[hoselover]

My experience is similar.

There's been a lot of research on this in the Netherlands over the last decades. Professor Swaab
http://www.breastnexus.com/showthread.php?tid=8419&pid=34832#pid34832
is convinced that gender identity is fixed before birth, by exposure to sex hormones in the uterus. A transgender or transsexual identity is a consequence of a change in sex hormones or medication between the differentiation of the genitals, in the first trimester of pregnancy, and the sex differentiation of the brain, much later in pregnancy.

I don't think he has really looked into changes in gender identity later in life, as a consequence of either hormones or herbs. But he's positive that gender identity is largely fixed before birth.

Dressing away from your gender identity is associated with emotional upsets, either as a cause or as a consequence. Cross dressing is often the result of humiliation or an emotional crisis. It can also be the cause of sexual excitement. Paul Vennix found in 1997 that the degree of gender transposition (how far you dress away from your gender identity) is related to the strength of the emotion. Unfortunately, this was only published in Dutch:
http://www.eburon.nl/travestie_in_nederland_en_vlaanderen

I agree with Pansy Mae: if you want to get any work done, dress as close as possible to your gender identity. For me, that's ladies' jeans and sneakers, polo shirt, long hair and nails, and clearly visible breasts and curves.

For public appearances, I sometimes need to dress away from my gender identity, either way. And be prepared to spend some time dealing with the emotional consequences. Sometimes, they're nice while they last (party time), sometimes they're horrible. I too tremble when I look at my old men's suits. But just as well when I look at my old drag outfits: how on earth did I ever manage to pull this off in public?

Indeed I have wondered sometimes if my trangerderism comes from medicines my mother took after she had some miscarriages. With medicines she became pregnant. She told some about it but I have never asked what she took and now she is passed away.

But what is dressing away form your gender identity? If I was transgender and also liked to crossdress, it is not dressing away from my gi. It is more dressing away from my actual performance to the world as male. Or did you mean something else?

Crossdressing caused by emotional upsets? Could easily be as in the time I started (around 12-13) I had a dad with severe depressions and neurotic abnormal behaviour leading to loosing his job and also to laughter of the outerworld.

BTW, I think I contributed also to the research of Paul Vennix as I filled out an extensive quiestionnaire.