Those who started CD'ing later in life, please come in

[MonicaJean]

One thing I have found being on this board only a handful of days is how many sisters here started much later in life. So many started at such a young age (as did I) but many have not.

I'm curious regarding those who started later in life...
a. What made you curious at all to even start CD'ing?
b. Was there an emotional component driving you this direction?

In all this, the question is c. "what age did you start and why?"

[Joanne f]

I cannot really tell you the age i started but it was very young, the odd thing though was i just assumed it was normal to do it yet also normal to kept it a secret, you might say that is a contradiction but if you think of it back then it was normal to have sex but keeping it a secret ( not me of course as i was to young), it was only later in life that i realised that i was cross dressing (according to everyone else) as i still do not believe i am .

[DawnL]

I started CDing "later in life". That's not to say that the need wasn't there. It just took me longer to reconize what the need was. I put myself in some bad positions on this journey but managed to stay out of trouble. I remember trying on sisters clothes and mom always had Avon lipstick samples aplenty. I had to try every shade. I would say I have been a CD my whole life but just took more time to realize it than others. I envy those who know about this side of themselves early on. .

[hiddendresser]

A long reply but anyway, my wife had mentioned to me that a former female co-worker had told her that a former male ex co-worker of ours was a crossdresser and his wife couldn't handle that and divorced him. We had gotten along well and one day I noticed short stubby hair on his forearms. I knew he was into weight lifting and I assumed at that time he shaved his arms for competition.
When I found out different, it didn't bother me but I wondered what he felt and went through crossdressing. I felt some stirrings in me and one day when my wife was out of town with her family for a few days, I tried on some of her clothes and makeup. Of course I didn't do a very good job with the make up but I looked different (almost like my mother) and felt dfferent inside. Something that was hidden deep down was being released. I felt a relief and a more female side of me coming out. Since high school I've always felt comfortable with the girls and they with me. I never tried anything with them, even though I did have crushes on some but was too afraid of rejection so I never said anything to them. I guess they trusted me because they would talk to me and tell me things and they knew I would keep it to myself. They would ask me to tell them the male point of view of situations and how to handle it. This continued through my college, military career and my civilian job after. I guess they looked on me as they would a brother. I even get along great with my mother-in-law but that is another story.

I was about 47 when I started crossdressing, after wondering about my ex co-worker. Slowly I accumulated my own clothes, makeup and accessories. I did one major purge at about 55 but the urge came back stronger and soon I had a new age appropriate minor wardrobe, makeup and wig. I've improved on my makeup techniques since but I still need to work on it. Being of Mexican-American heritage and skin color I have a problem chosing makeup colors.
I am now 60 but my wife, family and friends say I look in my early 50's.
My wife does't know and probably never will.
Emotionally, I feel relieved, more relaxed and less stressed when in female mode.

[tricia_uktv]

Many will say the same as I. I knew before puberty. I fought and fought it (life was different in those days). Then, at fifty I bit the bullet - and have never looked back since. It is such fun!!!!

[sesissy]

Even though I have always had a side of me which I would call feminine, I actually started cross dressing at about age forty-six.

My ex-wife and I were always adventurous in our sexual experiences and we evolved to the point where we began experimenting with role reversals.

We progressed by purchasing sexy underware for me to wear.

After making several purchases, the underwear I was buying began to get more and more feminine and it got to the point that my wife suggested that I wear some of her panties.

I agreed to her suggestion and the following day I wore a pair of her lace undies to work. I can't say how much I enjoyed wearing them. That night when I got home, we sat down and talked and I explained that I was hooked on wearing her panties.

Afterward, we began buying more panties and other feminine apparel for me to wear. We also began experimenting with makeup and other things.

A short time later, my ex began disapproving of my female persona and I stopped wearing my female apparel in front of her. Little did she know that I continued wearing panties and lace up until the day we divorced.

Now, she's gone, but my love for dressing forever remains.

[Barbara Dugan]

my personal experience is that started two years ago when I was 38 and still is a journey of self discovery. I have to admit that I always feel kind of different on many ways I never been masculine but I wasn't girly either.
Even sexually I was on a limbo I was completely Asexual till my mid thirties.
I think there elements of both curiosity and emotional on my case

[martha mars]

I did not stert this my mother did it when i came home as a new born in a dress

[Teri Jean]

I have been drawn to wearing women's clothes since fairly young but could not pursue as it was not understood or acceptable. Fast forward nearly five decades and marriage, children, grandchild and the loss of my wife in an auto accident and the urges came back in a flood of emotions. I started dressing and experimenting which caused further desires I had forgot I had.

