Kieron Andrew
09-10-2007, 04:48 AM
As a few of you knew I was going to a FTM Conference this weekend, I thought I would write my account of the weekend here and answer any questions anyone has in one go rather than answering loads of people separately
Well Friday morning came and my friend (nikki00thomps) came and picked me up at 1.30pm to take me to the venue for the weekend a head, we arrived at the Youth Hostel, to be told, only 4 others had booked in at this point but they were expecting at least 30 other boys on the first night and 60 the following night, so Nikki waited with me for a few hours until she could no longer because of her own schedule...so then I waited and waited on my own, and slowly the other boys started to arrive, I was quickly made at ease being the only boy that didn't know anyone, most knew each other from the Western Boys, FTM London or other sources.....There were boys as far down as the far reaches of Cornwall and up as far as The Shetland isles
The first afternoon evening consisted of getting to know each other and generally just hanging out waiting for those arriving late to do so, our first challenge was met with the fact the hostel decided because we hadn't pre-booked our meal, saying that we could not be provided with an evening meal, so off trundle a few of the organisers down to the supermarket to get us some pasta and sauces to make up a dinner in the hostels kitchen, so the fun had begun.......
So bed time had arrived at 1030pm, it had already been a long day and this was the first time id shared a room with anyone who was not my partner or family in a while....there was 4 of us to a room...Myself, Rico Paris (creator of Trans-Shropshire now called GenderMatters), and two other guys....all three of the others were post T and top surgery, so to begin with I felt a bit self conscious being that i am Pre everything, but they were great and that soon eased......
Friday morning was an early start as breakfast was between 730am & 930am, and i am so not used to early mornings on command lol. and the first workshop was 10.30am, the conference being held at Bath University.....
So my first workshop was 'Taboos - things we don't like to talk about even with each other'...in which we discussed all the taboo subjects like sex, surgeries and all other kinds of subjects...and also discussed things like why we couldn't talk about things to our friends and families who are not trans....this was good because it was a light hearted approach to many subjects some couldn't talk about, and a good way to start the conference....
My second workshop of the day was 'Hormone Choices' and what was on the market and what to look out for as bogus hormones if you chose to buy off the internet....this was great to be able to make an informed choice on what hormones were out there and what way you wanted to to be able to administer your hormones. IE injectables/gels or pills
My third and final workshop of the day was Phalloplasty, where by we had two trans guys talking about their experiences of the two different techniques of phalloplasty in the UK, the first being 'The radial forearm Phalloplasty' and the second being 'The Abdominal Phalloplasty' what happens at the different stages of both and the work that goes into creating the phallo........
Day two to come later
Well Friday morning came and my friend (nikki00thomps) came and picked me up at 1.30pm to take me to the venue for the weekend a head, we arrived at the Youth Hostel, to be told, only 4 others had booked in at this point but they were expecting at least 30 other boys on the first night and 60 the following night, so Nikki waited with me for a few hours until she could no longer because of her own schedule...so then I waited and waited on my own, and slowly the other boys started to arrive, I was quickly made at ease being the only boy that didn't know anyone, most knew each other from the Western Boys, FTM London or other sources.....There were boys as far down as the far reaches of Cornwall and up as far as The Shetland isles
The first afternoon evening consisted of getting to know each other and generally just hanging out waiting for those arriving late to do so, our first challenge was met with the fact the hostel decided because we hadn't pre-booked our meal, saying that we could not be provided with an evening meal, so off trundle a few of the organisers down to the supermarket to get us some pasta and sauces to make up a dinner in the hostels kitchen, so the fun had begun.......
So bed time had arrived at 1030pm, it had already been a long day and this was the first time id shared a room with anyone who was not my partner or family in a while....there was 4 of us to a room...Myself, Rico Paris (creator of Trans-Shropshire now called GenderMatters), and two other guys....all three of the others were post T and top surgery, so to begin with I felt a bit self conscious being that i am Pre everything, but they were great and that soon eased......
Friday morning was an early start as breakfast was between 730am & 930am, and i am so not used to early mornings on command lol. and the first workshop was 10.30am, the conference being held at Bath University.....
So my first workshop was 'Taboos - things we don't like to talk about even with each other'...in which we discussed all the taboo subjects like sex, surgeries and all other kinds of subjects...and also discussed things like why we couldn't talk about things to our friends and families who are not trans....this was good because it was a light hearted approach to many subjects some couldn't talk about, and a good way to start the conference....
My second workshop of the day was 'Hormone Choices' and what was on the market and what to look out for as bogus hormones if you chose to buy off the internet....this was great to be able to make an informed choice on what hormones were out there and what way you wanted to to be able to administer your hormones. IE injectables/gels or pills
My third and final workshop of the day was Phalloplasty, where by we had two trans guys talking about their experiences of the two different techniques of phalloplasty in the UK, the first being 'The radial forearm Phalloplasty' and the second being 'The Abdominal Phalloplasty' what happens at the different stages of both and the work that goes into creating the phallo........
Day two to come later