9:24 a.m. - Friday, Mar. 22, 2002
Ms Leslie's goatee
So, here I am; My face is all greased up for electrolysis. It stings so much when Sandy, the wielder of the probe inserts her thin wire needle into each pore, alongside each hair and then zaps it with heat, or electricity, or whatever. So I start two hours early putting on EMLA and Lasercaine to try to deaden my face. It�s white and greasy. We�re working on my upper and lower lips and chin, so I have this slimy white goatee that I�ll wear right up until the last minute. When I walk out of the apartment wearing this stuff, the neighbors do their best to ignore me. They�ve seen me doing so much goofy stuff anyway� I suppose they�re getting used to me for the most part.

We�ll work for an hour on my whiskers. When it�s over, I�ll spend the next two days with angry red skin where she worked her black art. A lot of people who�ve already been through all this say that the most expensive and painful part of transitioning isn�t the sex reassignment surgery; It�s the electrolysis. I believe them.

The sad part is, I can�t see a light at the end of the tunnel. It looks from here as if I�ll be doing these weekly sessions for the rest of my life.

My doctor says that she bases her diagnosis in large part on whether the patient is undergoing electrolysis. She says that if they are going through that, she knows they are totally serious. She�s right. I must really want this or I wouldn�t put myself through electrolysis every week.

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