twinfools

[twinfools]

hi twinfoolsss

ive been a viewer for as long as i can remember and i was recently going through the cosplay channel (both yours, and Fighting Dreamers Productions) and I was wondering if you and Nova were still together? Feel free to not answer this, I was just genuinely wondering!

I hope all's been well <33

Hey there :) thanks so much for for checking in! Yes we’re still together! We bought a house together a number of years ago, have 3 cats, planning a few vacations, life is good :)

[twinfools]

Ok full disclosure, ive been afab for 30+ years. Im MEH about it. Ive been thinking about transitioning for about 15 years but until my dad passed it was NOT an option. Do you have an research sources that helped you when you were looking? I haven't reached out to a dr yet because i actually want to know what im talking about

Hey there! What type of research are you looking for? Most research I’m aware of studies health impacts of HRT, surgery and HRT patient satisfaction, access to care etc.

While I was considering medical transition what helped me most personally was hearing stories of folks who were on hormones. I also appreciated reading patient-facing summaries of effects of HRT and surgery. Happy to point to a few of those of that sounds helpful!

[twinfools]

Hi! I'm just starting the process of seriously looking into phalloplasty, though it's been on my radar for awhile now. I was wondering how you're feeling 5 years in? I saw your post from 2022 and I really appreciate your insight. I've been lurking in r/phallo too, but a lot of those guys are in the process of getting it done or are pretty freshly done with the final stages. Thank you in advance!

Hey there!

5 years post-op I’m feeling pretty good! I actually opted out of getting an erectile device for now because I’m feeling in a good place physically and don’t want to impact that.

I have no complications or issues with my mobility, and still feel at peace with my body.

I do continue to struggle managing my new body part sometimes as a more well endowed guy. Not a huge issue by any means, just something I was not prepared for the reality of.

Sorry for the disjointed thoughts here, hope this is helpful!

[twinfools]

Hi!

I read your post about your Phallo experience and I’m very grateful for the insight. I’m currently planning to get Phallo myself in the near future and a big question for me is UL.

I’m really scared of catheters and the healing process and complications. I have read so many horror stories of things going wrong and I don’t know if can can deal with that. UL isn’t the most important thing for me, it would be nice sure, but I’m considering the same procedure you had. I just don’t know if I’d regret not getting it. Did you have the same doubts as me?

I have a lot of trans friends in rl, even some transmasc ones, but I know no one who wants bottom surgery. How did you find other people in real life who also wanted bottom surgery?

Hey there!

I was also worried I’d regret forgoing UL. My surgeon did tell me that foregoing it didn’t shut the door on doing it down the road, it just isn’t the ideal route, so that was reassuring (I can’t speak to whether your surgeon would advise the same of course!).

I’m 5 year post op and I haven’t considered taking my surgeon up on that offer and don’t regret not getting UL. In fact, now knowing how tough recovery was without UL and being relieved to be done with surgery I feel more sure of my choices. I think having a catheter for an extra week due to swelling really sealed it for me— the potential cost is just not worth the benefit for me. I don’t tolerate them well at all.

I also don’t have any friends who have had lower surgery and tbh my greatest support was clinician colleagues who didn’t have lived experience of the procedures but clinical experience providing care. My nurse, who specialized in these procedures, friend in particular was a HUGE support.

There are some great Facebook pages by and for guys who have had lower surgery. They are quite protected, but quite great in terms of maintaining respectful discussion and addressing misinformation and voyeurism. I can suggest a few of you are interested but want to refrain from doing so publicly to help keep those spaces safer.

[twinfools]

A new study looked at regrets rates between different elective surgeries and life choices:

Gender affirming surgery < 1%

Breast augmentation for cis people 5.1-9.1%

Bariatric surgery 19.5%

Having children 7%

Regret and gender-affirming care are presented by misinformation spreaders as an anomaly. It’s not. Regret persists across every procedure and life change.

https://www.americanjournalofsurgery.com/article/S0002-9610(24)00238-1/abstract

[twinfools]

Pensive

Met the wonderful twinfools again at hatsukoi, i had a very happy birthday on a safe space. This is a drawing i made for him as a thank you for everything he does and the inspiration he is. I hope i can see him again someday!

tools used: White Nights watercolors on canson paper.

