I totally agree with you Dr. Z on voice therapy! I started back in December 2021 and worked hard for 3 months to get my voice to sound feminine. After the initial 3 months, it was another 6 months of constant practice. Now...with the training, I always talk in my feminine voice like it was natural. Have I occasionally slipped? Yep! Surprisingly, no one notices. What I have noticed and you mentioned, is even cis-women can sometimes lower their voices. Just yesterday I was in a local thrift store and the clerk was talking to me and her voice just dropped. As for the question about 'why bother?' I say "why not!" If transitioning makes you happy, why not! I actually encounter the "why bother" or "Why now?" from my mother in law. My answer is, I have lived 60 plus years as a miserable man, why not live my remaining years as a happy female? I understand that there may be those who 'feel' they don't pass when it is very important to them. But that is where therapy can help in accepting oneself for how they look. I have seen and talked to some trans women that have a hard time 'passing' but they are so alive and confident in their womanhood that their 'looks' become nonrelevant because of the joy and beauty that they are projecting! Plus it doesn't matter at what age one starts transition, being happy is more important. I will say, that I've been blessed, lucky, fortunate, or whatever in that I can and do 'pass' in the general public. My profile picture is an actual photo of my authentic self and next year I will be 67. For me, transition has been one of the best decisions I ever made in my life! I'm so glad that I didn't continue my life as a miserable old man and look forward to enjoying my live as a woman! Accepting oneself and realizing that one can transition at any age, are the first steps! Having Dr. Z providing all her wonder content helps also! ❤❤🥰🥰💋

I think of dysphoria like inflammation on a sensitive joint. When there's a lot of stressors or a big change (e.g. shift in weather), your bad knee is going to flair up first, even if your whole body is experiencing the inflammation. So a stressful situation will likely aggravate existing (or potential) dysphoria.

Seeing a German counselor helping a Ukrainian trans person hit me kinda hard, it recharged my faith in humanity :) (I'm from us) 😊❤

I am dealing with "Why bother" syndrome. Excuse me for coining a term that may not exist. I am eleven and half months on HRT. I started social transitioning at the beginning of September. I am in therapy. I think I do not pass and never will. I will turn seventy in February. I have been in therapy for a year now. I am married and my wife, whom I love and who loves me, has difficulty accepting what I am feeling and going through. She is trying very hard. When I consider surgery, I think why bother if I will never pass. When I work it is over the Internet, so coming out there is not a problem. I know I am trans and when I look back at my life always have been. My birth sex is male. I crave to be female and internally identify as a woman. When I look at other trans people my age I do not want to be like them. I am having difficulty accepting myself. When I first started to medically transition my hopes were high to succeed presenting and living as a woman. Now after socially transitioning for two months I am beginning to believe that is impossible because people will never accept me as a woman. I am considering to stop my social transition. It is just too hard and impossible to realize. Yes, trans people tell me that I just have to accept and be who I am, and passing is not important. That is not enough for me and I think how other people see you shapes how you feel and see yourself. I now am looking for a way to live with knowing I am trans and never being able to express the way I want and be accepted. I hope I will figure it out!

I'm non binary, AMAB , I didn't want breast growth but I felt the dysphoria I experienced was worth the risk of taking E and maybe growing breasts, because I want to appear androgynous to femme. I didn't need breasts , I took E in February, now I have a B cup n I love my body, my dysphoria is way less, my sex life is awesome, n I love my lil boobs. That's my story.

Podcast was amazing and the questions are just really awesome. Every time something to connect and realize ❤❤❤

Tip for the voice therapy one - there is overlap between voices; there are cis women that sound masculine and there are cis men that sound feminine. I ended up deciding not to change my voice, though it's something I may revisit at some stage - but if you are familiar with audio spectrograms, you can play voices of various women, see how they look on a spectrogram, and then try to match the tone. Audacity is a free program that may help with this. The other thing I suggest is to record yourself and listen back, because what you hear is different from what everyone else hears due, I believe, to the bone conduction of the audio inside your head. I've been through three courses of voice therapy, essentially, and I just don't have the motivation to practise. I'm not alone; I've found comfort in the fact that there are some trans-woman or trans-femme youtubers who are like me. The other thing that I think is that at least I'm doing something good for our world by existing and using my voice, deep as it is (it's deeper than that of most men), in public! You may think it weird, but I can *sing* and sound very feminine - this is done by training falsetto enough that it becomes reinforced and ceases to be breathy; this is what countertenor singers do!

I took my male name as my new surname to never forget who I was, how great man I was, and all the things I have achieved in the past. I didn't disown , just embraced it fully. I just regret that the life. I have had structered was for so manly man as I was presenting myself to the outer world, therefore there is very little external to drag on tıo my new life. But the internal aspects I take for my new life I. think are very valuable to me.

