Annie, I could have written what you did myself. I have had moments of deeply emotional trauma in the recent past mourning for all that was missed and the opportunities lost forever. But I also realize it was also a life with much good. It is what it is, the cards we were dealt. Now we play these last hands with that much more intent to make the most of what is left before the shoe is empty, don't we?

Hugs
Sammie

Yes, we (I hope I may speak for you and Clara too) must be for ever grateful that whatever we missed, we were fortunate as well and not always too late for everything, and that we can look forward to what is still to come

Annie, I could have written what you did myself. I have had moments of deeply emotional trauma in the recent past mourning for all that was missed and the opportunities lost forever. But I also realize it was also a life with much good. It is what it is, the cards we were dealt. Now we play these last hands with that much more intent to make the most of what is left before the shoe is empty, don't we?

Hugs
Sammie

Yes, we (I hope I may speak for you and Clara too) must be for ever grateful that whatever we missed, we were fortunate as well and not always too late for everything, and that we can look forward to what is still to come

Annie, I expressed those very thoughts in an e-mail to my mother this morning. So very true.

Clara

I went to my psychiatrist last week and came out to him. He was so uninformed about gender issues and unprepared for what I had to say tht he started flipping through the dsm mid session. After listening to me say I felt I was a girl and say I cried nearly every morning when I looked in the mirror and saw nothing more than a prison, he called his supervisor who then googled transgender. 15 minutes later I was diagnosed with gid. Im now in the process of transferring to another facility, one with people trained and educated about gender issues and transgender treatment.

Karina, honey, you did the right thing, and I'm so happy for you. Now you can begin the process of treating your GD and living your life as the woman you were always meant to be.

Hugs,

Clara

Gender identity is one's subjective sense of one's own sex. Like pain, it is unambiguously felt but one is unable to prove or display it to others. If gender identity does not match one's physical gender, the individual is termed Gender Dysphoric.

This statement by Dr. Carl Bushong is not altogether correct, imho. It implies that I will be GD until I'm satisfied that my physical body is sufficiently aligned with my gender identity. But my GD was relieved, for all intents and purposes, by sex hormone rebalancing (HRT) months ago. I no longer feel the constant anxiety and tension, and the need to defuse it. Also, having come out to important people in my life, lately, another source of apprehension concerning my trans nature has largely been put to rest. But despite my new found peace of mind, I still want to alter my physical body to match my gender identity. That desire is driven by the demands of our society on what constitutes acceptable behavior for men and women. Those behaviors are often tied to physical differences between men and women, but arbitrarily, I'd say.

I tend to accept the view of Dr. Anne Vitale. Gender dysphoria stems from being deprived of a means to express one's innate gender freely in a society that is invested in the binary gender-sex model, and insists that gender expression conform to rules governing one's birth gender. There's no inherent requirement that one be dysphoric because of a gender-sex mismatch, is there?

In a world where freedom of gender expression is allowed, treating GD becomes simply a matter of shifting one hormonal balance to satisfy the needs of the cross-gendered brain.

Clara

greetins all ;

i have known since i think i was old enough to think. i knew 'something' was just not right. i can remember one day at my cousins house playing with her barbie dolls with her. my mother who was a devout christian gave me the what-for-and-how. how little "boys" were not to play with girl toys. i cried inside. i was deflated. i have always been sensitive and less masculine than most. i have learned to perserver and push on . for those girls who are i crisis, please find someone to talk to. dont shoulder the burden alone

here is a good crisis website (its free) for those girls whohave no one to talk to or anyone and need an ear to listen to . mental health is of utmost priortity ladies... to many of us girls die without anyone knowing because we suffer alone (does not have to be)

http://www.lauras-playground.com/chat/ this is a free chat site for the prevention of suicide of gender dysphoric/transgender/transexual persons. it is not adult-entertainment orientated as well there are minors present as well who also suffer from gender dysphoria. caring councillors will speak to you i private rooms if needed. there is also a main chat room where u can speak to other like-minded individuals. please be respectful as it is a crisis-related chatroom/suicide prevention chat.

i know personally how painful i can be to emerge like a butterfly out of a dark cocoon. i am sure many of you have seen the movie "normal". it broke my heart and brought me to tears. no one like rejection nor shoud they have to endure it. so please dear sisters of mine, save that link for when needed or even visit and get to know other girls like us....

Gender identity is one's subjective sense of one's own sex. Like pain, it is unambiguously felt but one is unable to prove or display it to others. If gender identity does not match one's physical gender, the individual is termed Gender Dysphoric.

This statement by Dr. Carl Bushong is not altogether correct, imho. It implies that I will be GD until I'm satisfied that my physical body is sufficiently aligned with my gender identity. But my GD was relieved, for all intents and purposes, by sex hormone rebalancing (HRT) months ago. I no longer feel the constant anxiety and tension, and the need to defuse it. Also, having come out to important people in my life, lately, another source of apprehension concerning my trans nature has largely been put to rest. But despite my new found peace of mind, I still want to alter my physical body to match my gender identity. That desire is driven by the demands of our society on what constitutes acceptable behavior for men and women. Those behaviors are often tied to physical differences between men and women, but arbitrarily, I'd say.

