It sounds like a great start. But I hope that they also accept MtF detransitioners (or is it better to write it as mtftm?) in later conferences. I realize there may be more women detransitioning from living as men, but the other side of that coin should not be ignored just because they aren't as common

Alright, here's my thoughts on your questions, followed by my general thoughts on the idea of transgender and transition.

1. Absolutely. Whatever makes you comfortable. I know some people who are a little sad/regretful about not being able to change everything, but they are happy with what they have. 

2. I define ethics as what a society agrees upon, and morals as what an individual decides. So it being ethically wrong/not wrong would depend upon your community. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with doing the things that help you stay sane. Lots of people have told me that you should always welcome your family, but staying in contact with my biological sister puts my mental health at risk. So I maintain no contact with her. If you're roughly 25 or older then taking hormones just means that you're basically a post menopausal woman - medically speaking. You'd need to take hormones for the rest of your life, and would need mammograms to screen for cancer. The only big difference is that you would also need colonoscopies once you hit that age - if you're biologically male. (I don't know all the details, but the "post menopausal woman" comes from a family member who is a medical professional and has been actively working in the field since the 70s - and yes, she keeps up with the research and new information)

3. That's a good therapy question. My take on it (keep in mind that I know basically nothing about you) is that you shouldn't worry about it too much. Just roll with it: take inspiration where you can get it.

4. I can't really offer much here. There are some people for whom it is the right answer, and that's why they "hold on to it". But for some people it's more like they need to feel special, or like they were told that it was the right answer, and they "hold on to it" more out of fear. How to figure out which one you are? Introspection, lots and lots of introspection. Probably some therapy too.

5. Depends on what you mean by healthy. If you mean "not taking hormones and not getting surgeries" then you'd probably have to find a way to channel that energy into something else, and maybe cross dressing. If you mean "no surgery" then hormones and cross dressing. If you just mean doing hormones and surgery safely, then you'd have to make sure to review the doctors you see to make sure they're on the level, and you'd have to get the hormones from a licensed distributer/pharmacy.

6. Genetic mutation comes to mind. There's this thing where some women have the XY chromosomes, but they are otherwise biologically female. Ovaries and everything. Most of them can't get pregnant and that's how they find out, but some can even get pregnant. So theoretically something like that could lead to someone who is genetically one sex, but biologically another. Thus they could end up feeling like they're in the wrong body. And again, sometimes transition actually is the right answer.

7. Again, I believe that morals are a personal thing. So you kinda have to figure this one out yourself. I also believe that if you're not harming someone else, then knock yourself out. And sometimes in order to not harm someone else you have to not let them be part of the process.

I believe that transgender is a real thing, that there are people for whom the only right answer is to transition. There are degrees of transition. So some people just need to dress in a feminine way to feel better, but some need to go as far as science and medicine will take them. I also believe that being transgender is not particularly common at all. I've met two people from whom transition was the right answer. I've met many more for whom it just wasn't working out, and it seemed like there were many other issues at play. I also think there should be more oversight regarding children, and young adults who are fully done growing yet (20-25 ish). In another five or so years there will be better data on the effects of starting the transitional hormones at those ages, but there's already solid data on starting hormones later.

This. You can say something like "I think this is wrong/not the best choice" but it should be followed up with something to the effect of "but it's your life, and I care about for who you are not what you like".

You shouldn't have to pretend to be totally fine with something your friend is doing just to remain friends with them, but it's not your job to "win them over" either. Unless you're a shallow person, you like your friends for who they are, not what they look like. So something like this shouldn't matter. If they go through something and their personality completely changes, then maybe it's time to let the friendship go.

I bought into a lot of the hype because I know someone who transitioned in their late 50s. This person has flashbacks to when they heard close friends talk about beating a trans person to death, and having to pretend like they weren't affected. This person has been living as the opposite sex for about 10 years, and they no longer struggle with major depression. They are most definitely happier now, and I've noticed none of the negative personality traits that are common. About the only negative I've noticed is that they have bought the propaganda whole heartedly. But I can hardly blame them because they are not internet savvy (can't find the articles that go against the party line), and they really needed this to stay alive so they believe that everyone else is the same way (humans believe that others are like themself). But I do not consider this person transgender. They are a transsexual. I say this because this person believes in the gender binary, just needed to be on the other side from where they were born (they do believe in "other" but not the continuum with "an unknown number" that many talk about).

I have learned that people like this are very rare. I think that most people who claim to be "trans" suffer from dissociation and/or chronic pain. I have to deal with both, and I thought that I might be trans masculine. But I did come to realize that I felt a certain amount of social pressure (I was dating a trans woman, and living with three trans individuals), and that because of pain and PTSD I didn't feel like my body was right. I decided that gender is absolutely meaningless without societal contexts, and have been able to focus on my mental health because of this. Although, I have to wonder if part of why this is happening now (trans kinda being a fad) is because cultural awareness is being pushed in the same areas, and there is generally more cultural diversity in those areas, so maybe there's a lot of confusion about what is expected of male and female roles per cultural standards.

