The MANual is a personal, transgender-focused guide to male puberty, covering the physical, cultural, and social changes that arise from testosterone therapy when administered to adults. It was created for Eileen, a good friend of mine, who, at the time of this writing, was fairly early on in their experience of testosterone hormone therapy.

       We both personally found there to be a dearth of information of all the physical changes, let alone social and cultural considerations, associated with transgender masculinisation. There are extensive wikis on polyamory, attraction, and various gender identities, yet almost nothing is said about the weight of puberty and its changes. (Informing someone that “hormones are the body’s chemical messengers” tells them nothing.) The best resource a transmasculine person can find on this subject are Facebook group memes, where jokes are made about how uncontrollably horny one is after male puberty, and the immediate amount of butt hair one gets in comparison to the disappointing initial growth of beard hair.

       One discussion after another on social bike ride after another led me to offer to send them a very lengthy email  on what I know—a guide to boys’ puberty as an adult, I suppose. That initial project came to nothing… because, as I thought more and more about it, I realised how expansive of a subject   that is. I then considered creating a Google Doc, with multiple sections, then finally, a website, for the best organisation of content possible.

       One might ask why I didn’t start my own Miraheze-hosted MediaWiki, or contribute to the existing LGBTQIA+ MediaWiki. One, the content of The MANual is focused entirely on the effects of testosterone therapy and transgender masculinsation more broadly. Two, much of the content comes from my own experiences and contains my own personal opinions (take it or leave it), which may be inappropriate for a wider, community-based wiki. Three, I wanted editorial control. Four, I don’t like having to deal with Miraheze’s (understandable and absolutely reasonable) dormancy procedures. Five. I like making static websites.

       I’ve designed this website to be both Desktop- and Mobile-friendly. For those curious, the main CSS file can be found here.

       This website is proudly hosted on neocities.org.

       The chapters of this ebook (that is, practically what this website is, isn’t it?) are located on the left sidebar, if you’re using a Tablet or Desktop computer, or listed at the bottom of the page, if you are on Mobile. The navbar contains links to webpages that are supplementary to The MANual, and also contains the breadcrumb trail that shows you which webpage you are on, how you got there, and allows you to navigate backwards in your journey. You can click on the site logo at any time to return to the homepage. Everything is paginated and there is no infinite scrolling.

       Some pages, such as Ask yourself this!, contain anchor links to inline citations, listed at the bottom of the page under the References section. Most pages include a Table of Contents near the top of the page. After jumping down to an anchor link, you can return to your previous position on the page by hitting Back on your browser.

       Tables have been scripted for readability: hovering over (or tapping on Mobile) a row in a table will highlight that specific row. See Logistics for an example.

       If you scroll all the way down, you can get a full view of the background image if you are on Tablet or Desktop. Scrolling all the way down on Mobile will still give you an unobstructed view of the background, but you will not see the full landscape.

       Do I really need to outline how to navigate a static website? Perhaps not, but the coming generation of Internet users has experience only with infinite-scrolling apps. Since the demographic of this guide skews younger than my generation of the Kilobyte Age, I figured a guide to using this guide might be in order…

       My name is Akihiko. I’m a current resident of Minneapolis, which I have made my hometown, and I get around the city and surrounding areas primarily by Gazelle e-bicycle (pedal assist available, no throttle). I like dancing, including with devil sticks, painting, Chinese calligraphy and Spencerian penmanship, Polish sabre, volunteering at my local neighbourhood organisations, and natural wines and spirits. I grow tomatoes on my balcony, and the quickest way to my heart is through my stomach (I suggest Timmermans lambic ale from southwest Belgium, made with cherry and black pepper). I was an apprentice butcher in California, and my first ever job was in commercial game development.

       I began testosterone therapy in 2019 July, at the age of 23. For a time after that, I formerly identified as non-binary and experimented with neopronouns, but I have since settled comfortably into a masculine identity, complemented by my feminine partner in a largely traditional (old-fashioned, old-school) gendered relationship dynamic. I suppose perhaps “technically” I am still non-binary, but after having committed to a long-term monogamous relationship (I am happily engaged), I do not bother to identify publicly as such, as it has no concern or relevance to parties who are not intimate with me. I am happily engaged, and my fiancée and I both wish to raise a family some day. I also swim, skateboard, and rehab orphaned baby squirrels.

       One of the nice things about making The MANual a personal website, instead of a community wiki, is that I can tell you that I like to swim, skateboard, and rehab orphaned baby squirrels.

• I don’t bombard you with advertisements.
• I don’t track you and sell data about you to advertisers. (You really don’t need to max out your credit card.)
• I can include hyperlinks to other webpages, images, and other documents.
• I can show off my taste in fonts.
• I can customise exactly how my website looks and is structured, without platform restrictions.
• I can easily update, change, modify, and restructure things as needed.
• I can show you a baby squirrel.