Steffi chats to Katie Neeves of Cool 2B Trans;

"I was assigned male at birth, based purely on my sex characteristics (as is still the established practice) and I was given the name of Martin. However, from my earliest memories at the age of around 3 or 4, my head and my heart were telling me something different to the label I had been given, as I felt the need to crossdress and this continued throughout my life. It always felt so right wearing girl’s and women’s clothes. I felt right. But then I would feel guilty about it as I knew it was socially unacceptable and afterwards, I would be consumed by feelings of guilt, disgust and self-loathing. It was a vicious cycle. I only accepted myself as a crossdresser in my mid-twenties and as soon as I accepted it, the problem disappeared. I was happy as a man who needed to crossdress for many years. I realised I had a condition called gender dysphoria which is a feeling of great unease about your head and your heart telling you are the opposite gender to the sex you were assigned at birth, however my gender dysphoria was satisfied by regular crossdressing".