Medical condition or lifestyle choice?

[eClare]

I agree with ImSuzi. Transgender is a spectrum term, but most of us in the spectrum are not here voluntarily.  So how can it be considered a lifestyle "choice" ? I am here seeking relief, and I have not yet determined the appropriate solution for me.

[Jessica Merriman]

Medical condition definitely. Check out my male VS. female vital signs.

Male                               Female
BP 178/116                    BP 124/76
Pulse >110  (rest)           Pulse 78 (rest)
Blood sugar 200-750       Blood sugar 118
Sleep per night 2 hours   Sleep per night 71/2-8
Daily meds (12)              Daily meds (3) HRT
Nervous                         Calm
Isolated                          Outgoing
Suicidal                          Well adjusted

[Jill F]

Jessica, I simply don't agree with your former lifestyle choices of high blood pressure and hyperglycemia.

[Miss_Bungle1991]

Why would someone "choose" this?

There you go.

"It's a lifestyle choice", sounds like something that some moronic talking head on the idiot box would say.

[Jill F]

There you go.

"It's a lifestyle choice", sounds like something that some moronic talking head on the idiot box would say.

Is being a moronic talking head on the idiot box a medical condition or a lifestyle choice?

[Miss_Bungle1991]

Is being a moronic talking head on the idiot box a medical condition or a lifestyle choice?

It's a lifestyle choice, since it's an easy way to make a lot of money.

[Eva Marie]

I can only speak for myself but this was not a lifestyle choice for me. I was trying to drink myself to death to escape who I was. The only "choice" I made was to live. My condition is biological. And like someone else said - who would choose this?

[Miss_Bungle1991]

I can only speak for myself but this was not a lifestyle choice for me. I was trying to drink myself to death to escape who I was. The only "choice" I made was to live. My condition is biological. And like someone else said - who would choose this?

Yeah, I would drink and drug myself into oblivion. I'm glad that I don't do that anymore.

[imsuzi]

I believe associating transgenders with either a "lifestyle choice" or "medical condition" may be too restrictive. Doesn't it also cross over into the realm of a mental health condition – one that may or may not be associated with a medical condition? 

It's my understanding that the reason that American Psychiatric Association now uses the diagnosis "gender dysphoria" rather than "gender identity disorder" is in part to indicate that gender nonconformity is not in itself a mental disorder. But for me, the dysphoria seems more closely linked to PTSD than it does to a virus or tumor. Perhaps the condition was brought on by my prenatal environment, my post natal environment or some medical condition.  But why is it important to categorize my disphoria as a medical rather than mental health condition? Am I overly concerned that mental health issues are somehow more stigmatizing that medical conditions?

I also question those who suggest that cross dressing should be categorized as a lifestyle choice. Perhaps for some is may be, but I have met few cross dressers who would suggest that they can readily cease cross dressing without a great deal of dysphoria.

[Miss_Bungle1991]

Well, I would see it as a medical condition simply because for a lot of people, it requires the long term use of prescribed medications.

[Jessica Merriman]

Jessica, I simply don't agree with your former lifestyle choices of high blood pressure and hyperglycemia.

I know right?  Buying all those donuts from street dealers really stressed me!

[helen2010]

I've heard transgender referred to as a lifestyle. Especially with the increased awareness of non-binary genders, transgender is increasingly seen as a "movement" whose result would be greater freedom and acceptance for engaging in gender variant lifestyles. I've also heard people describe transgender as a medical condition. Something people are born with and that they may need to correct to live a satisfying life.

What do you think?

Wow.  If it was a lifestyle choice then I am an idiot for not realising this and choosing another lifestyle!   Funnily enough I have had  a leading TS Sociology Professor tell me that gender, my gender was a social construct.  My response, that only hormones addressed my dysphoria, and my question  - then why do I identify as another misunderstood sub group ie non binary just drew a blank response.   Frankly I find non medical explanations non persuasive and at odds with my life experience.  My brain and it's need for hrt suggest a medical condition but hell I will never really know, and frankly I refuse to tie myself up in knots or run in ever decreasing circles.

I am TG, I am non binary, I accept this and I am proud of this.

Aisla

[Hikari]

Nothing about this seems like a choice, sure I could ignore my gender identity but it could well kill me if I did so I suppose in that sense it is a choice.

Very little makes me more angry than someone claiming that they disagree with my "choice" to be trans, as if I sought this out at a store and bought my gender identity on Clearance or something.

[Jill F]

Nothing about this seems like a choice, sure I could ignore my gender identity but it could well kill me if I did so I suppose in that sense it is a choice.

Very little makes me more angry than someone claiming that they disagree with my "choice" to be trans, as if I sought this out at a store and bought my gender identity on Clearance or something.

I know, right?  I could just see it. 

"Blue light specials today on "Queer" and "Genderfluid".  Get one for the wife as well..."

[HoneyStrums]

Is it a choice? is survival not an instinct that is part of our nature? If so is being human a choice? I thought if it is a choice its that of my  parents (And not mine).

