Is transsexualism an acquired condition?

[linda.wai]

I'm now virtually 90% transitioned full time.

Although I started having typical TS features since aged 6, I've been controlling that feeling and lived as a guy until this year. Few weeks ago, I went to Thailand for a 3 week holiday and lived en femme, meeting dozens of ladyboys and built friendship. On return, I cannot stop thinking of wanting to have SRS. I can't bear living as a male and I quitter my job. I'm now on hormones for 2 months and will definitely live as a woman. It's all very sudden.

My questions are:

Could one become a transsexual after prolonged and intense cross dressing?

Is autogynephilia an accepted concept?

[sandra-leigh]

Could one become a transsexual after prolonged and intense cross dressing?


No-one really knows for sure. My readings would suggest that to be unlikely, though. More likely would be that either you are in "pink fog" or that
you were already TS but needed to see others living the life in order to accept it as a realistic possibility for yourself.


Is autogynephilia an accepted concept?

It is taken seriously enough that it will likely be part of the next "DSM" (diagnostic manual for psychiatric issues), as the protests against that possibility do not seem to have enough leverage to be able to block that.

One of the prime authors of that term does not, however, appear to hold much respect amongst those who consider gender variation to be normal and a broad range: the term seems to be much more in favor amongst those that believe that you have males on one side, and females on the other side, and that although some people who are biologically born to one side might cross over, that that should be relatively uncommon, and everyone else is really just their birth sex but with some sexual fetishes.

The variety of experience is wide enough that probably some people who meet the definition of autogynephilia exist, but in the broader world, autogynephilia is a diagnosis being used to deny the validity of most transgender experience as anything other than something motivated by sexual excitement.

[Bree-asaurus]

No. You are born transexual or you are not. You just may not know you are transexual until later in life when you start realizing why all these different things felt wrong for so long. Cross dressing can't make you a transexual, but cross dressing is often a symptom of your gender not matching your physical sex. I cross dressed for most of my life... it was an outlet for my femininity when I was stuck having to be a guy and not knowing that I could do something about it.

[Rianna Humble]

I'm a little confused, Linda. You say that you have been TS since the age of 6, but that you think that you have "become a transsexual after prolonged and intense cross dressing" how do you reconcile the two things?

If the first statement is correct, then my reading would be that your 3 weeks in Thailand have simply brought your dysphoria to the point where you can no longer suppress your knowledge of who you really are. What do the professionals (therapist and/or doctor) who are supporting you say about your decision to quit your job?

AGP is a concept that is accepted in some parts but in others is used to try to discredit the idea of Gender Dysphoria.

[Nicole Erin]

Yes, transsexualism is acquired. If you stand too close to one, you will catch it in the air. That is why so many straight men are afraid of us.

[thechic]

So thats why im one, must of picked it up at a meeting. no wander alot of people are frightened of transsexuals.

[linda.wai]

Sorry if my wording upset anybody. I am not saying transsexualism is infective. I just ask if transsexualism could be a condition caused by psychological and social factors and not by biological factors.

[Melody Moore]

I personally don't believe that transsexualism is an acquired condition brought on by psychological & social
factors because, transsexuals come from all types of home environments & social upbringings, from good
families & from dysfunctional families. There is no defined psychological and social patterns that will make
someone transsexual.

Transsexualism is believed to be a gender identity disorder that develops before we were born & while we are
still in the womb. Every single person on this planet was conceived as a female, but it's through the action of
testosterone being passed to the foetus from our mothers that causes us to develop in the male direction. But
it is now believed that endocrine disruptors & other factors like 'ill health' of our mothers that can affect the
testosterone production causing fluctuations in the sex hormones that interfere with our gender development.

Our genitalia is developed in the first 8-9 weeks of gestation, but brain development & things like sexual orientation
& gender identity are also hard coded into out brains when it develops about half-way through pregnancy. So if the
testosterone production is interfered with or stops during the development of a male, it can leave the brain 'female'.
The reverse effect with testosterone happens in FtM transsexuals Read More: http://shb-info.org/sexbrain.html

Also see this link: Transsexual gene link identified (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7689007.stm) - so transsexualism is more biological than you think.

[Aprilrain]

Yeah I caught it on a trip to Africa when I was a teenager, they just didn't have very good vaccines back then. : P

Autogynephilia is a BS condition in my opinion.

[Kaitlyn Michele]

I think the best bet is to forget the "why" part as best you can...there is no evidence I"m aware of that this is learned or developed condition...

autogynephilia is a mostly discredited "theory" that tries to describe behavior that is common in transsexuals, and twists it around so it seems like the behavior is the cause of being transsexual.. ...
i agree with others that it's BS, but regardless of your opinion it has absolutely zero real world impact..

frankly i am saddened when people look back to childhood or other "causes"..the reason for this is that being ts is about identity...it is literally who you are that is at stake...and until you completely internally accept yourself as "yourself"..you can never really have a truly satisfactory outcome...by looking for causes and things that made you transsexual, you are ignoring the fact that it's just who you are...

[Michelle.M]

Autogynephilia is a BS condition in my opinion.

