What does gender transition mean to you.

[Wendy]

Hi,

What qualifies as the "minimum" criteria for  gender "transition"?

I will not give my opinion because I seem to be batting zero. (I never was good at baseball anyway.)

Anyone can vote on this survey.  I had the option to change the vote but it has disappeared.  My guess is if I update the survey the change vote option disappears.

If a person votes option 1 then they think you would meet the minimum criteria for gender transiton by simply "feeling" as if you are TG even though you do not take any actions to express those feelings.

The other extreme is option 6 in which you feel the minimum criteria for gender transition is gender surgery, HRT, and living as new gender. 

Of course comments are always welcome.

W

[Nigella]

Hi Wendy

just wanted to say why I put 1. It seems to me that GID is just that genda identity disorder. From what I have read which may be minimal to the rest of you, it is who we are from the inside, our brains, chemical make up, etc. We can not change that, god I wish I could. So for me TS is from birth despite our outward appearance and hence number one, whether we act on that or not.

Interesting thought though

Nigella

[Melissa]

Oh, did you want to know what gender transition means to me (as the subject says) or what the minimum requirements to be considered gender transition are?  I voted based on the first one since to me, I need to live fulltime and have the body of my identified gender (not opposite).  I selected #6, although the phrase "option 4" inside of the answer should be changed to "option 5" to be accurate.

Melissa

[katia]

transition means exactly what it implies.  to stop living your life as your birth sex completely and begin the quest to be physiologically, psychologically, anatomically and legally the gender you identify as.

anything else is [full time crossdressing] or [something else] but it [isn't] transition.

[Laurry]

As an androgyne, Transition means something completely different.  There is no "opposite sex" (or rather, they all are opposite).

That being said, a "mental shift" comes with admitting we are not truly the sex we are born with.  This seems to me to be the minimum requirement for being Transgendered, but falls way short of the requirements of Transistion.

I would say that Transistioning either for a TS or an Androgyne, begins with dressing and beginning to live the role of your gender.

I see nine voted but only two commented. Am confused! 

Just to make up for it, I commented, but didn't vote (as the options did not seem to apply to me)

......Laurie

[Melissa]

. . . still confused 

*hint*
She included anatomically, which means SRS for an MTF.

Melissa

[Rashelle]

I agree with Katia transition means going from one to the other though to me the journey is part of transition. As long as that is what is happening. But actual transition is the doing so.
Rashelle

[tinkerbell]

transition means exactly what it implies.  to stop living your life as your birth sex completely and begin the quest to be physiologically, psychologically, anatomically and legally the gender you identify as.

anything else is [full time crossdressing] or [something else] but it [isn't] transition.

Ditto!  don't get used to it though!

tink


P.S.  Wendy, I didn't vote because I think there should be another option for:
Corrective gender surgeries and option 4 5 - Dress/ Live, "AND" HRT of opposite gender sex. 

[Kate]

Dress/ Live, "AND" HRT of opposite gender as the minimum - since it would/could get me to LIVING as a woman at least. Mostly.

Corrective gender surgeries and option 4 as the desired option...

Oh nevermind, I'm doing it again. Rationalizing again.Who am I fooling?

If I could change my vote, it'd be Corrective gender surgeries and option 4 as the minimum (for me).

~Kate~

[TheBattler]

Are we comparing again here?

We only go as far as we fell we need to go. Once we are happy with ourselves we can stop and chear the success of other people.

For me sittiing here something like this makes me very nervious. The only reason I would transistion is if I am forced to because of depression ETC or I come to realise I am in fact female and need to change my body to match my mind.

Till then I find it hard not to compare with what everyone else is doing - I am stuck in the acceptance but do not want to transistion phase and everyone else seams to be moving on  .

Alice

[Attis]

Dress/ Live, "AND" HRT of opposite gender <-- Me. ^_^

-- Brede

[Laurry]

Are we comparing again here?

We only go as far as we fell we need to go. Once we are happy with ourselves we can stop and chear the success of other people. 

EXACTLY!!! Transition is complete when we reach the point of living and expressing, full-time, who we truly are...and that's not the same for all of us.

For me sittiing here something like this makes me very nervious. The only reason I would transistion is if I am forced to because of depression ETC or I come to realise I am in fact female and need to change my body to match my mind.

Till then I find it hard not to compare with what everyone else is doing - I am stuck in the acceptance but do not want to transistion phase and everyone else seams to be moving on  .

Alice

Hang in there Alice...I've got your back.  It is hard sometimes not to wonder where this journey will take us, and compare our progress with others.  It is too easy to forget that their road is different than ours...all we see is how far they have gone and how certain they seem about where they are headed.  Often times, our own roads are not so straight and our destination is not so clear.  At those times, we must trust ourselves and allow ourselves to relax and be at peace.  The journey is not a race, nor is the finish line the same.  Within each of us lies the knowledge of who we are and how we should live our lives to openly and honestly express ourselves.

One's transition begins when they begin to move from how they lived before, towards how they prefer to live the rest of their lives, and ends when they reach that goal.  For some that goal means "All of the Above", for others it doesn't.

