[EvaMarie]

Pansy, here is how a member from another board described the theory (paraphrased)


The brain is hard-wired to interpret dressing as actual contact with a female.Cross-dressing causes your brain to release a host of neurotransmitters which produce the sensations of well-being, pleasure, gratification and bonding associated with "contact with a female". These important neurotransmitters associated with sex include dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin.
Sensations of euphoria are associated with dopamine. Dopamine is very interesting and important in sex. It is the driver an it gives us compulsive behavior, the expectation of gratification, and pleasure.


Makes a lot of sense to me...

The makes sense to me, too, but I want to understand the difference between cisgender males who like to crossdress, and transgender males who llke to crossdress.

Clara

Testosterone and the lack of it might explain the difference???

I also think "passability" might play a role too As in the more masculine the more CD'ing would be the limit of fem gender expression... And the more realistic the prospect of passing as female the more towards the TS side it might go....

Also financial concerns, age and prior commitments (kids, marriage, ect) certainly figure in there... I have CD friends that tell me they wish they could do what Im doing but they "cant" for all of the above reasons....

I do like that theory because It makes sense to me and describes my own feelings and experiences rather well

[Samantha Rogers]

Pansy, here is how a member from another board described the theory (paraphrased)


The brain is hard-wired to interpret dressing as actual contact with a female.Cross-dressing causes your brain to release a host of neurotransmitters which produce the sensations of well-being, pleasure, gratification and bonding associated with "contact with a female". These important neurotransmitters associated with sex include dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin.
Sensations of euphoria are associated with dopamine. Dopamine is very interesting and important in sex. It is the driver an it gives us compulsive behavior, the expectation of gratification, and pleasure.


Makes a lot of sense to me...

The makes sense to me, too, but I want to understand the difference between cisgender males who like to crossdress, and transgender males who llke to crossdress.

Clara

Testosterone and the lack of it might explain the difference???

I also think "passability" might play a role too As in the more masculine the more CD'ing would be the limit of fem gender expression... And the more realistic the prospect of passing as female the more towards the TS side it might go....

Also financial concerns, age and prior commitments (kids, marriage, ect) certainly figure in there... I have CD friends that tell me they wish they could do what Im doing but they "cant" for all of the above reasons....

I do like that theory because It makes sense to me and describes my own feelings and experiences rather well

Eva, nice to see you back, honey! Now get off the stick and agree to come to Atlanta! LOL
But, in ref to the thread...tee hee...let us remember that the three dimensional spectrum of GID is all over the place from one individual to another. And there is no answer yet on exactly how or why this is the case.
Yes, the euphoria level in CD is extremely high. As a result many who are really good candidates, for a variety of reasons, for nothing more than a lifetime of CD, sometimes feel a pull toward full on TS, up to and including SRS.
The thing is, though, that that path is not right for all, and stories of those who went a step too far are many.
What complicates matters is life itself, right? For one girl life circumstances may allow for full transition but she may not really want that. In other cases a girl may desperately need full transition but life circumstances may make it totally impossible. And every kind of situation in between.
On another board I frequent, where a lot of girls are indeed transitioning, and many are 24/7, the conventional wisdom is that you switch when you absolutely must...when the only choice remaining is switching or dying. I have heard that echoed so many times. "Passing" in those cases was hardly the issue. The difficulties involved in a total switch can be massive, and unexpected. For most girls, the tradeoffs are too extreme.
But who knows?
Ten years ago the prevailing wisdom was that there were exactly two kinds of TG...those who just dress and those who will have SRS. Today that thought is totally debunked and the complexities of all this are finally being explored. The most difficult part is sorting out for each of us, where we fit and which issues we face are part of the GID and which just part of life. That last bit...thats the rub. Especially when for some, getting "dressed" is really just an escape from an unhappy life in the first place.

[GoneGirl]

A cismale, by definition, is not transgender. But, do we agree there are cismales who like to crossdress? I think the vast diversity of human sexual identity includes such people. Are they a significant percentage, even a majority of crossdressers? Maybe. It's not an easy question to answer. How does a crossdresser know that he is or is not gender variant? I suspect that many, like myself, don't discover that aspect of their nature for many years. Our GD doesn't necessarily yell out, "I'm a woman! Help me escape!"

