many mixed feelings on so many levels on the whole matter, almost to the point of cognitive dissonance. We have to consider the older cohort of almost exclusively males suffering from gender dysphoria from a very young age and the current cohort of predominantly female adolescents who are suddenly suffering from GD. We need to consider it from a sociological standpoint in which there is almost certainly social contagion taking place and we need to consider it from the perspective of dealing with individuals on a one to one basis. First of all, no one is just randomly "assigned a sex at birth". Everyone just looks between the baby's legs and observes the baby's sex. For almost all of human history and in almost all cases that observation is correct. If the as the child begins to grow up they begin to insist that they are something that they are in fact not, be it the wrong sex, and animal, an alien or Jesus Christ, then we can safely assume that there is either something physically or mentally wrong with them. So in this case, the first line of action should be a medical check-up. They should check the child's chromosomes, their hormones, their genitals and any internal sex organs, check for tumors, and any evidence of hormonal problems during the mother's pregnancy. If the child is perfectly healthy they should then be sent to counseling to help them accept and process their delusion which is what it is when someone believes that they are something that they scientifically are not. This is coming from a bipolar person that has suffered from mild hallucinations and delusions. I know how difficult it can be to come to terms with something that you know for a fact to be true only to later find out that it was not. I am not making light of the difficulty of this process. But there is no other case in which a human is suffering some kind of delusion and the rest of society simply plays along. Once we have updated medical research and have decided that it is medically ethical to do so, if an adult then receives all relevant medical information and provides informed consent well then I supposed that they can transition socially, hormonally even surgically if they wish. I still believe that they need therapy as they go through this process. I also believe that they should be counseled that while they persist in their delusion they should not expect the rest of society to play along especially to the detriment of the much larger cohort of females. This brings it down to the level of the personal. If a man comes into a female bathroom and he is at least trying to pass as a female then as long as he minds his own business, goes into the stall and privately conducts his business and then washes his hands and leaves that is fine by me. Even if the person doesn't quite pass or is androgynous or has a beard but is wearing make-up, jewelry and a dress, I don't care what is in their pants. But when as man comes into a private woman's space be it a locker room, spa, or women's ward at prison and they are butt assed naked sporting a full beard and a penis then no that is not going to fly. I am going to speak up and say something because that penis is a potential danger to almost everyone else there. We do need to address things like this at a societal level. We need to give trans people equal rights but not special rights that override the rights of natal females and put us at a disadvantage. I believe this includes thing like not letting trans women compete with natal women in sports. They also need to understand that they are not natal females. They can't really feel like a female because they have never been a female. They have not been through puberty, periods, female sex and orgasms, pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and menopause. They generally have not experienced just getting comfortable with their body only for it to change, over and over again. They have not suffered from sexism and concern for their safety as a female. They are not the same. However, they do deserve to be treated with human dignity and respect. They deserve inclusion in society. They deserve empathy for their lived human experience. They deserve to be addressed by the names and pronouns that they prefer. They deserve protection from violence the same as any other person. They deserve a place to go to the bathroom. I also believe that we owe them the research and medical care that best serves them even if it is not what they think they want to begin with. But they also have some responsibilities. Regardless of who they are attracted to they need to share the information that they are trans before things get too far down the road. My hubby was in the Navy and he has told me that almost every port he ever visited any where in the world he heard stories of sailors going home with what they thought were women only to find out they had an extra part once things became heated. And now I would like to share some personal experience. Two of my dds suffered from body dysphoria that if they were going through now they would probably think that they were trans. The reality of the matter was that they simply weren't ready to grow up at the time. They became very uncomfortable when their breast began to develop. They wore sports bras, covered by camisoles with built in bras and then baggy shirts. One of them didn't want to use feminine hygiene products. They didn't ever want to be naked which caused some hygiene issues because they didn't want to bath or shower. They did shave their vulva and armpits because they wanted to still look like a child. They exercised too much and ate too little to try and prevent the changing of their bodies. One developed an eating disorder. They would not have been served by the suggestions that maybe they were really boys though. They both eventually made peace with their changing bodies and grew up to be perfectly comfortable with their grown female bodies. I have complete empathy with parents of children with GD and know that they are only trying to so the best for their children that they know how. I am thrilled for the people that have been down this road and things turned out well for them no matter what they decided to do. And I ache for the parents that are torn and don't know what to do. I feel for the children going through this and the way they are treated by some people. And I truly believe that the only way through this at both a societal level and a personal level is civil discourse and continuing research and medical/mentally health advancements.

