Just so you know I haven't abandoned this thread. The answers are wonderful and I appreciate them and letting this take it's own course. It looks like the members compliment each other with their different approaches.
The biggest difficulty I see with gender issues is the "pink fog" and "romanticizing" (thanks KellyCan) the thought of being TS. There are quite a few parallels between the MTF groupings as far as "symptoms", such as starting at a young age, feeling different, playing with the girls instead of boys, depression, anxiety, dressing as a female, etc. So one can easily say or think "Hey that's me!"
I also don't believe anybody that says everything went wonderful through their whole transition. It sends the wrong message and is not helping anybody.