Don’t repost. Be nice. If sharing please give full credit :D I’m on Twitter, and also on instagram. =D

[twinfools]

Hello, hope you've been doing well! I hope this will not be an annoying question, but I was wondering if I could ask what happened to all of the more recent Fighting Dreamers Productions videos? No pressure to answer of course, and I apologize if this is something you've already addressed. I tried checking here and your twitter to see if you'd mentioned it but I think twitter doesn't show me the more recent posts due to me not having an account on it anymore. I know you've had to delete certain videos before due to copyrighted music and things like that but I was surprised to see the earliest video on the channel is now one that's 3 years old

Hey there! The last video we made was about 3 years ago. To be frank, a few things are the reason for this:

-high effort: it’s a lot of time energy and even money to make the videos we want to make, and currently we are all navigating lives, responsibilities and careers that just leave less free time and resources to do this.

-reception: though views and response to content should matter, it does. It felt like the stuff we put a lot of time into weren’t received well. It can become hard to find motivation and I think that’s what contributed a bit to burnout

There definitely are still videos I would love to make… keep waiting for that elusive “calm down” of my woke and life schedule but that hasn’t come up yet lol maybe soon 😭

Appreciate you checking in and super appreciate your continued care for the content we produce, it means a lot!

[twinfools]

It's so nice to see you again Lucas ^^

Not a question but can tell you that we (Argentina) first country in Latin America to recognize non-binary gender identities in its national identification cards and passports on July 21, 2021 offering people the choice to have their sex marked as an 'X'

In a first for the region, any person who doesn't identify as either male or female can tick a third box that will cover a variety of options, including non-binary~~

Hey there! That’s such wonderful news! It’s great to see more and more countries adopting this practice :)

[twinfools]

When I started transitioning the current standard of care for medical care required 1 year of “real life experience”. What was RLE? It meant living as your felt gender openly for 1 year and having someone in your life vouch for that (ie; a teacher, employer, doctor…).

Why was this a problem? Well first: it forces people to live out without any gender-affirming medical support to do so. People access care to better be able to live in their felt gender, so this was often forcing people into discomfort at the least and danger at the most.

It was also a requirement at the time to access transition-related medical care before you could legally change your ID. So unless you had an understanding boss/school etc. this requirement could be a catch 22 since they might use your legal sex to prevent you from coming out in these places in your life.

It’s also just a wild invasion of privacy. I had to ask my boss to write a RLE letter for me. She was so supportive but so confused and wrote something like “I’ve known Lucas for a year, he is a great employee”.

I’m so happy RLE doesn’t exist anymore. If someone is asking for help to live their authentic gender they help should be provided… that already vulnerable person shouldn’t be forced to be more vulnerable for a year before getting support.

[twinfools]

I have my appointment scheduled to start testosterone in a month! How was your experience with it or if you have any things people about to start should know?

Congrats!! You must be really excited and probably have a lot of questions :)

I think what I’d pass along is to keep track of the questions you have and bring that to your provider. If you’re like me, exciting or scary appointments make me distracted and sometimes I leave wishing I had asked a question or had written something down!

Another thing is to not expect changes right away! This may be a no brainer but ultimately you will likely be the last person to notice changes as they happen. Documenting things like your voice/hair etc can help you see changes a bit clearer! Like any medication, T effects folks differently and does so over time. Some folks get a beard super fast for example, and for others facial hair may be sparse and/or take years. It can be reassuring to consider how the cis boys you may have been friends with during puberty expected changes at different rates and to varying degrees— hormone therapy is kinda like a second puberty!

Wish you the best :)

[twinfools]

Hello Mexico City!!! I am so excited to be returning to Mexico this weekend for @hatsukoi.com.mx 😊 I’ll be bringing Ryuichi for Saturday (Gravitation cosplay? In 2023? V hype 😝) and debuting my first ever re-do of Shippuden Naruto on Sunday!

I’ll be at the con both days with prints for sale by donation. I’ll also have 2 meet and greets! All proceeds I make from prints and the meet and greet will be going to La Casa de las Muñecas Tiresia, a very good cause ♥️

See you next week!!! 🇲🇽

#hatsukoi #hatsukoicdmx #cosplay #hatsukoiconvención

[twinfools]

I’m going to Hatsukoi in Mexico City next week!

