A lovely wife, cute daughter and a dream job in the Marines — Matthew Avedian seemed to have it all.
But he was harbouring a huge secret.
For three decades he had lived as a man, but deep down Matthew felt he was really a woman.
In November 2012 he decided to follow his heart and started the medical procedures to become a female.
He took oestrogen for eight months, had a boob job, laser hair removal and complex surgery.
Matthew has gone from a hairy bloke to a stunning woman called Sona.
She says: “I had a great wife, a beautiful child and a well-paid job. But I could only hide so much. I was exhausted.
“All these years I’d been living a lie and I realised it was time to be true to myself.”
Sona first realised she was different when she was seven, when her mum caught her trying on her sister’s clothes.
Sona, 33, says: “Mum told me that what I was doing was wrong. I came from a deeply religious family and they found anything outside the norm hard to tolerate.
“I was devastated and felt so ashamed. I knew I wanted to be a girl, but society wouldn’t permit it.”
She vowed never to try on her sister’s clothes again and threw herself into basketball.
As a teen Sona would go to a supermarket and buy boys’ and girls’ clothes with her food shop.
She says: “Back home, I’d wedge a chair against my bedroom door and try on the clothes.
“School was tough. Skinny and effeminate, people pushed me about and called me names.”
Sona, from Texas, decided the only way to survive was to bury her feminine side and act macho, so she joined the US Marines.
To the outside world Sona was a hulking 5ft 9in, super-fit bloke. She says: “I became a macho alpha male.
“I overcompensated for my feminine side by becoming more and more manly.
“I was lifting weights six days a week and would go shooting with the lads. I thought that if I became more macho, I’d stop wanting to explore my feminine side.”
The feelings remained and Sona cross-dressed when her fellow marines weren’t around.
Sona continues: “My biggest fear was that someone would find out. So I built a ‘normal’ life.”
In 2005, Sona, then living as Matthew, wed neurologist Lucy, then 29.
Sona, who left the Marines at 23, explains: “I didn’t fancy women, but I wanted to settle down and loved Lucy deeply as a person.”
Their daughter was born in 2010. Sona says: “I’d hoped that being a father might ‘cure’ me, but it only made me feel worse.
“I wondered how I could be a good parent and teach my child how to enjoy an honest, authentic life when I was living a lie.”
The couple’s relationship suffered, especially as Matthew found it difficult to be sexually intimate with Lucy.
Finally, in November 2012, Matthew told Lucy he was a woman trapped in a man’s body.
Sona says: “We talked all night and both of us cried. By the end of the night Lucy promised to support me through my journey.”
Their daughter was one-and-a-half when she was told.
Over the next few months Sona began to transform into a woman.
She says: “I didn’t want the change to be too drastic for my daughter, so I began by wearing a girly top, then by growing my hair longer and so on. She was totally unconcerned and just pleased that Daddy was happy.”
Sona went on a diet, did yoga every day and cycled 100 miles a week.
She lost 7st, dropping to 11st 4lb, and had laser hair removal and hormone treatment plus a boob job to a 34DD.
By February 2013, Sona was living separately from Lucy and the couple divorced in the June.
Sona, who works in IT and is a semi-pro mountain biker, says: “By summer 2013, I’d lost 7st and changed beyond recognition and was happier than ever.
“The final stage in my journey will be to have a vagina made.”
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