Every cause has an affect?
When one drops a brick into a body of water, it makes a splash. Point is did the water choose to splash? or was it the choice of the brick to fall and not fly to river bank? Or was the splash my choice for having dropped the brick? Or was it the bricks fault for being there? Point is if what I do is a reaction of gender based depression and a survival instinct. Is it my choice to be depressed? Is it my choice for my life to be worthless lest I do this thing, even if only IN HOPE?

Yes we make choices, but those choices are reactions to things of which we don't have any control?
A life style choice? NO. A choice of survival we are human.

Their is a medical element and various processes involved that can be attributed to "transition" as it is called.
BUT dysphoria is a name for gender based depression. Granted as time passes this depression comes easier to cope with, considering a lot of it is fear of loosing ones we love. Is loving a choice? Is Fear a choice?

There are elements we react to, in a human way because we are human, but these things are outside of our control, and so is being human.
Is it a choice to have diabetes?  no. The only choice is to either find a way to live with it or perish. And survival is a human instinct.

Medicine, how humans help humans bear their burdens in order to provide a better quality of life. Any one wishing to live and live as happily as possible is going to choose this. If it is a treatment for something that affect their life so negatively it becomes almost worthless if not worthless.

I am human, and do not want to die, I know I will but I want to live, and to live as long and as happily as I can. Why Because I'm human, and that is not my choice.

EDIT------

Jessica, I simply don't agree with your former lifestyle choices of high blood pressure and hyperglycemia.

So read a bit further, And lols at this.
Kind of blunt and straight forwardly and humorously, making my point

[Dani Davis]

As others have pointed out, I can't  believe anyone would "choose" to live a life of fear, anguish and torment for the sole purpose of having that lifestyle.

I'm much more comfortable with who I am these days, but for many years I thought I was completely alone inside my head with all this and at times thought I was some sort of freak.  I practiced at suicide a number of times in the early years because I simply didn't know what the hell was wrong with me and the resources weren't available then for me to find out.

Lifestyle choice?  Like I mentioned, I'm pretty comfortable enough these days with who I am so I am able to give the idea that this is a lifestyle choice a manly guffaw and a feminine giggle at the same time...smile..

[sad panda]

I don't have a formed opinion but what i do know is people use medical condition WAY overzealously when they don't have much medical knowledge at all and can't explain it. In that sense, every aspect of your personality is a medical condition, but that's not helpfuk. You can't point to the gene that causes it, you can't take a blood test for it. There are no consistent signs that aren't purely behavioral. It's not a coherent medical condition, more like a medical phenomenon. It is poorly understood.

Yes, it is serious, and probs not a choice, (well not always a choice, like for me, it was definitely a choice), but it is found in the DSM right now, and it is diagnosed with psychotherapy, again it is poorly understood in a medical sense, it is probably a broad range of unique conditions in reality.

[Dani Davis]

I took the OP as using "Medical Condition" as any other mental or physical   variable other than "Lifestyle Choice".  It seemed to be a lot shorter than typing a paragraph and I applaud the brevity...smile

[janetcgtv]

Laura Squirrel:

Since I made Millions of bucks because of this being a life style choice.

Please just tell the guy who just put a bullet in head and stole all my millions that it was a life style choice.

[Jen72]

I voted medical condition and the reason why I have always been this way it seems so not truly a choice at all.  I however am not suicidal nor have I over used drugs/alcohol but I think I have stuffed this down so far for so long that its come to bit me in the you know.  As for the fact of a crossdresser and being a choice.  My answer is medical on the mental side of medical yet a choice no not really.  I am not in the medical field whatsoever but would it not make sense that something in the brain has brought this dilemma in whatever form it has taken for each person and that something perhaps was physical change to the brain and perhaps the body itself.  Not saying anything is wrong with anyone we are not crazy people more just confused and then get realization of what we are and grow most likely more then the general population ever could due to struggle of changes.  The big point is who would truly want to be ridiculed, abused, misunderstood and perhaps abandoned.  To that I say no one therefore it is not really a choice but more complicated since there is a mental aspect and after all we use what maybe 10% of our brain how the heck can we know what the other 90% is doing if we cant even use it all or maybe we use more then we think but that is probably another debate.

As for a crossdresser I do have a medical type theory in such that correct me if I am wrong most dress to alleviate stress and or anxiety.  As to why the dressing would do this is perhaps on the hormonal side that person is and always was a little more of the opposite born gender due to how the brain has developed.  Where as a transsexual a greater variance has occurred when the brain developed there for a greater change Is require then just clothes.  All that being said I reiterate we are not crazy just a varying amount of acceptance really of who we are and who we are not.  Obviously due to such a degree of variance of both a mental/hormonal aspect and out lack of understanding of the brain and really 100% of the populations is not truly 100% male or female since we all have some degree of both estrogen/testosterone flowing in us.  It is really such a grey matter not black and white that no one can say it Is right or wrong.  After all right or wrong is black or white is it not. My basic way of looking at this would be a lock on a door. What this is is a combination lock on the door to our mind/soul yet what it is not is a simple lock with a key.

Pardon for the long windedness I tend to articulate so so.