Transsexual Links

[Julie]

Rather than repeating information because threads get pushed off the page, I'm making a sticky for one of the better TS sites I have found so far. From there you can get almost anything you're looking for. If they don't have it, they probably have a link to it.

[SIZE=6]TS Roadmap[/SIZE]

Some links:

Transgender Care
Hormone Therapy - Anne Lawrence's site
Press For Change
TS Voice
Beginning Life
FFS Photo Alteration
FFS Support
Transsexual Transition
In Broad Daylight - a personal account
Christine Beatty's Account
Lost In Time
Transition: A Survivor's Guide

[Jasmine Ellis]

Dear Julie I'll look into the site love

[shellyrichardsoninsc]

i highly recommend dr reed in miami. his site is SRSmiami.com

[Ms. Donna]

Two sites offering comprehensive voice training courses for sale:

• Finding Your Female Voice
• How to Develop a Female Voice

Love & Stuff,
Donna

[chantelle]

Thank you for the sticky, I am always on the prowl for information as it is my dream to use my counsilling to help transgenders deal with their lifes, and in the process I could understand it better as my own life need help as well.
My arms are open to anyone that wants to email me.

Love
chantelle

[CaptLex]

I went to a presentation done at the local LGBT center by Dr. Toby Meltzer, who is well known in SRS circles, and was very impressed with his information. He and his team of experts perform all phases of MtF and FtM surgeries, and even fix "less than perfect" jobs that have been done by others. I found him to be extremely knowledgeable and sensitive.

If anyone is interested in learning more about him and his clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, here is the link:

http://www.tmeltzer.com/

[CaptLex]

I want to recommend an excellent book I just finished reading: Just Add Hormones: An Insider's Guide to the Transsexual Experience by Matt Kailey. It's written by a Female-to-Male transsexual, but I think it's informative for everyone, including friends and family of trans people. It's also relatively short and easy to read (good thing 'cause I have a short attention span). I got it at Barnes & Noble, but if your local bookstore doesn't have it, it's also available from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080...329741?ie=UTF8

[Siobhan Marie]

[SIZE="3"]Thank you so much for the sticky. I've just started my journey towards becoming Anna as I'm currently stuck in Bruey's body and have a long way to go and could use all the information and help that I can get.

Anna x[/SIZE]

[Lanore]

Thanks for the list Julie
I visited a few of the ones you listed and wow, what great information. Thanks again,

Lanore

[Kieron Andrew]

i think one of the mods should actually make this a sticky as its a really good thread oops it already has been lol sorry guys my head isnt here today lol

[cindianna_jones]

I hate to make a shameless plug and if this is not appropriate, I invite the moderators to delete it. I have published my personal memoirs in a title called Squirrel Cage. It is available through Amazon.com and other online resellers.

The book deals less with transitional aspects and more with the most difficult part of our journey; making the decision and following through with it. My experience was more difficult than many due to the conservative society in which I grew up. I am hopeful that this effort may help others in their most trying times.

Additionally, I am one of the few authors who is active in the online communities giving readers access for questions and follow up. I'm always available for comment.

Cindi Jones

[GypsyKaren]

www.doctorbushong.com

Some very interesting articles on gender.

[Joy Carter]

There has been 4,030 views on this thread. Anyone want to guess as to why ?

[AnastasiaX]

This is where I plan on going for surgery when I have the money and feel it is time http://www.marcibowers.com/grs/gender.html
Tons of info there.

I dont want to be an advert but Dr Marci seems to be an incredibly adept surgeon (and yes Ive researched the buggers out of her practice). Also, there is some very interesting TS history involved with Trinindad CO from where the clinic is at .

[primaelgen]

http://www.harrybenjaminsyndrome-inf...efinition.html

This article talks about the newly created medical definition, Harry Benjamin's Syndrome to replace the current term, "transsexualism". The significance of this is making HBS a physiological rather than a psychological or psychiatric condition. Why is this significant?

1. HBS is categorized as intersex, meaning that the brain physiology is of a different gender.
2. "The medical community of today is perfectly prepared, if given the proper information, to successfully treat Harry Benjamin Syndrome, but is still lacking quality diagnosis caused by the lack of information updates about this condition leaving doctors confused with the myths of the past."
3. Once more accurate diagnosis methods are available, it is possible to treat the condition at an earlier age, even possibly before puberty.

