Gender Dysphoria

Gender dysphoria is like COVID-19 in that people exhibit symptoms to a different degree. For some people gender dysphoria is like an itch that won’t go away, while others have to transition. I have seen both cases.

There is an old joke… “What is the difference between a crossdresser and someone who transitioned, three years.”

Just because someone didn’t transition doesn’t mean that they don’t have gender dysphoria, or just because someone de-transitioned also doesn’t mean that they don’t have gender dysphoria.

Mother Nature loves to experiment on us.

I have seen trans people that needed to transition NOW! For me I was middle of the road, I tested out the waters first. I was living female except for 8 hours at work and I was planning on transitioning when I retired but work had other plans. They shut down the factory and the day I got my pink slip I transitioned.

I went to the Gender Identity Clinic of New England (GICNE) in 2004 and started on hormones then and then in 2007 I transitioned.

Someone who came to the support group once, never crossdressed in her life wanted to get surgery immediately, GICNE turned her down saying she had to follow the Standard of Care protocols (This was in the early 2000s). She went to Thailand for her surgery, I always wondered how she is doing.

I know someone who de-transitioned and became a trans-exclusionary radical male (TERM) and tells everyone who will listen about the horrors of trans people.

I know a few people who de-transitioned; one because she couldn’t find a job and she had to move back into her parents house. The last time that I talked to “him” he said that he is having a hard time being male again. I know someone else who de-transitioned because of work and family, but she re-transitioned. In another trans person the gender dysphoria is not a driving force in their life and decided not to transition.

I think they all have gender dysphoria but it manifests in different way, in different levels of dysphoria, and they cope with it in different ways.

But then we have trans-exclusionary radical trans persons (TERT), they want to appoint themselves as gatekeepers to decide who is and who is not a trans person. For them you have to have had surgery to be trans, anything else is “Just a man in a dress.” They want to establish a pecking order, a pyramid with them on top. 

To paraphrase Smoky the Bear only you who gets to decide if you are trans or not.