Hi Tea-cake,
First I'll start with what matters most to "me" in a relationship...... ......What I wanted from the begining most in our relationship was HONESTY, truth and honesty from the begining (which I "thought" that we were "both" being honest from the start, I know that "I" was), to me that is a solid foundation to build a healthy relationship. I feel as though, when you have both of these, that "trust" is developed, but once trust has been shattered, it is very hard to gain trust once again, if it "ever" can be gained back again (that is what my husband and I are working on now).
Well, when my husband first told me of his CDing, our relationship was at a breaking point, I was at the point that I had enough of the lies

and deceit over the years. We went away for the weekend (to see a music concert) that we had planned for months in advance (no children, just us). It was then, once we got to the hotel, we unpacked our bags, we were watching television and we each had a glass of champane, then we began talking to each other about our relationship a bit, my husband told me that there was something that he has been wanting to tell me, he began to shake, he almost backed out of telling me, but I kept telling him, "I'm your wife, and I love you, you can tell me anything, I love you unconditionally. So, then he did, he said, that he like to wear the same clothes that I do, that he really like how the feel and stuff
I wasn't really sure what this all really meant, I never knew much about CDing, All I ever really knew was what I saw on television (Jerry Springer), and that scared the he** out of me, my first question to him was, "Are you gay"?, which he answered, "No". My second question was, do you want to "be" a woman", he said "No, I'm a guy, I just like to wear the clothes once in a while, men's clothes are boring". We talked for many hours that night, had a great time at the concert and then went back home.
I began to think that he would eventually want to leave us (his family) to have some other life (I thought that was the reason he told me this), because he "wanted" to lead a new life without us (the kids and I).
My husband did answer what questions I had, that he could, but I needed more information, I wanted to know everything there was to know about CDing, so I could decide if this is something that we could work out. I felt since I wasn't given any choice to decide before we were married, that it would be "my" choice now, I didn't want to wait for years to go by to discover new things and learn as time went by (I'm not getting any younger....lol), so I went to the internet, most of the sites that I found were very scary (for a wife/gf of a CD). I found a CD chat room, I began chatting with many CDs, some were very helpful, while others scared me, some told me things that made me doubt my husband even more. I asked my husband questions about the different things that I learned about (remember, this was all new to me) but since he has lied so many times before, it was hard to believe that he was "now" telling the truth to me. But as time goes by, it gets a little better (I think

)
One thing that I would recommend is, before you tell your girl friend, try to have the answers ready for the questions she may have, "you" do the research, it shouldn't be too difficult, because I think that most wives/gf's, ask pretty much the same questions. I wish that my husband did that for me, instead of me looking myself and finding some very scary things, once those scary things get in your head, it's very hard to get those thoughts out. All my husband supplied me with was, a page he printed out from the internet, "the benifits of having a husband for a CD", ( that was not really the information that "I" wanted/needed at the time.
When you do tell your girfriend, be prepared to be up talking for hours (women can talk about things forever, at least I can

)
I hope this has helped you a little
Good luck,
Love (SO)