Transgender people suffer from a condition known as Gender Dysphoria. They have a need to live as the gender opposite to that assigned at birth, and — sometimes — physically alter their bodies through the use of hormone therapy and/or gender reassignment surgery.
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Transgender people are also known as Transsexuals. Transgender people can be Female to Male (FTM) or Male to Female (MTF). Some, by choice, remain inbetween the genders and are called Genderqueer.
How do I tell if I’m gender dysphoric?
This is a difficult question to answer, even more difficult to explain to others.
When your internal gender doesn’t match your outside — the gender role you’re forced into based on whether you have a penis or a vagina — you could be said to be suffering from Gender Dysphoria. Here’s where your initial difficulties will begin:
- How do you explain how you feel?
- How do you prove you are telling the truth?
- How do you even know you’re right?
The people you speak to will pose a number of questions to you, including:
- How do you know you are transgendered?
- Is this just a phase?
- How long have you felt this way?
What do I do? I know how I feel!
There are several different ways to go when you’re in this position.
- First, is you can try your best to stay physically as you are, deny your feelings and try your best to get on with life.
- Second, you can try to find a middle-ground while you process what you feel. This may or may not lead to the third option.
- Third, you can approach experienced counsellors, psychologists and psychiatrists with a view to receiving hormone treatment, and if you still need it, surgery to alter your body.
Stay as you are
You may choose to take this route because you’re forced to by circumstance (family, environment, etc), if you have a religious objection to Transgendered people, or any of a number of other reasons.
Some people are able to live this way, and some people are not. However, staying as you are is a denial of your basic nature and will be very hard work if you really are Gender Dysphoric.
People who repress their own nature suffer in different ways, and this suffering sometimes comes out as:
- depression
- anger
- regret
…or other responses.
The other issue is that you could very well be living a lie, and this will have repercussions later in life.
Find a middle-ground
Finding a middle-ground is a good alternative to straight-out denial, and will give you time to find out if altering your body dramatically is really what you want.
The middle ground is viable because, despite what you may understand of gender, it is not one extreme or another, not male or female and nothing else. Gender is a spectrum and doesn’t have to restrict you to one behaviour pattern or another.
And many people live in the middle-ground. Some really are Transgendered, but aren’t prepared (or financially unable) to alter their bodies through surgery. Some don’t identify as purely male or female. They’re called Genderqueer, Gender Pirates, Gender Fucked or Gender Diverse (and a multitude of other similar terms).
Genderqueer is somewhere you can rest to discover your true nature. Then, if you do want to undergo hormone treatment and eventually surgery, you can.
Seek to alter your body
If you’ve made the decision, after careful thought, to go through with hormone therapy and eventual surgery, you must undergo psychiatric assessment.
The first stage is to obtain hormone therapy, which will alter your secondary gender characteristics (voice, body structure, etc).
There are three things to bear in mind with altering your body:
- First, Gender Reassignment Surgery is irreversible, and will ONLY change your genitalia and your body. It is NOT a magic pill that will make all your problems go away.
- Second, Gender Reassignment Surgery is hideously expensive.
- Third, Gender Reassignment Surgery carries a measure of risk, especially for those seeking to change their bodies to male.
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