Late transitioners, like myself, were conscious of being male for years, but also harbored a subconscious female gender identity that challenged that sense of manhood incessantly. The consequence of suppressing the expression of the female identity is gender dysphoria -- GD. How the GD manifests itself is as different as each individual is from one another. The only thing we can say that is common across all gender dysphorics, is that their symptoms are not pleasant; they do not bring contentment; they are by nature mentally and physically destructive.

There may be millions of claimants to cis manhood out there that are struggling with a subconscious female gender id and don't realize it. Crossdressing may be just another manifestation of the psychological trauma that follows the subconscious rejection of that part of one's psyche. Physiologically, GD it's what happens when the prenatal female brain, denied sufficient testosterone in the womb to align itself with the chromosomal sex of the child, is now deprived of estrogen.

Many crossdressers who seek treatment (e.g., at the insistence of their partners), and who are gender-variant, find relief from their GD when given estrogen. They often stop crossdressing, if the crossdressing was, at least in part, a manifestation of their GD. Cismales will experience more mental anxiety in response to taking estrogen. Their crossdressing habits are based on sexual fetish, not gender dysphoria.

Clara

[EvaMarie]

Pansy, here is how a member from another board described the theory (paraphrased)


The brain is hard-wired to interpret dressing as actual contact with a female.Cross-dressing causes your brain to release a host of neurotransmitters which produce the sensations of well-being, pleasure, gratification and bonding associated with "contact with a female". These important neurotransmitters associated with sex include dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin.
Sensations of euphoria are associated with dopamine. Dopamine is very interesting and important in sex. It is the driver an it gives us compulsive behavior, the expectation of gratification, and pleasure.


Makes a lot of sense to me...

The makes sense to me, too, but I want to understand the difference between cisgender males who like to crossdress, and transgender males who llke to crossdress.

Clara

Testosterone and the lack of it might explain the difference???

I also think "passability" might play a role too As in the more masculine the more CD'ing would be the limit of fem gender expression... And the more realistic the prospect of passing as female the more towards the TS side it might go....

Also financial concerns, age and prior commitments (kids, marriage, ect) certainly figure in there... I have CD friends that tell me they wish they could do what Im doing but they "cant" for all of the above reasons....

I do like that theory because It makes sense to me and describes my own feelings and experiences rather well

Eva, nice to see you back, honey! Now get off the stick and agree to come to Atlanta! LOL
But, in ref to the thread...tee hee...let us remember that the three dimensional spectrum of GID is all over the place from one individual to another. And there is no answer yet on exactly how or why this is the case.
Yes, the euphoria level in CD is extremely high. As a result many who are really good candidates, for a variety of reasons, for nothing more than a lifetime of CD, sometimes feel a pull toward full on TS, up to and including SRS.
The thing is, though, that that path is not right for all, and stories of those who went a step too far are many.
What complicates matters is life itself, right? For one girl life circumstances may allow for full transition but she may not really want that. In other cases a girl may desperately need full transition but life circumstances may make it totally impossible. And every kind of situation in between.
On another board I frequent, where a lot of girls are indeed transitioning, and many are 24/7, the conventional wisdom is that you switch when you absolutely must...when the only choice remaining is switching or dying. I have heard that echoed so many times. "Passing" in those cases was hardly the issue. The difficulties involved in a total switch can be massive, and unexpected. For most girls, the tradeoffs are too extreme.
But who knows?
Ten years ago the prevailing wisdom was that there were exactly two kinds of TG...those who just dress and those who will have SRS. Today that thought is totally debunked and the complexities of all this are finally being explored. The most difficult part is sorting out for each of us, where we fit and which issues we face are part of the GID and which just part of life. That last bit...thats the rub. Especially when for some, getting "dressed" is really just an escape from an unhappy life in the first place.

I wish I could commit to going Sammie but the fact is this is all costing me a TON of $$$ already and I have a LONG way to go yet and a lot of plans.... My goal is to start working any job I can get as a woman soon just to get out of the house and connect with the world as me and start really living as a female... Oh yea and earning little bit of $$$ sure would be nice, (as Im sure you know there is nothing cheap about being a woman) Not gonna be easy but it will happen in time... That said I wont rule out going to SC completely yet either

I think we are in a rapidly changing world and things for TG people will only get better from here.... In past times I could see having that "avoid transition if you possibly can" attitude, but all I can say is the past is gone and life is to short to waste it living a lie