From the link:

What is Harry Benjamin's Syndrome?

Harry Benjamin's Syndrome (HBS) is a congenital intersex condition that develops before birth, involving the differentiation between male and female. It is believed that every 1 in 500 is born with this condition. Therefore a girl with Harry Benjamin's Syndrome would have a females brain sex but her genitals would appear male. The boys born under this condition have female genitalia even thought their brains are male. So far it’s impossible to diagnose this condition at the moment of birth causing the babies to be raised in the wrong gender role.

We now know that the brain is the primary part of the body that can define one's sex, therefore one's true sex is determined by the structure of the brain, and not simply by the genitalia. Gender identity is hard-wired in the brain and in deeper CNS structures. The main difference between Harry Benjamin's Syndrome and most other intersex conditions is that there is no apparent evidence at the moment of birth making it impossible for doctors to diagnose it.

In comparison with other intersex conditions Harry Benjamin's Syndrome is twice more frequent than Klinefelter Syndrome and five times more frequent than Turner's Syndrome. It is also known to be 25 times more frequent than Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome.

Most people with Harry Benjamin's Syndrome have been diagnosed around 20 to 45 years of age with many others being observed in their teens and even as young as 4 and 5. This hasn’t stopped people from having their genitalia reassigned and living a normal life afterwards. There are many who might make claim to have Harry Benjamin Syndrome and often they have been previously referred to as pseudo transsexuals. That determination of course is for a therapist competent in the HBS field of medicine to determine.

The level of distress experienced by people with Harry Benjamin's Syndrome does vary from person to person. Society's gender-related expectations are far from perfectly suited to all individuals, and not everyone would find being treated as the opposite gender to be all that terrible. People's degree of concern for their own appearance and anatomy is also very variable -some couldn't care less what they had between their legs or how others perceived their gender. But it is perfectly normal, and probably much more common, for people to place a great deal of importance in both their own and other people's physical and social gender. It may be something they take for granted and hardly think about, but that is only an indication of how deeply rooted it is. People with Harry Benjamin's Syndrome almost always experience growing dissatisfaction and unhappiness with both their bodies and their social gender role until they can correct them, some even to the point of suicide if they feel they have no other solution to their problem.

The pain of Harry Benjamin's Syndrome is exacerbated by society's attitude towards it. Employers, friends and especially family are often disbelieving and hostile towards people who reveal they've discovered they have Harry Benjamin Syndrome. Also, society in general does not treat people whose appearance is gender ambiguous at all well, targeting them for verbal abuse, discrimination, and sometimes violence. This is hard enough to deal with without the loss of family support and possibly employment that often accompanies it. Though the cause of Harry Benjamin's Syndrome is uncertain, and indeed there may be more than one cause, the most likely explanation is some kind of hormonal irregularity during pregnancy. But whatever the cause, it is a genuine, traumatic condition that deserves understanding and compassion.
How is Harry Benjamin's Syndrome medically treated?

The early treatment of Harry Benjamin's Syndrome can eliminate virtually all the symptoms of the condition.

In order to properly reassign the person’s body to its proper sex the treatment will include Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) or as we would prefer it to be addressed as, Sex Affirmation Surgery (SAS). Many refer to it as Genital Reassignment Surgery (GRS) but to often GRS is confused with Gender Reassignment Surgery which we find to easily linked to transgenderism; gender is brain and not subject to surgical treatment.

In addition many doctors and therapists will follow the guidelines of the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care that would require a surgical applicant to live in the actual role of the intended physical sex.

To this day this Syndrome is mostly known as transsexualism and wrongly considered as a sub-class of transgenderism which is definitely a gender variation condition often linked to elements of a sexual or fetish nature. This creates a problem in properly diagnosing and treating people living with this HBS. The word transsexualism is usually linked to men wanting to be women or vice versa and seen as a mental disorder. It is not a mental disorder but an intersexed condition as a result of a fetal anomaly. We still can find doctors referring to this Syndrome as Transsexualism. It may seem like the medical community is ignoring the most recent research about the brain and its relationship with gender. This is caused for the still-remaining use of words like transsexualism and others. Please refer to our links section for more details and research information.

The medical community of today is perfectly prepared, if given the proper information, to successfully treat Harry Benjamin Syndrome, but is still lacking quality diagnosis caused by the lack of information updates about this condition leaving doctors confused with the myths of the past.

