All I will say is that you should take whatever steps you can towards transition, especially getting on hormones (doubly so if it turns out they help your mental health, which is common).

You don't have to socially transition immediately, and it is smart to pay attention to locker room interactions, etc.

You might also need to recognize the trans stuff won't go away and it is worth considering that when charting the course of your life - maybe consider a career change, make concrete plans that allow you to transition.

Be smart and aim for your well being, you don't have to make any drastic or immediate changes - but be persistent in making changes in the right direction and investing in your well-being.

If the dysphoria is too much to handle and progress is too slow, you might have to take more drastic changes - but you will probably always have wished you went on hormones earlier, so my advice to anyone is to start HRT as soon as possible.

In my experience, living as a man socially was easier to bear than being in a male body and having large amounts of testosterone coursing through my body, ruining my brain, etc. Some of the urgency of transition might be stemmed by alleviating enough of the dysphoria with HRT.

I wish we could culturally come to a place of recognizing that HRT is not the big or final step, or even a permanent commitment, but instead it should be the first step, a diagnostic step, and recognize it as the very low-risk and low-cost step it is.

And it doesn't require you take everything on at once - I know people IRL that have stayed on HRT for years and haven't socially transitioned, who live and work in conservative places.

Anyway, the U.S. is still objectively one of the best places in the world to be trans, we enjoy greater rights and greater access to gender affirming care than in most other countries. Yes, there is a trans moral panic right now, yes we are a scapegoat of a far-right administration that increasingly disregards the rule of law and the constitution, but for now trans healthcare is intact for adults and they haven't succeeded in criminalizing us yet.

And we have to remember that until very recently it was much worse than this, trans people continued to exist and transition even in the 1970s in the U.S. when most jurisdictions had laws on the books that criminalized "crossdressing".,

Like I said, the trans stuff won't go away - so it's best to recognize the reality of the situation and take steps to secure our well-being.

also, advice is welcome, just had to get some of that out there.

Hey OP! I transitioned later in life, early 30s and people only really noticed after about 1 year. I never changed my pronouns at work and have never mentioned it or confirmed/denied anything. You don't owe people any explanation. You do owe yourself this, if it's what you really want. Do not let your "career" stop you from being who you want to be for years, that's just my conclusion. I'm gonna die soon, and like waiting for some nebulous time in the future when my transition would be perfect would be playing into their game. Screw them, and their norms. We are gonna show people that you can do this, be a kind soul, and still crush work. I just back off on the social things like I still go by masc. pronouns at work and dress masc, even with tits lol. I just wear sports bras and use the men's room still.

Best of luck! My advice: don't wait