I am Antwerp-bound because it is the home of 2Pass , a specialist clinic offering gender affirming care to the trans community. From facial and body feminisation surgeries to various aesthetic treatments, 2Pass does it all. Think of it as the trans destination of Europe. This will be my 14th trip to 2Pass as a trans woman. There, I will submit myself to a session of electrolysis, a form of permanent hair removal that involves eight hours of my face being injected with lidocaine, before each individual hair follicle is electrocuted with a fine metal probe.
And yes, the experience is as delightful as it sounds. I will emerge swollen — so cartoonishly swollen, in fact, that the clinic will provide me with a letter to present to the passport control officers at Brussels station, in order to explain the visual discrepancy between my passport photo and the person before them, who will look more like Shrek than me. For me, the results are just about worth it so that I can move forward in my transition, which can otherwise feel painfully slow at times.
When I first started transitioning years ago, I would never have predicted hair removal would come to dominate my days. Really, hair removal is just the tip of the iceberg. There are some lessons I would love to have learned earlier — and the six below are probably the most crucial.
When I first started transitioning, I drew up a roadmap of important milestones I expected to achieve by certain dates. Committing this information to writing felt empowering; it gave me a sense of direction and a way to track my progress. This was admittedly slightly harder to schedule, but I was certain the moment would come, provided I worked hard and hit every target on the roadmap. Well, guess what? The reality is that my transition has felt much more like a game of snakes and ladders — three steps forward, two steps back.
Some of the procedures I have undertaken to address my gender dysphoria have, frustratingly, only made it worse — at least in the short term see my Shrek-style experience above. Even the moments when I felt invincible and brimming with self-confidence could quickly collapse into insecurity if I so much as detected a funny look from a stranger.
