Gender Dysphoria: New Medical Term For Transgenders

[Guest LizMarie]

Gender Dysphoria: New Medical Term For Transgenders

A very positive article about the upcoming changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

[JenniferB]

Interesting. I like most of the article, but the author is plain wrong about GRS. I think her mistrust of having surgery is clouding her judgment.

Male to female post-op transsexuals after surgery find that they can no longer have an orgasm, they are at high risk for infections at any given time, they have to keep the manufactured vagina penetrated with a steel vibrator or else their manmade vagina can close up, and the straight men that they date can tell that it is not a real vagina.

no orgasm? steel vibrator?

Once people undergo the sex change surgery their bodies no longer produce natural hormones, so they are forced to live a life on synthetic hormones leading to even more complications, since synthetic hormones aren't as healthy as natural hormones.

I've never seen any study on this either. Also if you are on HRT, you are automatically taking synthetic, or non-human hormones.

Post-op transsexuals are the highest risk for mental health issues and crisis which is why I have done my research on it and decided that it was not a step I was willing to take.

Actually, I believe almost all post-op transsexuals have no regrets.

Jenny

[Carolyn Marie]

The author is entitled to her opinions, but they are just that, her opinions. Just because she gets published and she's a model and whatever, doesn't make her an expert on anything. So she knows a lot of post ops. So do I, and I have yet to run into one that was sorry they went through it. So who is right, me or her? Her friends or mine? Who cares??

Anyway, thanks for posting the article, LizMarie.

Carolyn Marie

[Guest DanD]

i dont care about what their opinions are, and i also dont care if they want to call it gender dysphoria or not, or whatever other label they can invent from latin or greek or stupidity. I am what I am. People on the outside looking in are just observers; guessing what we feel like, what we want, and what we are. and they give us labels.

mental disorders are merely anything that is outside the Norm. Norm, is what the majority of people are in a society.

cannibals are abnormal here, but might be perfectly normal elsewhere.

you shouldnt worry what other people say and think so much, it would drive you too crazy, IMO.

You'll never make all of them happy, so do whatever you have to to make your life better for yourself. It isnt doing anything harmful to others, its none of their business. Learned to have that attitude prior to starting hormones.

Everyone else does whatever they feel like and they dont ask you or me for thier approval or acceptance or opinion, so why do we worry about it so much? We didnt do anything to deserve any of this.

If they call it a mental illness, then our insurances should be very willing to do whatever we have to do to treat it, or cure it.

We can argue semantics about it..is it the brain thats wrong or the body thats wrong, you cant just take the brain out of the body and switch it with another, so hardly any point in debating it. We can do some things to the body however, to make it a little better for us.

I get really annoys with those psych professors who insist we have some kind of amputee fetish thing going on, i dont have any special findness of medications or surgeries., in fact they kind of scare the heck out of me, but sometimes you're stuck with what options are available and you make a decision. as for those who just our ethics or status with God, its not their business either, believe me, ive had many long talks with God about this whole thing, and especially the night before my surgeries. Sometimes he leaves things in our hands to deal with. its just the way it is sometimes. The complaint line is long, dont waste life sitting in it and whining till you die. well thats my 2 cents.

[Guest KimberlyF]

All I needed to read about the author can be demonstraded in the piece:

On a personal level, I have lived my transgender lifestyle for 20 years

And of course there is this confusion for me as for what is sched to be in the new DSM:

http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=189

This group still has a disorder, but they're TG's right?

[Guest DanD]

well you know, i assume, that the DSM book thing was only invented so they could have code numbers to use to bill insurance companies with. They dont get paid if they dont have one of those, but alot of people who would see a therapist dont have anything especially "wrong"about them, other than they need to talk to someone to sort some things out, and its alot better than some highly subjective friend, who would probably blab it to the rest of your social circle anyway. dont need that, need someone you can really trust, and who is somewhat impartial and know about alot of these things, whatever they are that you're tying to work out.

They add new things to the DSM all the time, as they can think of them to add. some things dont make sense.

Like, they took out homosexuality, but GID it says one of its phrases is, "pre-homosexuality", which is kind of ignorant of the gender issue. If youre gay they cant just use the homosexulity thing, so they have to say some other reason why youre there.

if they take out trans stuff theyd have to put some other thing in there. i dont know why they just cant write, that the client is troubled by profound unhappiness, and leave it at that. like i told a shrink once, I dont like the word depression because it sounds like a BAD thing, i prefer to call it sadness. Sometimes, i feel okay when i am feeling sadness, it might inspire me to write a poem or song or draw a picture, it sort of feeds that kind of thing in myself.

I reminded of Ren and Stimpy, and an episode that was Both funny and deep.

Putting a happy helmet on someone is probably unethical, some people are, "happy being miserable".

as Kurt Cobain put it, "I miss the comfort in being sad."

doubt most would see what im saying or get it, or agree. and thats okay too.

[Guest eyzik20]

I liked the beginning of the article, I didn't like the end. It may be her internalized transphobia (which can happen to us) or just what she's seen. To me it doesn't matter, she's not qualified to make any clinical conclusions or allegations because she doesn't have the degrees to do so. It's her experience and just that. We each live different lives and see and experience things differently. I don't know many mtfs personally but the one friend I do have is ecstatic over her final step in transition, my post of male friends (post top surgery) are ecstatic as well. For the folks I know surgery has been the door to a freedom they never had before. Myself included. If it weren't for the fact I'm not fond of the current options for ftm bottom surgery I would get it. If they ever perfect penis transplantation I would highly consider it. But for me to be boob free is good enough for me for now. A packer is all I want for now (when I have the money to get the one I want)

I'm assuming from the way the article was written that once we transition we will no longer be considered mentally ill for reasons of gender identity. Which is awesome. It will open so many more doors for us. But again I would like to see an article on this subject from a more reliable source (ie medical community, well reputed news sources, etc.). The personal bias inserted in the end was not necessary for an article's purpose of informing the reader of the subject matter. If the end was supported by medical studies I would say go for it, put it in there. But until then, personal ideals-save it for you blog, friends, journal. Just MY opinion. Don't want my opinion to be considered fact.

-Isaak