Tl;dr yes, I think a lot of people are trying to solve psychological problems by changing their bodies.

P.s. I used gender neutral terms to more fully protect that person's identity

I think you missed the point. It seems like OP is saying that when MtFtM do share their stories they are met with cold shoulders. So those that lurk are disinclined to share their stories because they have seen how poor the response is. The community should respond with support no matter the biological sex of the person who posted here. If every time someone posted a story that was similar to yours, they got basically no support and the comments seemed to have the intent to make the posters feel bad, would you share your story? Cause I sure as hell wouldn't. I have no interest in sharing my story when all evidence I has indicates that I will treated with scorn for it. So don't blame the MtFtM folks (or the questioning MtF folks) for not sharing their stories here more frequently. And if you do consistently show support when those folks post here, then keep doing what you do and move on

Seriously, look into trauma informed mental healthcare. Body dysphoria is common manifestation of dissociation, which is one of the most common symptoms of C-PTSD (complex trauma isn't in the DSM or codes for billing yet, but as more research comes out it looks more and more like PTSD as defined isn't a thing). I think dissociation is even more common than reliving the trauma. At this point, I would say do just about whatever you have to, to get mental healthcare

Personally I hate that "bad experiences" are justification to hate men. But when turned around it makes you more misogynistic if your reason for distancing yourself from, or being aggressive towards, women is "bad experiences". That is a clear and blatant double standard, and it stands in the way of true equality. It should not be accepted and excused as the norm. It should be seen as understandable on both sides (let's face, that's kinda just how humans are hardwired), but that everyone should be striving to overcome this understandable response. Again, this goes for men and women. Men are already told this in some spaces, but in my experience women always get a pass if they treat men like shit because of their own bad experiences

I tracked down the original source of the that "50%", it's from a report titled "Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey" and it was published in 2011. Most of the respondents were 25-44 years old. So the information is seriously out dated now. I mean, for crying out loud, they define cross dressers as Transgender! The community has since torn itself apart over shit like that, and gender nonconforming is no longer under the "trans umbrella".

Just because the study was well conducted does not mean they used good sources! (The report was used as a source for the study that OP found that sentence in)

I spent some time doing serious introspection, and looking at the non-binary resources (this was almost 5 years ago, so it's probably different now). Those resources were the ones talking the most about how gender is a social construct. There may be some inherent differences in the way male and female (sex not gender) brains work, but those do not account for the vast differences in gender roles. In my experience, most of what people reference when they talk about what makes them feel masculine/feminine comes down to the gender roles of the society they live in. So I accepted, and embraced the idea that gender is a social construct and therefore does not matter. That helped with the more psychological aspect.

Through the introspection I realized that my feminine shape is what bothered me physically. I'm shaped like the Venus statue, but with bigger boobs. I used to wear baggy shirts in high school, and I still slouch to this day. Through introspection I realized that I was criticized by family any time I dressed in a way that showed off my figure - skirts and dresses were fine if they didn't look good on my. So I was able to realize that my body dysphoria came from how people I cared about/respected on some level talked about my feminine body. I also had the realization that because I was molested by a female family member, I made the connection (when it happened) that it must have had something to do with my female shape. So I spent a long time trying to hide what I thought was quintessentially female about me: my breasts. Now I have bad posture out of habit, although standing up straight in front of a mirror still makes me uncomfortable.

So to answer your question, I think it's mostly possible. I learned to accept my body, even if it still makes me uncomfortable sometimes. But I also think most people experience body dysphoria to some degree. It's what drives most eating disorders, I think it drives self esteem issues that relate to physical appearance, and I think it's the reason that people go to the gym, or get plastic surgery (in many cases, some people do those things purely for health reasons). Speaking of plastic surgery, a breast reduction might be worth looking into

So here's the result of my struggles with gender. Gender is social. Excepting body parts, which can be classified as biological sex, what people talk about when they feel one gender or another are social norms/stereotypes. So, it doesn't matter what other people think, it matters how I feel. I'm not physically comfortable with my body. This discomfort is read by others as "vaguely creepy/standoffish". If I were more uncomfortable with my body, it would be read as more definitively "creepy/standoffish/aggressive". But as far as my gender goes, I really, genuinely do not care. If people read me as male and act accordingly, great. If people read me as female and act accordingly, great. I try to be more comfortable with myself, so that others are comfortable around me.

At this stage in my life, I cannot hide my physically feminine features. The military taught me how to walk like a woman (seriously, learn to march correctly with a 1-2" heel and that's how to walk like a woman) and my breasts didn't stop growing until I was 25 or so. But before that shit, I wore more androgynous clothing that I was actually comfortable in, and let people deal with me how they were comfortable with. Sometimes I wore a baggy men's T-shirt and men's Tripps, other times I wore a flattering dress. So that might work for you.

I guess the main (tl;dr) point is, figure out what you're comfortable with and go from there.