I tend to accept the view of Dr. Anne Vitale. Gender dysphoria stems from being deprived of a means to express one's innate gender freely in a society that is invested in the binary gender-sex model, and insists that gender expression conform to rules governing one's birth gender. There's no inherent requirement that one be dysphoric because of a gender-sex mismatch, is there?

In a world where freedom of gender expression is allowed, treating GD becomes simply a matter of shifting one hormonal balance to satisfy the needs of the cross-gendered brain.

Clara

Both have things Partly right, but IMHO neither have the full picture.

greetins all ;

i have known since i think i was old enough to think. i knew 'something' was just not right. i can remember one day at my cousins house playing with her barbie dolls with her. my mother who was a devout christian gave me the what-for-and-how. how little "boys" were not to play with girl toys. i cried inside. i was deflated. i have always been sensitive and less masculine than most. i have learned to perserver and push on . for those girls who are i crisis, please find someone to talk to. dont shoulder the burden alone

here is a good crisis website (its free) for those girls whohave no one to talk to or anyone and need an ear to listen to . mental health is of utmost priortity ladies... to many of us girls die without anyone knowing because we suffer alone (does not have to be)

http://www.lauras-playground.com/chat/ this is a free chat site for the prevention of suicide of gender dysphoric/transgender/transexual persons. it is not adult-entertainment orientated as well there are minors present as well who also suffer from gender dysphoria. caring councillors will speak to you i private rooms if needed. there is also a main chat room where u can speak to other like-minded individuals. please be respectful as it is a crisis-related chatroom/suicide prevention chat.

i know personally how painful i can be to emerge like a butterfly out of a dark cocoon. i am sure many of you have seen the movie "normal". it broke my heart and brought me to tears. no one like rejection nor shoud they have to endure it. so please dear sisters of mine, save that link for when needed or even visit and get to know other girls like us....

GD is one of those things that is nearly impossible to get people without it to understand anything about it, most of it is due to Nonsensical stereotypes & flat out made up (yet popular) BS about it.
(downright sad when you think about it)

Nice to see you back btw Squirrel.

i had posted something regarding this eslewhere in forums today .....blame your hypothalamus for GD, read the whole page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothalmus

at one time women were give shots of a certain chemical to prevent miscarriage but was discontinued as it had caused the child to have birth defects and/or gd. i believe it was shots of progesterone invitro but i dont recall 100%. both my oldest sibling and i both suffer from GD. we both were transitioning without knowing each other was. i had not spoken with my oldest siblng for a decade as she fell off grid for a bit and lost touch. however i had read about gd and the hypothalamus being hardwired at birth due to high doses of female hormones penetrating the blood-brain barrier of the hypothalamus. In transexxuals and those with gd it has been noted that the hypothalamus was of different size than that of a male. it was not able to be determined wheter it was due to the transexual's use of HRT or if it was from birth since the location of the hypothalamus is only accessible post-mortem via autopsy.

I went to my psychiatrist last week and came out to him. He was so uninformed about gender issues and unprepared for what I had to say tht he started flipping through the dsm mid session. After listening to me say I felt I was a girl and say I cried nearly every morning when I looked in the mirror and saw nothing more than a prison, he called his supervisor who then googled transgender. 15 minutes later I was diagnosed with gid. Im now in the process of transferring to another facility, one with people trained and educated about gender issues and transgender treatment.

good for you dear i am glad your progressin and are doing exterior renovations hehe best wishes for you dear

Gender identity is one's subjective sense of one's own sex. Like pain, it is unambiguously felt but one is unable to prove or display it to others. If gender identity does not match one's physical gender, the individual is termed Gender Dysphoric.

This statement by Dr. Carl Bushong is not altogether correct, imho. It implies that I will be GD until I'm satisfied that my physical body is sufficiently aligned with my gender identity. But my GD was relieved, for all intents and purposes, by sex hormone rebalancing (HRT) months ago. I no longer feel the constant anxiety and tension, and the need to defuse it. Also, having come out to important people in my life, lately, another source of apprehension concerning my trans nature has largely been put to rest. But despite my new found peace of mind, I still want to alter my physical body to match my gender identity. That desire is driven by the demands of our society on what constitutes acceptable behavior for men and women. Those behaviors are often tied to physical differences between men and women, but arbitrarily, I'd say.

I tend to accept the view of Dr. Anne Vitale. Gender dysphoria stems from being deprived of a means to express one's innate gender freely in a society that is invested in the binary gender-sex model, and insists that gender expression conform to rules governing one's birth gender. There's no inherent requirement that one be dysphoric because of a gender-sex mismatch, is there?

In a world where freedom of gender expression is allowed, treating GD becomes simply a matter of shifting one hormonal balance to satisfy the needs of the cross-gendered brain.

Clara

Both have things Partly right, but IMHO neither have the full picture.

From my own experience, Vitale's theory is accurate if being deprived of a means to express one true identity includes distress over one's internal-external gender mismatch. I can say that if I have any GD left it's for that reason. But, I have hopes of being able to correct that, and he closer I get to passably presenting as a woman, the better I feel. I'm sure that's the case for most transwomen.

Clara