do you think age should place any restictions on your decision to transsition

[stephaniec]

just curious to know how people feel about transitioning at an early age or a later age. there are benefits and cost at both ends of the spectrum . I'm a later transition  because of lack of information, misguided therapy and a variety of issues. I finally am doing it and am happy with my decision.  I've noticed others though that have posted fearing they are too old. The younger ones are more physically able , but other issues such as finance , family and mental seem to come into play. just curious if you have an opinion one way or the other if age is a contributing factor in your willingness to consider transition.

[Jessica Merriman]

In my personal experience I am glad I am transitioning older. The reason is simply life gave me the confidence in myself to do it successfully where younger I would probably not had it. Add to it we are usually more stable as to the financial aspect as well. You are never too old in my opinion to be the real you. 

[mrs izzy]

Not at all.

Only thing to remember is you are going to have this very young girl/guy trying to live a life in a more mature body.

Sometimes there is a conflict of the ages.

Isabell

[PurpleCrown]

In my opinion it depends on the person. I believe that anytime is a good time to transition if you feel you're ready to do so.

When you're young you depend on your family accepting you. Also I couldn't imagine myself transitioning in high school, people can be so mean at that age. If you can make it work however, you get to grow up as the gender you wanted to. That's something I really miss. (Besides testosterone not having it's way at me)

Transitioning at a later age will probably give you more independence and life experience to deal with things when they get tough. I don't think it's ever too late though. I mean, there's a certain age at which you can't get surgery done anymore, but I feel like everyday that you get to live the way you want to is worth it in the end.

[FalseHybridPrincess]

No

[Nero]

No. I don't know why age should matter in transition. I mean, I suppose some people think - 'well, you've lived this long as your birth gender, why not just live out the rest of your life that way?' But that idea is flawed. I mean, what if this life is it for everyone - your one chance to live and be happy? One year of happiness could be worth 50 of misery. Time really is relative. An illusion.

Anyhow, I believe everyone transitions at the time right for them. Even your birthdate may factor in - so you weren't born in a more enlightened time and got the benefits of transitioning young. Maybe there's a reason for that. We all have different journeys on this planet.

[apriljo]

I've watched a new friend begin her transition in her early 50s as I've been transitioning in my early 30s. The feelings and improvements to life are much the same. Definitely worth it at any age in my books.

[FalseHybridPrincess]

I've watched a new friend begin her transition in her early 50s as I've been transitioning in my early 30s. The feelings and improvements to life are much the same. Definitely worth it at any age in my books.

of course its  worth at in any age
but thats not the point here

the point is that is devastating and wrong to refuse hrt for children who come out for example at 14,15 etc
I came out at 18 and my psychiatrist told me  I am too young to make  such decisions...like..really dude?you just said that?
I dont know what I want but you know what I want?
this is broken logic no matter how you look at it

stop torturing people and let them be free

anyways...age matters but genetics matter too...
nonetheless we are all destroyed by testosterone, others  more others less
but its a poison , and its never too late to get rid of it

[Michelle G]

I wish I could have done this all when I was younger but way back then "our" situation was pretty much unheard of in most small towns and if we spoke up it was usually met with a trip to see some clueless old guy with a degree hanging on the wall, no wonder most of us just kept it all bottled up till we are older.

Transitioning at an older age is interesting, you may feel like you've found the "fountain of youth" and now you can more than likely afford to dress like that 20 something girl you missed out on being...awkward at first but then you eventually settle into something a bit more age appropriate in appearance and mindset ( I said a BIT more appropriate, not completely, lol)

For me, I am very happy and humbled to see the younger girls in here being so brave and positive in their transition, they are actually quite an inspiration

[Northern Jane]

NO!

I knew by age 8 exactly what I needed but in 1957 nobody knew anything about this stuff. Adults also took the attitude that children can't possibly know anything so my pleas and protests were ignored. By age 15 (1964) I was judged "delusional" and a shrink offered to have me institutionalized, treated with testosterone (to "make a man of me") and lobotomy if necessary to cure my delusion that I was/should have been a girl. If that had happened, I would have died very young.

No "one rule" can be applied to everyone because everyone is different. Some know for certain at a very early age; others take longer to be sure.

[FrancisAnn]

I wanted to improve & change early in life, like in my early teens...... But in those days it was impossible & not enough $ to even consider correcting my gender.......  Now I'm much older, in my late 50's however I have the $ now & it's past time I finally became a normal person.  So NO, it's up to each of us with our lives. Good luck to all GF's. 

[Heather]

I say yes actually for the simple fact hormones alter the mind and the body. And some lack the maturity to make this major of a life decision. Just look around this site and you'll find a some examples of this.

[Julia-Madrid]

My immediate and visceral response is that age should place no restrictions on a person's decision to transition.