Except for pregnancy, I have weighed 135 lbs. most of my adult life. My mother passed when I was in my mid 40s and I lost 20 lbs. from grief. It took me two years to regain that weight. A few years later (right as I was going into menopause) my doctor put me on a med that caused me to gain 50 in less than 2 months. As soon as we realized what was happening I went off that med but did not lose any of that weight for many years. I was actually comfortable at that weight and didn't make any effort to lose any weight but did eventually lose about 10 lbs and stayed at 175 for awhile. Sometime in close relationship to my neurological problems I lost another 10 lbs. I am not sure if that happened before I went in the hospital but when I got out of rehab I was down to 165 and they were making me eat three times a day which was unusual for me. I normally only eat once a day and pretty much always have. How many calories I consume has never really had any effect on my weight. Since rehab I have been considerably less active than before but that didn't seem to have any effect either until I had the surgery for my hiatal hernia. During recovery (which lasted much longer than expected) I was required to eat a small amount of food every two hours. This caused me to gain back the 20lbs and an additional 20 more lbs. so that I was at 205 which was uncomfortable for me and made getting around even more difficult. Once I was on my normal diet again I dropped down to fluctuating between 185-195, which happens to be right between sizes for me. So I have to keep two sizes in my closet. I would be happier if my weight was between 175 and 185 and solidly in one size spectrum. Over the last year my oldest dd and her husband started IF/Keto diet. She has lost 100 lbs and he has lost 75 almost effortlessly. So I decided to give it a try and I am not having any luck at all. I started with a 12-14/2 hour schedule without success. Then I read I needed to go at least 16 hours so I changed to a 16-19/5-8 hour schedule which didn't help either. So now I am doing 2, 24 hour fasts each week and still not seeing results. I am eating keto and low restricted calorie. But as usual how many calories I eat seems to have no effect on my weight. Further concerns are that I am not eating enough calories during my eating windows because as I said before I habitually eat only once a day. I have also had problems with malabsorption in the past and I am not eating near as many fruits and veggies as I used to. My doctor is convinced that the weight gain is due to my bi-polar meds which not only are notorious for causing weight gain but also cause more gain the longer you are on them. The weight is not causing any health problems. I have been thoroughly checked out by a cardiologist and my heart is healthy, my blood pressure is good and my lab numbers are good. He doesn't really think that there is much I can do about it given my physical state. We did try a weight loss med that worked but had serious side effects so I had to stop it. He offered to prescribe one of the new meds but my insurance won't cover it and I can't afford it. There is also a concern that my weight fluctuating so much (even though unintentional) may have caused me to gain weight much like yo-yo dieting does. And the possibility that not consuming enough calories because I only eat once a day may have slowed my metabolism causing me to gain weight. His advice is to basically eat healthy and not worry about my weight so much and just wait and see if it doesn't slowly go down like it did in the past. My hubby is happy with me just the way I am and to tell the truth if I could take the ten pounds off my mid section and rearrange it into a more typical female weight distribution I would probably be fine with the number as well especially if I knew I wouldn't gain any more. But I carry it all in my belly and I honestly look like I am 7 months pregnant. At this point I am trying to decide if I should continue with the two days of fasting per week and give it a little while longer to work or if I should just go back to my regular eating schedule and hope to slowly lose it over a longer period of time. I am not having any side effects positive or negative from the fasting but I do have periods of hunger which I have never had before. It is hard to know what to do with all of the fluctuations and various health issues that I have had over roughly the last 15 years. It has basically been a roller coaster and therefore hard to know what things have had what effects.

I have my fiction downstairs, sorted into adult and non-adult categories. Non-fiction is upstairs and sorted by Dewey Decimal system. If I buy a book that I don't exactly know where it goes I look it up on my local library site.

If so, how long have you been doing it? What is your schedule? Are adding any other elements to it like keto? Have you had any problems with it? And most importantly, is it working? How much have you lost? Are you keeping the weight off?

My passion is learning. It always has been. I love reading, mostly non-fiction but some fiction as well. I also watch tons of documentaries and educational shows. I am constantly going down rabbit holes on the internet learning new and different things. Since my movement has become somewhat limited I have found things that I can do while in bed or sitting in my recliner like crochet, cross stitch, adult coloring books (with various pens, chalk markers, paint brush tipped pens), individual logic games and puzzles. I have been wanting to play some old text based computer game but I really haven't found time to do so. I reserve time to spend with my hubby every evening. I try to spend at least one day a week with at least one of my dds and we try to get together as a family at least once a month. We rotate doing things like the movies, bowling, disc golf, the zoo and tons of other things. I do have a tons of things to go through and declutter but I can only do about 10-15 minutes at a time. My oldest dd frequently comes over and helps me. It gives us a chance to visit and talk. My grand dd always comes with and amuses herself.

