How does it all work??

[Shauna89]

I've been reading around for a while and have yet to really find anything definitive of what causes ->-bleeped-<-. So what I am getting at is can anyone help me figure this out? I've always had these feelings but they never really made any sense to me. They've done research showing similarities between trans brains and females but I don't really feel like that is conclusive. This leads me to think its more psychological and like any other mental condition it should be treatable but a lot of the people researching the causes claim it is not psychological and is more related to hormones and being intolerant to testosterone, But then how does someone (like me for example) who clearly has no intolerances to test end up being a possible transgender. If I am transgender I can accept that but I feel like I need some real reasons why I am the way I am and I just want to add that my statements above were not meant to discourage people who believe these as truths I am simply questioning it myself for my own reasons. Thanks in advance for any replies.

[samblack]

I would be very careful about what you read online and what you believe. Try going to google scholar or other peer reviewed resources to look for definite articles about real studies. you never know if the info you're reading on a random site is true or not. Finding peer reviewed articles will ensure that you're reading valid research, and not just some yahoo propaganda somebody typed up to a website.
Personally I haven't read anything about what causes. I think in passing once I heard something about some people think the fetal brain starts to develop as one gender but then something goes wrong and the body develops the other way. I guess that's a good enough theory for me. I also personally am ok with not finding a "cure" that would make me want to be female (I'm FTM) because I would much rather be a boy, I just don't feel comfortable as a female so I don't want someone to give me a pill or put me through some therapy that would make me want to be a girl.
Sex is biological, gender is a social construct. Boys like cars, girls like dolls. that's crap people have just decided, it doesn't mean its RIGHT. Just because someone has a penis doesn't mean they are a boy, just because someone has a vagina doesn't mean they are a girl. It an arbitrary term, constructed by society used to label people. and it's misguided.
You are you and that is totally fine.

[Ms Grace]

To be honest I don't think anyone really knows...anything you read is likely to be theory, conjecture or outright fabrication.

[suzifrommd]

Everyone has a structure in their brain that tells them what gender they should be. Ours doesn't match our body sex.

What that means is that the structure makes us happy when we see ourselves as a member of the gender it wants us to be and dysphoric when we see ourselves as a member of the other gender.

That's all there is to it. It's actually rather simple.

[Dee Marshall]

Just from listening to F2Ms and M2Fs here and reading studies I'm beginning to think they have different mechanisms and possibly more than one each. F2Ms seem to have more problem with testosterone on average than F2Ms have with estrogen and F2Ms seem to report being able to get along without T more than M2Fs can with E.

I definitely think trying to translate our experiences to each other is dubious. Entirely psychological in every case? I'm in the field and I would say definitely not.

[Alexis2107]

For some, they have Klinefelters.  Two female chromosomes and one male chromosome. 

[jojoglowe]

The energy that our universe is made of is best viewed as a spectrum.

Humans took the spectrum of visible light, infinite colors and reduced it down to 7 (ROYGBIV)

We did the same with the gender spectrum.

In the west, we reduced it to 2, many other cultures have more gender categories, though in reality there are an infinite number of gender expressions and identities.

So one could argue that a person who is "transgender" is simply an individual who does not fit societies gender binary. Because current society enforces a gender binary, that doesn't mean transgender people are ill, it means that society does not currently understand, or have a way to talk about gender as it truly exists.

Society does the same with race. Black or white? I'm "white," yet every summer I end up having a "black" person put their arm by mine to compare skin tone. We are usually equal, and at times I've been darker than a "black" person. In reality, our skins have a different way of working with melanin, we aren't really black or white.

So... while there are binary chromosomes XX vs XY, gender is different than that. And to be fair, the universe doesn't always stick to the XX vs XY thing.

Human words and ideas of gender do not accurately capture the reality of it. We don't need a reason for being the way we are, besides the fact that this is how we are. Own it!

[wolfduality]

There are tons of theories. In my own research which includes OUTDATED material, these are some of the schools of thought:

*It's believed to be a coping mechanism for: sexual abuse, sexual inadequacy, lack of parental affection (either from abusive/neglectful/uninvolved or absent parent(s)), or to attempt to suppress other mental/health issues.
*It's believed to be an attempt to examine the other sex and earn the benefits of being that sex.
*Some believe it's an attempt to change one's sexual orientation. (Meaning they are attracted to women but they are also a woman so they became a man so they aren't a lesbian.)
*Trans people's brains are wired differently and/or shaped like the gender they feel they are.
*->-bleeped-<- is a mental defect/disorder from either birth or injury.
*Trans people are "born that way", no explanation.
*Trans people are a deviation or evolution of human kind.

And those are just the ones I can remember. Is one of them true? Maybe. Are several of them possible? Probably. It's not clear really since many trans people are stealth or just simply don't/can't participate in such studies. On top of that, there isn't an enormous population of trans people in general (or so it seems). Right now, nothing is conclusive.

[Alexis2107]

The energy that our universe is made of is best viewed as a spectrum.

Humans took the spectrum of visible light, infinite colors and reduced it down to 7 (ROYGBIV)

We did the same with the gender spectrum.

In the west, we reduced it to 2, many other cultures have more gender categories, though in reality there are an infinite number of gender expressions and identities.

So one could argue that a person who is "transgender" is simply an individual who does not fit societies gender binary. Because current society enforces a gender binary, that doesn't mean transgender people are ill, it means that society does not currently understand, or have a way to talk about gender as it truly exists.

Society does the same with race. Black or white? I'm "white," yet every summer I end up having a "black" person put their arm by mine to compare skin tone. We are usually equal, and at times I've been darker than a "black" person. In reality, our skins have a different way of working with melanin, we aren't really black or white.

So... while there are binary chromosomes XX vs XY, gender is different than that. And to be fair, the universe doesn't always stick to the XX vs XY thing.

Human words and ideas of gender do not accurately capture the reality of it. We don't need a reason for being the way we are, besides the fact that this is how we are. Own it!

Makes a lot of sense   I have such fair skin, would love to tame my skin into tanning to be dark