Finding True Masculinity
Transmasculine guides and lived experience
Practical guides on testosterone, surgery, binding, and legal questions, alongside Frank’s writing on transitioning at 30, recovery, and building a life beyond survival.
Three guides to keep close
What testosterone can change. How to navigate documents and rights. How to bind and pack with comfort and safety in mind.
Testosterone & HRT
Expected changes, ways to take testosterone, bloodwork, fertility, and questions to bring to your clinician.
Read the HRT guide →Legal Guidance
Name and gender marker changes, privacy, discrimination, and finding legal help. Rules depend on where you live.
Read the legal guide →Binding & Packing
Binder fit, warning signs, packer choices, STP practice, cleaning, and the everyday details that matter.
Read the binding & packing guide →From injection technique to life in recovery
Six pieces that show FTM’s range: practical instruction, a closer look at the evidence, and Frank’s own experience.
How to Inject Testosterone
SubQ and IM injection steps, with anatomy, safety notes, and illustrations that explain the technique.
Read the injection guide → Surgical explainerPhalloplasty Complications & Recovery
Urinary problems, repeat procedures, and the follow-up care that can shape recovery long after the first surgery.
Read the surgical explainer → Evidence reviewBottom Growth: DHT, Pumping & the Evidence
A close look at DHT and pumping claims: what the research supports, what remains uncertain, and where anecdotes fall short.
Read the evidence review → Lived experience · By FrankI Started Transitioning at 30
I had military service, a career, and relationships behind me. More than a decade later, I look back at starting transition as an adult.
Read Frank’s transition essay → Recovery · By FrankGetting Sober Didn’t Fix Everything
Sobriety changed my life. Treatment, medication, routine, and learning to show up for other people helped me build one.
Read Frank’s recovery essay → Identity & mental healthInternalized Transphobia & Self-Doubt
Practical questions for recognizing inherited beliefs about gender and deciding which expectations deserve a place in your life.
Read the self-doubt guide →Sources, experience, and uncertainty
Health guides link to their sources. Legal guidance includes dates and location-specific limits. Personal essays and fictionalized or composite stories are labeled so you can tell whose experience—or what kind of narrative—you’re reading. Spot an error or an outdated source? Tell Frank →
Latest articles & stories
Newer work from across the publication.
I’m Frank, the writer behind FTM.
I started transitioning at 30. More than a decade later, I’m still researching the questions I wish had been easier to answer—and writing about the parts I’ve lived.
FTM looks at transition alongside the rest of life: work, relationships, housing, recovery, and the expectations placed on men. The guides draw on research; the personal essays draw on my experience. Neither can make your decisions for you.
What belongs in this conversation?
Transition does not happen apart from housing, recovery, work, family, or faith. FTM’s Stories & Perspectives explores those connections through clearly labeled narrative work.
The discussion forum is not open yet. Stories and the resource directory are available now.
Have a story idea, a resource that helped you, or a correction to a guide? Frank reads those suggestions.