Right. Whenever I see that word I know the person using it has probably not only not even read Ray Blanchard's self-serving agenda-promoting propaganda but is probably merely parroting the views of some other ignorant boob who cites that nonsense as "science" to serve their own agenda. Handy grist for the mill for those who promote ignorance and repression of the community.

And to answer that original question, no, it is not an accepted concept except by those who are prone to accept whatever improperly conducted "research" that supports their own prejudices.

[Sophora]

Autogynephilia is a BS condition in my opinion.


I tried searching for this term and I keep on getting this Ray Blanchard "scientific research" that causes me confusion. so before I get even more confused. What the hell is Autogynephilia? It sounds like a made up term dealing with some kind of sex.

[sandra-leigh]

Sophora, Ray Blanchard basically invented the term, but he has a stream of followers, including one who runs an important gender research clinic in Toronto (less than 2 years ago, everyone here in Manitoba had to go to that clinic for official assessment.)

"Auto" means "self", "gyne" pertains to women, and "philia" can mean anything from "like" to "love" to "obsession with". For example, the city Philadelphia translates as "love" of "brotherhood" (and thus "community") which is why the city is called "The City of Brotherly Love", so "philia" is not inherently a bad thing. On the other hand, "necrophilia" is "sexual attraction to corpses", so when you see "philia" you should expect that even if the person who originally proposed the term meant well, that the term might well be interpreted or used as a form of slander by others.

Autogynephilia is used to indicate an erotic obsession with the image of oneself as female. Basically, any male bodied person who became erotically aroused three or more times (over their life) by the idea or practice of cross-dressing would be classified under that, and it would be a psychiatric illness and considered distinct from transsexualism. It doesn't matter for this purpose that the three times were (for example) in one's teens when one might have been liable to become erotically aroused by nearly anything -- bang goes the label.

The "research" chooses to ignore that it is not uncommon to be aroused when one starts cross-dressing, but that in time it often more or less stops becoming arousing: the theory explains that away by saying something like that one is internalizing the eroticism, or substituting something for it, but that one's basic motivations remain primarily a sexual interest.

I might not be explaining the term exactly right, but this is the basic idea: Transgender experience doesn't exist except as acting out a sexual fantasy.

[Beth-Lock]

TS/TG is an adjustment to an underlying situation which one may be born with and/or develop an unhappiness with, more and more.
It is too bad that psychology and even more so, psychiatry has taken political positions on adjustment, rather than sticking to science. You can debate value judgments until you are blue in the face with such people, but the more powerful in society or their relationship with you, tend to win them, not the most moral, kind or realistic.
Mixing up sexual orientation with CD is something that even Freud avoided, though those latter day followers of him would deny it and be more Freudian than Freud. Freud relied on his scientific experience to tell him no.
As for TS being catching, a friend who is an epidemiologist suggested that it must be something in the water here. LOL

[Jay Cee]

Sorry if my wording upset anybody. I am not saying transsexualism is infective. I just ask if transsexualism could be a condition caused by psychological and social factors and not by biological factors.

I bet my father would think so. He also believes that my aunt is gay because she was dumped by a guy, and those "lesbians" she worked with seduced her. :rolleyes: Can't wait to hear his theories when I tell him I'm TG.

At most, crossdressing may help reveal your true inner self (TG/TS), but it won't cause transexualism. As for autogynephilia... from what I read, Blanchard sounds like some windbag looking to justify his salary.

And I don't think your wording upset anyone - I believe they were joking.

[Melody Moore]

As for autogynephilia... from what I read, Blanchard sounds like some windbag looking to justify his salary.

I like how Blanchard claims that you are not really a transsexual female if you were not a gay male
& don't like men. But like I say to many people, I am not transitioning because I want to be a sIut
& screw men, I am transitioning because this is who I really am on the inside. It's not my fault that
I am not particularly fond or trusting of men because I have been sexually abused & raped by males.
So therefore I don't believe that my preferences for women has anything to do with transsexualism.

Both sexual preferences & the reasons for transitioning are completely separate issues. I will even go
as far to say that sometimes transvestic fetishism does play a small part in the lives of transsexuals,
but is it any wonder that it does have a small part in their sex lives when they realise they are female?

I know that sexually I don't function as a male, even before transitioning I never functioned like any other
normal male. Even though I didn't dress up a a girl during love making, I had my fantasies running through
my head or I couldn't enjoy sex & achieve orgasm. Now what was once fantasy is being turned into living
reality & I couldn't be happier. I know that I am a transsexual female because I don't miss the male libido
which fuels transvestic fetishism in those males that are not really transsexual. I have met a few people
now like this who are cross-dressers (transvestites) that were once on hormones but quit because they
did not like the fact these medications took away their male libido. I am sure there are some of them on
this forum & I think it's a pity that they don't come forth & talk about their past experiences. But I think
once they realise they are not transsexual, they just slip away quietly continue living their lives as CDers.

I was told once by members in my local TS support group the way to know if you are truly a transsexual is to ask
yourself.. "Are you prepared to have nothing between the legs? A penis that won't function & no male libido?"

Apparently if you answered "yes" to this, then the chances are higher that you are a transsexual, if
you are not prepared to lose everything, then it becomes questionable if you are really transsexual.