Today I have been transitioning for over 5 months and living and working 24-7. It has been the best thing for me. Oh yes I'm turning 61 next Tuesday, the 23rd.

Teri

If you take the rule of counting bakward after 50 I will be 39. LOL

[Billijo49504]

I always had a interest in womens clothes, and loved the feel of them. But I had a old GF, when I was in Viet Nam, Sent me a pair of her panties and asked me to wear them. So we could be closer! Really enjoyed that!! After the service, 1st wife divorced me, cuz I would wear her panties. No sense of humor. 2nd wife didn't have a problem with it. I buried her in one of my dresses. Present wife works ladies retail, brings clothes home for us all the time. I have very few mens clothes. I wear what I call, Fem drab!!..BJ

[Rianna Humble]

I don't know whether I really qualify for this thread because my earliest memories are of dreaming that I would one day get married in a church - with me as the bride not the groom, but it was not the sort of thing that you talked about.

When I was in primary school, my mum found out I had tried on my sister's stockings and it became a drama - so I denied it

When I was an adolescent, I got involved with a religious group that made me think it was "dirty" and "sinful" so I tried to repress my need to dress.

Through my 20's and 30's I would sneak the odd occasion to wear a GG's clothes without her knowledge, then spend days of mixed emotions - on the one hand it felt so wonderful and on the other, I thought it was "sinful" and loathed myself.

In my 40's I didn't really have the opportunity, but that didn't stop me fantasizing about how it would be. At that time I grew fatter and uglier so I used that to tell myself it was no good dreaming of being a woman - who would want an "ugly old cow" anyway?

Just under a year ago - at the age of 53 - the urge to dress became so strong that I bought some garments to try to "shame" myself out of wanting to be a woman. At the same time, I determined that if I couldn't fight it, then I would remain "a bloke in a skirt/dress". I bought some jewellery to try to "shame" myself that way - and fell in love with it.

I tried a few excursions to see if that would snap me out of it, and when I came across acquaintances told them it was for a bet or some such nonsense. I also started dressing whenever I had a night at an hotel and there are a couple of hotels where they accept me skirts and all.

I slowly started incorporating items of feminine attire at work on "dress-down" days, but never went very far. Perhaps some shoes or a blouse but definitely no dresses or skirts in work if someone else was around. By this time I was seriously wondering whether transition would be an option for me.

Then at the staff Xmas party, a GG asked me why I was not wearing "something more comfortable" and when pressed, said that she had noticed the shoes, stockings & blouses and thought I should have worn a dress to the party. She also complimented me on my nails. This led me into the thickest Pink Fog I have ever known and I was only helped out of it by the wise counsel of other girls on this forum.

At the start of this year, I got another chat with the GG from the party (Luci) who admitted that she knew nothing about transgender but was willing to learn. There is nothing romantic involved, she has a boyfriend and I am old enough to be her mum. With her encouragement, I spoke to my team leader about the fact that I am transgendered and asked his opinion about me dressing more openly at work.

There are still circumstances that prevent me seeking professional help, so we agreed that for the moment, I will limit myself to the three "dress-down" days of the weekend. He suggested I not wear a skirt or dress at first in case some of the younger staff members on nearby teams made hurtful remarks and I stuck to this for 4 weeks. However, one of the younger members on my team commented the other day that my jeans did not do justice to the bling top that I was wearing and when I mentioned what the team leader had said, his reply was "stuff that, you should wear what makes you happy". So for the last two weekends, I have been fully dressed when at work.

We now have an inter-team night out this coming Friday, and I am awaiting a discussion with my manager (the TL's boss) about whether she would feel happy for me to go en femme. Although Friday is a dress-down day, this is an official night out organised by work and I want to make sure the management is OK with me attending as myself even if they still call me by his name.

I now only cross-dress (to become him) at the office four days a week and at home as my dad still doesn't know. It will be a difficult conversation this summer when I have to tell him about it and that I am seeking professional help with a view to transitioning fully.

At this stage, "fully" does not necessarily include the op, but who knows what tomorrow may bring?

[Elizabeth Ann]

I didn't start dressing until in my 50's. Looking back on it, I suppose that I might have had a sort of "predisposition" toward crossdressing, but really didn't realize it. In retrospect, I suppose there were hints of it, but it was truly "late onset crossdressing." I never thought of myself as a crossdresser, and never really had any dressing urges that I had to fight.

There were really only two earlier instances. There was one time when I was about 12 or 13 and watching a neighbor's house for them while they were on vacation. I liked being naked in places where I shouldn't, and of course roamed their house nude. One day I put on the wife's lingerie for no particular reason than a sexual thrill.

