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Transsexual syndrome is a clearly defined congenital condition treated by major teaching hospitals world wide. Medical opinion is now that it is an organic (physical, biological) condition originating in the womb. Other congenital conditions include hair, eye, and skin color, and maximum height. It is thought not to be hereditary. Every baby of every mammal begins potentially female. During the second month of fetal development, hormones released within the fetus determine whether the baby will remain female or change to male. The tiny body and physical brain are very strongly influenced at this stage, overall sexual identity then being largely fixed. This is why all males have nipples and the scar remaining of their original female sex. 1, 3 The crucial period, when the genetic trigger activates the process to remain female or change to male is over very quickly. This information has been known for over 25 years. As with any part of fetal development, the process can go wrong. Baby may be born with the body of one sex but the brain and mind of the other, leaving it stranded across (trans) the sexes. Brain research has all but proven this ætiology.2 In autopsies carried out on ts-born people, all had the brain-sexing of the sex opposite that ascribed to them at birth. (In nature and medicine, if something is dimorphic this means it comes in two distinct types. In this instance, being dimorphic means the layout of parts of the brain, and the prioritizing of thoughts, differ between males and females.) To alter the mind to suit the transsexual body is not medically possible. It is not the mind that is wrong. The solution is to alter the body to match the brain/mind. This is called sex reassignment or sex confirmation. Taking several years, it typically includes hormone replacement therapy, (and electrolysis and often speech therapy for the TS-female), plus an enormous amount of hard work and financial cost on the part of the sufferer. Surgery is but one final part of the treatment. Transsexualism has no connection with transvestism. Transvestites are men who wear women's clothing for gratification but are glad to be male, are usually heterosexual and are proud of their masculinity. Transsexualism has no connection with homosexuality. Gay men are attracted to gay men. Usually both partners in a homosexual relationship are proudly masculine and neither would seek nor agree to removal of their male organs (neither would a lesbian woman seek nor agree to removal of her female organs) unless to counter a serious disease such as cancer of those organs. In this respect they are no different from anybody else. Homosexuality is about relationships. Transsexualism concerns identity, not sexual orientations. Like anyone, the ts-born person might be attracted to men, women, both or neither. Ts is not a mental illness. Every sufferer of the syndrome who presents for treatment is assessed over years by psychiatrists and/or psychologists to ensure they are stable and sane. If psychotic, deluded, mentally ill, unstable, "in a phase" or acting on a whim, they will receive no direct treatment for transsexualism until they are stable. They must be considerably more stable and sane than "average". Ts is not dressing up or going in drag. The transsexual person must wear the clothing, and live exclusively as a member, of the apparently "opposite" sex - as a clinically necessary part of the treatment - for a minimum of one year before referral for surgery. It is not "a man wanting to become a woman", or vice versa. Before treatment, the individual is neither a man NOR a woman but is transsexual. Only a percentage of their body is of the sex erroneously ascribed to them at birth. Their brain, mind and therefore identity, are not of that sex. Referring to them as members of the sex ascribed to them at birth (he/him/his, or she/her), using only convenient parts of their body as a reference, would be pure ignorance. Transsexual people have feelings too. The syndrome is not "curable" other than by sex reassignment. Were it possible for the sufferer to "accept their body as it is", few would seek reassignment. Indeed, were they able to accept their wrong body they would not be transsexual in the first place. After sex reassignment the person no longer fits the clinical definition of "transsexual" and is now simply a woman or a man.; Completely unpredictable, TS syndrome can arise in any family. You can never know that your child or grandchild is not transsexual. The majority of sufferers spend several deeply unhappy decades trying to be of the sex everyone else insists they be and, if questioned, may strongly deny being anything other than of that sex. It may take the maturity of years for them to fully understand what is wrong, and then more years to pluck up the huge amount of courage needed to do something about it. Because nobody can "become" transsexual, you can know that you, personally, are or are not, and be thankful if you are not. (There but for the grace of hormone receptor insensitivity ... ) Ts is something to laugh about IF one laughs also at kidney failure, heart disease, diabetes, blindness and all other clinical conditions. It, and its treatment, are no more unusual or unnatural than the wearing of spectacles to correct a vision defect. No medical treatment is "natural" otherwise doctors, dentists and pharmacists would not be necessary. Congenital conditions cannot be "approved" or "disapproved" of. They are facts. In terms of choice, ts is no different from ms. Untreated, it can - and too often does - result in premature death or insanity through intolerable anxieties and multiple frustrations because nobody can suppress their entire identity for life. Before sex reassignment over 80% of sufferers seriously contemplate, attempt or commit suicide. Postoperatively, this figure reduces to well under 1% - the same as for the rest of the population. The British Medical Association has estimated there may be over 25,000 ts-born people in the UK at any time. In Britain, most are denied proper treatment or understanding although elsewhere in Europe they are not. Transsexualism is no trivial matter. Typically, it costs the sufferer their family, home, friends, job, status, assets, savings and respect. Treatment additionally costs the sufferer approximately £9,000 - £15,000 (in 1998). Lack of treatment may well cost them their life. These losses are all due only to public unawareness of the realities of the condition. Being born transsexual is no choice. It is not "something in the mind". Were your body altered to that of the opposite sex but your mind remained as it is now, you would then be in the situation of the transsexual person before any treatment. Forced to live totally as a member of the wrong sex - and not just for one day. TearS is COPYRIGHT © K Redding, Trinity Workshop, 1992 - 1999 This revised edition published 1999 ~ REFERENCES ~ 1. Brain Sex - Anne Moir & David Jessel, published by Michael Joseph (London), 1989, remains one of the most comprehensive reviews. It includes a strikingly thorough and colossal bibliography containing many pointers to research work around the world. -- ISBN 0 7181 2884 2. 2. A sex difference in the human brain and its relation to transsexuality - Jiang-Ning Zhou, Michael A Hofman, Louis JG Gooren & Dick Swaab; Graduate School Neurosciences Amsterdam, Netherlands Institute for Brain Research & Department of Endocrinology, Free University (VU) Hospital, Amsterdam. Report published in Nature, Volume 378, 2 November 1995, pp 68 - 70. Article indicates several other research reports. To read this important report click here (external link). 3. Transsexualism: The Current Medical Viewpoint. Click here - to read this document prepared for the Parliamentary Forum on Transsexualism, by Dr Russell W Reid, Hillingdon Hospital, et al. ~ MORE INFORMATION ~ For further information concerning fetal development and intersexuality, try web search tools (such as AltaVista, Dogpile, Excite, and Yahoo) using the key: intersex* SRY "brain sex" (And it's best to include those quotes!) © The contents of this website are copyrighted © You are welcome to download them for personal browsing off line but must not distribute, mirror, or publish them in whole or in part without the prior written consent of their respective copyright owners. |
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FacTS about Transexuals |
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Here is a clear explanation to why and how a Transsexual may come to be who they really are. As taken from a website Gina came across during her research into understanding herself and others |
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Phone: (707) 318-3625 Fax: (707) 573-0936 E-mail: davina@tgirltransitions.com |