Hugs.........Laurie

 

[taru]

I think transition has to do with starting to live in the new gender.

Thus HRT and operations are tools which make transitioning easier, but if someone can do it without them I think that is fine too (a much harder road in the long term).

[Lisbeth]

For me sittiing here something like this makes me very nervious. The only reason I would transistion is if I am forced to because of depression ETC or I come to realise I am in fact female and need to change my body to match my mind.

Till then I find it hard not to compare with what everyone else is doing - I am stuck in the acceptance but do not want to transistion phase and everyone else seams to be moving on  .

I feel for you, Alice.  I sat at the place where you are now for a long, long time.  I said often that it felt like I was a mountain climbing guide.  You know how that works?  When you come to a difficult spot, the guide goes ahead to a certain place and then stays there helping each of the others to get through to the other side.  And then you're the last one to go on.  It felt like I was going nowhere while I was giving everyone else a "hand up" through their transitions.

For me, that time finally came to an end.  Because it had to or I wouldn't be able to stand it anymore.  When you feel you are ready and you can't stand staying in one place anymore, you will move on, too.

I think transition has to do with starting to live in the new gender.

Thus HRT and operations are tools which make transitioning easier, but if someone can do it without them I think that is fine too (a much harder road in the long term).

I agree with you completely.

Transition is both a process and a milestone.  In the broad sense, transition is the entire road from the place where you start to the place where you end up.  This begins with the coming out to yourself and only ends when you die.  There are any number of milestones along this road.  Coming out to family and friends, starting HRT, going full-time, changing your name, GRS -- these are some of the milestones. 

Transition in the narow sense is one of these milestones.  Some want to put it at the beginning of the road.  Some want to put it at the end of the road.  I think the definition of "to stop living your life as your birth sex completely" is a fine one, but to me that means going full-time.  Others seem to think that being full-time only makes you a crossdresser.  I don't believe that interpretation.  Among other things, it doesn't match with the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for differentiating transsexuals from ->-bleeped-<-s.

[Attis]

In another context, gender transition means to me a second chance. A second chance to be yourself and never to be afraid of the night. To see the world with your own eyes and not the eyes of others. To be human and not the facsimile of a human.

-- Brede

[Nigella]

Hi all,

Mixed up and confused Nigella again. I do think we are born Transexual however If I could change my vote now I would choose *2 because to do something about it means transition from one to the other. Some may   say this is crossdressing but is not that a transition a process and a journey? How can we define a person's personality? Soul, feelings? we can't just place people into convenient little packages.

For some complete transition is impossible.  From what I have read on this forum and the pain and situations that we girls go through including myself is to do with the fact that we are going against the norm of society. There are family, work, homes at stake for a lot of us that makes it near impossible to transform.

That is why I said in the first place that if we are born this way then that makes us transsexual at least in our minds and heart. I had to realise that and openly accept that for myself. I think transition is another thing though so I pick *2

Enough of my confusion and ramblings girls

hugs and kisses

Nigella 

[Wendy]

Thanks for your comments.  I fixed a couple of errors in the survey as noted by the voters and it appears if I update the survey the option to change your vote disappears.  Sorry.
.........
At the writing of this post about 40% of the voters consider transitioning to be less than "HRT and living as the opposite sex".  That means 60% consider transitioning to be equal to or greater than "HRT and living as the opposite sex". 

Remember everyone is correct since this is your opinion and not a medical opinion.  However it is not easy to communicate how we feel since "key" words have vastly different meanings to each of us.

In fact if we change to the point at which we are at peace then transition is probably/ nearly complete. As Laurie wrote, "As an androgyne, Transition means something completely different.  There is no "opposite sex" (or rather, they all are opposite)."

My opinion is the minimum to transition is HRT and living as the opposite sex.  Since I do not dress or live as the opposite sex I do not consider myself transitioning.  My GG friends at this site (and my wife) would strongly disagree with me if they read that last comment. 

W

[Shana A]

I voted dress/live or HRT, however, I believe that the first step of transition starts at the moment we begin to understand and accept ourselves to be transgendered. I don't think both HRT and living are required to have transitioned. Depending on the therapist you're working with, they might have a different timetable for these things. With my therapist, in 1993-4, at least a year of RLT was required before HRT could be prescribed. I know there are people who do it the other way, such as Susan/Steve, the Largo city manager, who start with HRT for months before they live openly as their desired gender. Each person's situation is different, and that needs to be taken into consideration.

As Laurie mentioned, it's somewhat different for those of us identifying as androgyne, or another gender entirely. In many ways, I don't feel that transition is ever done, there are plenty of ongoing issues or events, such as coming out to family or friends, etc.

zythyra

[Rashelle]

To me transitioning is the action of doing so. Transitioned is the end result. To transition is to be going in the process of one to the other with the expectation the one will end up the other.
Rashelle

[Fer]

Transition is the process to match your body with your gender identity by taking cross-gender hormones, obtaining surgeries (FFS, GRS), receiving psychotherapy,  adopting the gender roles and wearing the attire of your target gender.