A personal suggestion concerning doctors is that you should not take everything they say as fact because they may not have up to date information. We recommend listening to the doctors, (since they know how the human body works) but don’t assume they can’t make mistakes; after all they are only human

It is advisable to visit an endocrinologist and give him or her up to date information about Harry Benjamin's Syndrome, this way you will be opening the door to receive more objective treatment.

A psychological follow up is very useful and recommended for a proper diagnosis of this condition and its physical treatment afterwards can correct it completely.

In most cases, it’s impossible to give a diagnosis before late infancy or pre-adolescence, although countries like the Netherlands are very advanced in diagnosing and treating this syndrome. Thanks to the hard work of Cohen-Kettenis, people living in the Netherlands are able to start the treatment before puberty.

It’s important to remind the public that Harry Benjamin's Syndrome is a physiological condition and not psychiatric, even though the help of a psychologist can be very useful to the patient, especially for the young ones. The treatment of this condition includes HRT and SAS. You should always start by visiting an endocrinologist and a surgeon first.



For a more detailed definition click here (PDF)

This hbs.pdf document may be printed and distributed to help explain
HBS to medical professionals and the general public.
Please distribute it widely

-- Enjoy
-- Primaelgen Project

[Katie Ashe]

Some of my favs are:
http://www.transgenderlaw.org/resources/tlcschools.htm
http://www.hrc.org/
http://www.gender.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormone...py_%28trans%29
http://www.doctorbushong.com/pubs/what_is_gender.asp
http://www.psychologytoday.com/pto/credentials.html
http://www.hairlasers.com/index.html
http://www.transgendercare.com/

[Nadine]

Hi,

A site tht I have found extremely useful is:

http://www.lynnconway.com/

Love,

Nadine

[Kimberley]

Here are a couple I have marked.

www.grsmontreal.com
www.amivitale.com

[CROSSAMANDA]

Here is one I like.http://www.secondtype.com/

[Melanie85]

http://www.genderpsychology.org/

Has lots of info, such as explanations of BSTc neurological research and other theories of the causes of transsexuality. Written by a trannssexual research psychologist

Academic perspectives on the psychology of transsexuality are represented by groups like the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA) and are codified in the mental illness model of the DSM-IV-TR as Gender Identity Disorder (GID) and Transvestic Fetishism (TF). This psychopathology treats transsexuality and cross-dressing as inherently bad things about us. They're not. Gender bending, gender queers, and transgenderism show society how uncomfortable it is trying to understanding gender and sexuality. Can sexologists refrain from placing value judgements upon those with gender dysphoria and instead refine the way we understand the psychology of gender, atypical gender development, and gender role socialization? I hope that by bringing a personal and non-judgemental scientific approach to understanding transgenderism, I can help transsexuals, cross-dressers, and psychopathologists grow and develop as people.

It feels like everything should have been so obvious when I look back. But everything was so confusing as I grew up. It's like, one day I was absent and everybody else was taught the crucial aspects of being a boy or girl. I would lie in bed at night practicing and rehearsing how to be a boy. One day in middle school, after being pushed around again, a principal tried to teach me to "stop crying" and "be a man." Bullies, teachers, and others taught me the same thing: there was something terribly wrong with my feelings. I tried so hard to purge from myself every expression of emotion. Really I only needed to be taught one lesson; we do not need to learn to be ourselves, we just are ourselves. In 1998 I transitioned; I no longer practice being a boy, I just am a girl. Today I have wonderful friends and the most perfect partner. I recently completed my Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology. Someday I hope to teach college students and study how children learn and grow. I designed this site to share with others what I have learned from being educated in psychology and growing up with gender dysphoria.

Some of my essays are very personal. They're so personal I end up crying every time I try to write one. But I keep trying to write those essays because occasionally I get an single heart-felt e-mail from somebody who feels his or her life was touched by something I said. Those heart-felt messages make me feel so happy and yet they are so puzzling. Isn't everything I'm saying really obvious? And then I think back about how confusing things were for me. It's weird, I guess some things are clear once we choose our own paths rather than following the paths other choose for us? There still is a lot that confuses me. Maybe someday, as I travel further down life's path, those issues will become clearer too? It's like each of us is an unfinished jig-saw puzzle, with everything there, even if it's all mixed up. I hope my personal and academic exploration of the Psychology of Gender Identity and Transgenderism can help you with your life and studies. Thank you for visiting!