Hi really looking forward to hearing your podcast show ❤

I feel the "why bother" vibe. I've only socially transitioned as nonbinary and do enjoy messing with my presentation - like growing out a bit of a goatee while also rocking eyeliner, polish, and such. I've considered HRT and some surgeries but keep going back to telling myself things like "It's not worth the risks" or "The tradeoffs aren't worth it." But I'm starting to wonder if it isn't the voice of denial or internalized transphobia talking. Or, is it even an underlying message of "I'm not worth it." Fortunately, I have a session with my therapist tomorrow to toss these ideas around.

Happy day for you ❤❤

Loved the podcast.

❤can't have both...

41:44 Of course many people can change their voice when speaking, the problem is when coughing or sneezing. That's impossible to control if you have a deep voice.

when i tried voice training via trans voice lessons, she has some amazing tips, but while following along i just ended up sounding American lmao (for context im Australian). so yeah shes an amazing resource, but i found what worked best for me was to more just follow that loosely and experiment, taking her tips as guidance rather than trying to do EXACTLY as she was doing. also, i have tried voice therapy before. back then i didnt know i was trans or adhd, and this was for my stutter. i did not get alot out of it. im sure id get more out of it now, but i already manage my stutter well now and dont feel like i need it.

Just to clear something up, the soymilk myth has been largely debunked, because phytoestrogens do not affect the body the same way estrogens do. They're only named that because of their molecular resemblance, not their function. If it were really that easy, nobody would ever need a prescription for estradiol, whether they're transfemme, or post menopausal cis women. Dairy and beef products contain more actual estrogen in them, and yet nobody believes they have any effects like that. I would say to the first question, I felt that way as well, and was reluctant to go on HRT at first. I'm nonbinary and I assumed I would be ambivalent towards any physical changes, since that's how I've always felt towards my natal body. I was mostly interested in the neurological and psychological effects of the hormones, and I would just deal with whatever else happened. However, for some people, once they get the changes, they can't imagine living without them. I'm still figuring it out myself, but part of me is getting impatient over not having seen any physical changes. On average, the changes tend to be slow for transfemmes, and far less drastic than when cis women have gone through puberty. There's always the option to microdose, so ask your doctor about that.

I have a rhetorical question for the first question. Does this person not want permanent changes because it doesn't feel right for them or because you are scared? It sounds like fear. This individual mentioned breast budding. I would use this to help decide the difference. If the budding was affirming and made you feel better I would say you a in this position out of fear of societal or family blowback. If it didn't feel "right" or made the dysphoria worse I would say that transition isn't for you. If it's fear, I get it. I went ten years on HRT without being full-time. The hard part in coming out is family. Society as a whole isn't a big deal. I'm a truck driver and I travel all over the western US from Texas, Utah, Idaho, Colorado ect and other than a few uncomfortable looks I haven’t had any issues. There's always chest binders for when you are in boy mode. I just used sports bras and loose fitting t-shirts

To person asking question 1, have you considered Raloxifene or other SERM specifically formulated to minimize breast tissue growth? SERMs are "Selective estrogen receptor modulators." Developed for women at high risk of breast cancer but still wanting/needing estrogen to protect bone growth, etc.

Wonderful advice and I have so many things I want to ask...but first, regarding the glasses... you said, you think you're looking less like Edna and more like Despicable Me... I don't see it... do you mean like one of the Minions?!? 😂 You're beautiful and I love your attitude, your sense of self and your sense of humor. 😍

Why an I having classic menoplasal hot flashes!? I’ve been on HRT for 8 years and I had Bottom Surgery 3 years ago. I am 65 years young and I no longer think about my gender transition. Everything / Life is good. Two days this past week I have had my face burning up for 30 minutes. This hasn’t happened before. Any thoughts?

I’m considering top surgery. Oddly I’ve just come out at 60. I’m not yet on HRT. And I’m not sure how much benefit I would see from it at my age.

I'm a nonbinary trans woman. before I knew I was trans i thought I was only attracted to men. the idea of being with a woman disgusted me. now, I am in an amazing relationship with a woman :D so yeah I was actually just bi and my feeling of disgust around the idea of being with a woman was just dysphoria

Being homeless should never be an option. It's a death sentence.

How different. Is a fetish. From. Trans identify Doc please answer that question please 🙏

Dr. Z, some constructive feedback… Your answer to the first question is limited and even misleading. Why does the individual have only estrogen to alleviate dysphoria as an option? Given your clinical experience it would have been helpful to discuss the various aspects of social transition that may alleviate dysphoria. That was a good opportunity to discuss the value and power of social transition and the success that you observed. Also, promoting increased soy intake is flat out false, clinical studies are inconclusive whether phytoestrogen compounds actually promote any similarities to estrogen in terms of effect from consumption. The success to those approaches are more closely linked to a placebo effect, Which you made no mention of. Unless you have evidence displaying otherwise, it is quite irresponsible to be recommending them given your position of authority on the subject.