I'm so happy that you are finding a place of feeling like your real self. My two cents on the gendering comes from my experiences as a 6'1" woman who was often called "sir" when I had shot hair - despite my D breasts, makeup, and jewelry. Now that I've grown my hair out, I never get called that anymore. My take is that a lot of people don't pay much attention and use markers of what they expect of each gender instead. Tall, confident energy with short hair must be a man; longer styled hair buying yellow striped jeans must be a woman.

I may be off base on this in your case. Clearly you weren't buying "women's" clothing at the doctor, but the hair alone may have been enough of a gender marker for most people who can't be bothered to pay attention.. Who knows, just thinking out loud and wishing you all the best.