Then we have to overlay messy practical issues such as an assessment of the real change to quality of life.  That's a tricky one.  A 6'2" 200lb M2F might feel totally liberated by the change or totally traumatised by acceptance and passing issues. 

I guess, therefore, my answer would be "it depends."

[AnneB]

Why couldn't I have been like the 6yr old in CA, and told my parents, and spent the last almost 50yrs without this agony.

We are being judged right now, competent, or not, mature enough to grasp, or not, our decision/choice to begin our transition.  Is that even possible as a 6yr old?  Should it matter, even be a factor? 

At that age, my father would have disowned me, based on his statement about what mom wanted to name me had I been born female..  Christine.  As in Christine Jorgensen. He made it clear I would not have been named after a trans woman. 

No, I do not think age should be a factor.

[Newgirl Dani]

I find myself on a sort of sliding scale with this topic and I believe the main motivators for this indecision is:

1. Social and familial induced guilt and shame

2. Possible disorders , adjustment abnormalities (internal or external influence), or perhaps just plain old lack of guidance and love that allows this to go undealtwith.  Then a mistaken belief that it is a gid situation which supposedly has an easy fix through hrt, takes the leap only to find later the negative situation has been compounded.

With this said, I wish the knowledge and acceptance was there when I was young in order to have dealt with and excluded certain things in order to be who I needed to be.  As much as I wish that tihis to be a concrete issue it seems to me to be a fuzzy line type of thing.  Dani

[apriljo]

the point is that is devastating and wrong to refuse hrt for children who come out for example at 14,15 etc
I came out at 18 and my psychiatrist told me  I am too young to make  such decisions...like..really dude?you just said that?
I dont know what I want but you know what I want?
this is broken logic no matter how you look at it

Oh, I see, you meant the other side of the spectrum. Age should only play into how to treat. I feel that blockers should be given to anyone questioning and transition hormones at the late genetic puberty age if they still feel like transitioning at that point. A child should be allowed to live as their identified gender no matter what age. Doing any less is cruelty.

[stephaniec]

In my personal experience I am glad I am transitioning older. The reason is simply life gave me the confidence in myself to do it successfully where younger I would probably not had it. Add to it we are usually more stable as to the financial aspect as well. You are never too old in my opinion to be the real you. 

I know mentally I would of had a hard time because I was going through multiple issues. Financially would of been very difficult because basically I've always been poor . what money I had access to went to education. I'm poor , but mentally happy. although if the opportunity for me to have transitioned in grade school I could of been saved a lot of grief

[LordKAT]

No age for transition so much as age limits for some aspects of the medical stuff. I think blockers when or shortly before puberty is a good idea, HRT at 15 or so if all is persistent and not back and forth stuff. I can see SRS at 18, but possibly orchy or top surgery earlier.

[stephaniec]

No. I don't know why age should matter in transition. I mean, I suppose some people think - 'well, you've lived this long as your birth gender, why not just live out the rest of your life that way?' But that idea is flawed. I mean, what if this life is it for everyone - your one chance to live and be happy? One year of happiness could be worth 50 of misery. Time really is relative. An illusion.

Anyhow, I believe everyone transitions at the time right for them. Even your birthdate may factor in - so you weren't born in a more enlightened time and got the benefits of transitioning young. Maybe there's a reason for that. We all have different journeys on this planet.

I think this is what happened to me. I went through a lot of therapy , but only dealt with the transgender issue recently . I have a good therapy team that didn't try to use the argument of time left on the planet , so why try to change. I definitely feel that approach was used on me previously that why I'm transitioning later because all the options weren't put on the table

[Misha]

Try googling for these (to explain it's the international code for gender identity disorder of childhood which may or may not end up as F64.0 - transsexual later on):

F64.2
F64.2 diagnosis
F64.2 treatment
F64.2 research

And there's nearly nothing (with the exception of the second one but the books mention it only briefly). You'll rather search collisions with completely unrelated stuff. From what I've read it's theoretically possible to tell a child's gender identity at the age of 3 with very high accuracy. There are movements in some countries for people born intersex for any surgical alterations to be delayed until that age (and if I'm not mistaken it's already implemented in Germany; someone correct me if I'm wrong). So why limit such choice only to those born intersex?

Of course until puberty is reached it would pretty much be a long "real life test". Putting a child body through HRT until it would hit puberty? I'm no doctor so this is purely my personal opinion based on what I've read: bad idea. So lets assume using HRT to adjust the puberty. Any kind of surgery? Only when puberty is pretty much over to ensure no problems with maturing body. Yes, there are medical risks to asses but that goes for us adults as well. Quite a few here are on very low HRT for example.

Summary: in my opinion restrictions are pointless but medical state, as always, needs to be careful watched with some restrictions applied to how the transition is done. Not when.