If you haven’t gotten your tickets for the meet and greet at Hatsukoi.com now is your chance! All the proceeds made by me from this and my prints will be going to La Casa de las Muñecas Tiresia ♥️

hatsukoi.com.mx

[twinfools]

For those considering masculinizing lower surgery— there is a HUGE array of options and configurations. This includes options that can reduce urinary complications (no UL) or maintain your vagina. I feel like this isn’t spoken about enough!

[twinfools]

hey i just saw your bottom surgery post from november and had a question, what was the initial recovery like, other than pain? what did you have to avoid doing, what could you still do, etc? sorry if its digging in a bit, ive been on-and-off about wanting bottom surgery and the main point of concern for me is the recovery afterwards, bc ive got chronic pain and already cant do much hsjdhgbg

Hello!

In terms of pain, I wouldn’t describe most of what I experienced as pain. More discomfort and ache. There is some pain for sure, but the surgical area is pretty numb so the “pain” was from stuff like walking (as my donor leg wouldn’t take much) and peeing (due to the catheter). I hope that clarifies! I’m not underplaying the discomfort… I was not easy to deal with but a different sensation than pain imo.

I couldn’t walk for about 5 weeks. As in I used a Walker and took about 10 minutes to shuffle down a hallway. Early days if I stood or walked too long I’d experience a lot of pain but this was better by about 3 weeks. The loss of mobility was probably worst for me as I’m a very active person and this limitation really impacted my mental health.

As an example, I would go to a mall in Austin to just get out of the aftercare center I was at and I would use my Walker to get into the mall and need to quickly take a rest at the Starbucks that was just inside the mall. After a rest I would visit a store or two nearby but I needed to be in sight of a bench or chairs to safely go any distance because my body couldn’t bear more than short stints. My baseline is walking several miles for fun with workouts 2 times a day so the reduction in mobility and stamina was really sharp for me.

I was back to work in 6 weeks but I work a desk job. I will say that once I started going to physio my mobility came back pretty quick.

I will also say that, though the first bit of recovery was hard and I continuously asked myself “why did I do this, this is terrible, will life ever be the same” I did get through it. Another thing is that I didn’t have complications, so didn’t need any long term catheterization or additional corrective surgery outside of optional ones which greatly impacted my experience of recovery.

[twinfools]

Vultur Volans 🌌

Photo by @_eidetic_

[twinfools]

Heyo! Im wondering how I should go about researching surgeons for a ftm top surgery. I live in Florida which can make things a bit more tricky, and I’ll also have to wait quite a bit before I’ll be in a good place to get a surgery. Just curious if there’s things I should look out for when picking a surgeon. I have at least 5 years of waiting before it’s an option, and I understand a lot can change during that time period haha. Spending that time getting all the details/advice I can, stay cool bro :)

Hello!

I think, to start, it’s important to consider how you will be finding your surgery. If you are going through insurance (I am assuming you are American?) your insurance likely has surgeons who are in network and available to you. That would give you a set number of choices from the start. If you are finding your own surgery, there wouldn’t be that restriction.

Considering distance is important. Are you able/wanting to travel for surgery? That question May whittle down your list considerably.

Many surgeons have outcomes photos on their websites. This can be helpful, same with Facebook or Instagram networks of folks who may be sharing their results online from those surgeons. Good to note that, though surgeons have variability in technique there is far more variability in human bodies so your results are a combination of your surgeon as well as your body/healing/genetics (sure as predisposition to scarring) etc.

Reading reviews of surgeons online can be helpful, but again note that one person can have a terrible experience with a surgeon that another patient absolutely loves.

When you are ready to book consults with surgeons know that the first surgeon you see is not the surgeon you have to go with. You can consult with more than one surgeon (though there will be additional waiting time with that as well as possibly cost). You can bring a list of questions you have for your surgeon to consult to make sure that you get the info you need from that appointment.

I hope this helps! I hope they you’re faring okay— I know that things in Florida in terms of gender-affirming care are not good right now not there are still people fighting in that state to make things better. You may be aware but this resource may be of help if you are looking for supports: https://www.transgendermap.com/resources/usa/florida/

[twinfools]

The halls of Snezhnaya—

Who is your fav harbinger? 👀

Photo by @_eidetic_