Nothing to do with eyeballs. I have a pretty strong stomach and can handle most things that other people find gross but eyeballs really gross me out. I am claustrophobic so nothing in confined spaces. I couldn't medically treat small children or animals because I just don't have the patience and gentle demeanor needed for that.

For people who are not familiar with the area, Columbia (where this was filmed) is not exactly a small town. The population is 42,000 people which is bigger than the town I live in. Columbia has a a lot more problems with drugs, alcohol and violence than any of the surrounding towns. We personally have known two young men who were shot and killed at work, one at a pizza place and the other at a gas station. I have lived in many small towns including one that had a population of 100 at the time, SAA-LUTE!, and none of them were as described in this song. He as previously mentioned is not from a small town either nor does he live in one now. Also that court house is not the only one in Columbia. There were other choices of where to shoot. This is the Nashville area for goodness sakes. There are tons of filming locations in the area, just about all of which would have been less contentious. I grew up on traditional country and then outlaw country before turning to rock in my teen years. Then when I was pregnant with my second dd my mom moved in with me. She watched CMT and I got introduced to what was called new country at the time, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, etc. and came to have some appreciation for that as well. We moved to the Nashville area 20 years ago now and my hubby was heavily involved in the songwriting business for along time but then his co-writer passed and we haven't listened to country music in years. It's not the same music it used to be.

I love this!

I hope this link works: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/1130051731474432813/ This was bittersweet for me. It was awesome to see them dance like that but I also found myself thinking, I can barely walk across the floor with any grace what-so-ever. Anyway, it brought a smile to my face so I thought I would share.

We used to have a pure breed Golden Retriever that wouldn't, not if his life depended on it. He was a great dog, extremely well trained and very motivated to please but he just didn't seem to understand the concept of retrieving. We now have a AST/GSD/Husky mix that will retrieve for hours. Sometimes I feel like my arm will fall off throwing things for her.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/2023/07/20/jason-aldean-song-video-pulled-cmt-controversy/ This is local to me and I am curious to know what people think about this song/video after reading the article about the history of where it was filmed and the scenes that were edited.

An XL full should be the same length as a queen just not quite as wide. Queen size bedding should work just fine.

I would also recommend an enzyme cleaner and use a carpet shampoo with attachments. You may have to do this more than once and then once it is dry maybe a little spray with something like Febreze. I had my hubby accidently leave a package of fish in the car in the TX heat overnight and we did eventually get the smell out and drove the car for many more years after that and then passed it down to my brother.

I don't like it. With all of the entitlement people are feeling these days, I think that the last thing they need to hear is that they are royalty. I also have a problem with the created and designed part. Seems like they are trying to sneak religion in the back door. If my children were in PS I would be having them opt out.

We ended up staying with Cobra until they fixed the tax credit issue because it was a better plan than the marketplace one for about the same price so that won't happen but it still bugs me that we were paying $3000 a month for Cobra for six months because they couldn't figure out the tax credit.

We couldn't afford the monthly payment as it was twice as high as our income at the time but theoretically yes you can do it that way. I think the reason they didn't originally give us the tax credit is because we weren't making enough money. No money means no taxes and therefore no tax credits. They worked it out somehow and hopefully it will balance come tax time.

When you buy insurance from the marketplace you get a tax credit based on how much you make and maybe on the plan you chose. I am not exactly sure how it works but when we first applied they were not giving us our tax credit and our monthly payment would have been somewhere between $2500-$3000 and we were only making $1500 a month at the time. People kept telling us we should be able to get a plan for $10 so eventually my hubby called and they figured out that they weren't applying our tax credit. Once they applied it our payment came down to about $350 a month.

He is a list of some chair/sleep options: https://www.livinginashoebox.com/12-convertible-chair-beds-that-go-from-seating-to-sleeping-in-seconds/

I was not censored nor did I censor my children. We all had free run of the library. I didn't censor media either but if they saw or heard something that either I or they felt may be problematic then we discussed it. The only hard line I drew was porn. I am fine with nudity, male or female or the kind of sex scenes you might find in an R rated movie but I didn't want them exposed to the misogyne found in porn. I did have one that pushed that boundary because she was curious so of course we had to have discussions about that. But for the most part we did not run into any issues which is a good thing because all of my girls had their own IPhones and Amazon accounts as teenagers. They could have read or watched anything they wanted and I wouldn't have known the difference. So at least they knew that they could discuss anything with me if it was problematic for them. I have five girls and they all read to some extent, some more than others but they all are good about discussing and recommending books to each other. I have read a lot in my lifetime and the only book I ever regretted and really wished I hadn't read was Gerald's Game by Stephen King and that was just because one of the injuries described just really grossed me out. I have self censored some movies because I knew I couldn't handle the subject matter, Sophie's Choice comes to mind.