Then there was a Halloween in my 20's when I spent the weekend in a tennis dress, ruffled panties, and a Rene Richards nametag. Beyond that, there was just the occasional sexual fetish with panties, which I honestly thought was pretty common.

It wasn't until an extended period of depression in my 50's that I actually did anything I considered crossdressing. Alone in the house with time on my hands, I tried on some of my wife's clothes. Until some Internet searching, it never occurred to me that there was a CD subculture. I started collecting some clothes, and it was off to the races.

This whole thing is still a puzzle to me. I think for me, it is a combination of sexual fetish and escapism; a chance to be "not me". I often don't do anything from the neck up; just put on the clothes and admire them in the mirror.

Liz

[shannonsilk]

i was in my 20's when I bought my first panties. I had managed to always have to go thru the women's section in a dept store no matter what section I was really headed for.
I was in my 50's before I did much more than wear underthings.

[AlannahNorth]

Hello Michelle,

I had a strong interest in women's clothing at 8 years old - also with women's jewellery. It has stayed with me ever since. On a good number of occasions I under-dressed around home as a teenager. While married I 'borrowed' an item or two on maybe... 2 or 3 occasions, that's all. My interest revived about 12 years ago and I bought a few items for myself. In 2004 this all really developed into a serious interest, and I really began experimenting.

The end result of all this is that I really began crossdressing seriously later in life, but the interest was always there.

[Crissy Kay]

I only got the urge about fifteen years ago. Until then,I had no interest in cding. That was when I finally worked up the nerve to buy my first outfit.

[joanne anderson]

[SIZE="3"] I can truly say " I was a late developer ."
I started on the road to crossdressing when I was sixty. I once before then, had a dressing session one evening with my wife, thirty years before. She thought one of here new dresses needed a bit of alteration, so I jokingly said I would try it on for her, so from that I tried one or two more and we had a good laugh.
Nothing ever caused me to think about C/Dressing ever again until reaching sixty when I retired and found I was spending lots of time alone at home. One day I was bore so I went into my wifes wardrobe and tried on one of her dresses as well as underwear etc.
Well as many of us who started this way, I found a joy and pleasure and calmness flow through me and I was hooked.
I began to buy my own cloths which I had to hide away. Over the following years I bought a wig, make-up shoes and more. My wife never knew but I was dressing nearly ever day and had always to rush and remove my make-up and hide evrything away,
Finaly one day I just decide that I could not go on like this, always worrying that I may get caught, so I finaly sat down with her and came out fully to her.
My wife is a guidance councillor at a high school so, I believe this help greatly in her understanding and her acceptance of my need to dress.
So the saying " It,s never too late " is true.


Love Joanne [/SIZE]

[AllieSF]

I am a late bloomer too. I started 3 years ago in 2007 and have enjoyed every moment of it. My age?? Over 55 and under 70! A woman never reveals her true age!

[LisaAlexander]

Not early not late.. I was a teenager. I just can't remember why... it was like I just wanted to put on my moms underwear and I did...

[serinalynn]

I at first tried CDing in moms things when I was 11 until age 18 when I stopped completly until age 41 when I was buying my wifes lingerie. She started complaining about what I was buying for her, when I thought I 'd buy a bra and panty for me. Well, I was hooked. Now I feel compelled to Crossdress as now I have enough clothes I could dress as a woman every day. Back in January my wife and I went to Las Vegas for 4 days. all the clothes I took were womens, not one stitch of mens clothes. It was kind of cool gtting up in the mornings standind there in a bra and panty with my wife and daughter(shes 25) in their bras and pantys. Getting dressed next to them in my womens top and pants. My wife and I are going to Las Vegas again the first week in april and I'll have all womens clothes on that trip as well. My wife says "IT's fun bing a girl". Well I believe I agree with her. My shopping for nice trendy womens clothing from Lane Bryant and Catherines is getting to be an Obsession. But it's fun. The S/A's has been very helpful with their female perspective on how things will look when worn together.

[eluuzion]

I just did the calculation and I was 30 years old when I began. The economy was entering a recession, so I closed my business and returned to college to complete two more degrees (psychology & social sciences)while waiting for the rebound. I was recently married (again) at the time and just discovered my new wife was having an affair with a professor.

My story is no less complicated than any of the others. It is always unique to the individual. Mine was influenced by an extremely controlling, mentally abusive and emotional absent father figure. Also a stress-reducing sanctuary to offset/release the pressures and responsibilites that accompany the roles I was required to assume after achieving corporate and entrepreneurial career success and leadership in the business/social arena.