Do childhood Cross dressing and transitioning go hand in hand?

[Emily E]

Hello

I have a strange question about cross-dressing and transition that I haven't seen asked before.  Is it really required that someone cross-dressed in their childhood or as an adult for them to have gender dysphoria? 

The reason I ask is because I have never really cross-dressed on a regular basis when I was a child I wanted to but my older sister and mom were so much bigger then  I was nothing they owned would ever fit me so I never really tried... I did feel like I should be a girl and loved looking at dresses and clothing and wondered what it would be like and wished it could happen but it never did.  It wasn't till I was like 25 when I first tried on some women's clothing that turned out to be way too small for me to really feel good about it and it was only the one time so I'm not sure if that really counts . 

I really do want to transition and not just a little bit as it would make my lifelong dream of being a woman come true but I'm just thinking that my lack of trying might be unusual for someone with gender dysphoria or someone that eventually transitions and would like to know if anyone else was the same way before they transitioned.

[Mariah]

No it's not required because not everyone suffers from gender issues at such a young age and secondly not everyone cross dresses for the reason of gender dysphoria. As far as your feelings and not being able to as proof of your gender dysphoria that is something you would need to mention to your therapist I'm sure they will understand that you couldn't because the clothing in the house was the wrong size for you. Good luck and hugs.
Mariah

[jeni]

I never had any interest in cross-dressing as a kid, or as an adult, until after I decided I was going to transition. I think maybe I tried on a bra once out of curiosity, but I don't even know.

I have zero doubt that I'm transgender. But I think my internal sense is to seek congruity between my appearance and identity. Until I put a few things together and accepted myself, I thought about myself as male, just one who wished he wasn't. Now? Now I can barely put up with going to work wearing men's clothes that I was somewhat excited about last year...

[jessical]

It is not a requirement.  I never cross dressed as a child.  I did try it at some point, but it was not my thing.  It was not until I started HRT and changes started to happen that female clothes felt right.  So it's not unusual.  It is about your brain not matching you body.  What we do externally are just ways that we deal with the the brain body mismatch, and that varies greatly from person to person.  It is very possible to do nothing that is typical, because it is about who we are on the inside.

[Evolving Beauty]

Speaking for myself to me YES. I've always like dressing like a girl since I was 4 years old and always play with girls toys whether in kindergarten or primary.

[Emily R]

I have crossdress all of my life , earlier memories is about 7 years old, and have always wanted to wear female clothing but did not realize that I was trangender until age 61.

I think I knew it but repressed it all of this years!

Emily

[Nicole]

The first time I put on anything even remotely female was the day after I came out to mum and she went shopping with a few things to wear around the house.

I'm talking about some more girly styled pjs.

[ganjina]

I did not cross dress before, I think I was really stuck up with it all. After coming out, it was much better and I started wearind a lot of andro clothing (not xdressing per see).

[Wednesday]

I got some memories from when I was 4 years old or so. Also preferred girls clothes: panties, jerseys... they were so cute!

[Echo Eve]

Hi Emily.

From the stories here, a straight answer to your question isn't easily come by. Many stories with many outcomes, some leading to transition.

I dressed regularly from age seven, but kept it very separate from my family and social life. I didn't play with dolls or other 'girly' things.
My cross-dressing began over 30-years ago and it's only within the last 5-years that I've made moves towards transitioning.
I'm still torn mentally over transitioning (I've already had a couple of shots at it), but the dysphoria keeps returning with a vengeance.
Hey, what can you do other than roll with it?

Something playing on my mind, to which your question alludes, is what extent external influences determine the choice to transition... or not.

[kariann330]

speaking for myself only.....Yes it they did go hand in hand.

[mfox]

Is it really required that someone cross-dressed in their childhood or as an adult for them to have gender dysphoria? 

Not really. Crossdressing and transitioning are definitely two different things.

There are plenty of people who are happy with their gender, but like to crossdress once in a while, like gender bending.

Some people crossdress for entertainment, like drag queens and female impersonators.

Someone with transvestic fetishism crossdresses part-time for sexual reasons, and might be transgender too, but they don't want to transition full-time.

As a transsexual person, to me, cross-dressing is just necessary as part of the treatment for dysphoria.  I didn't do it as a child, but I don't think that's much of an indicator.  It wasn't until I started transitioning and my body changed enough that I could wear the right clothes properly.

[Deinewelt]

It depends.  For me, there wasn't much of an option to cross dress until I was older and out on my own.  When I was younger, there was never any way to do it, but I do remember playing with my moms makeup, but there were no clothes that really fit me.  I do know that I did try stuff on at times but it was rare.  After I was out on my own I just seemed to naturally gravitate towards doing it. 

[iKate]

The answer to this is "yes and no."

It is not a requirement to show any symptoms early in life to transition. It is also not a requirement to identify gay or bisexual, or be effeminate as a child or at any point in life. No requirement to hate your body parts like your penis either. Many people realize they are trans later on and many people for whatever reason do not show the typical trans narrative.

However it is common for trans persons to have cross dressed in childhood. Personally I've done it many more times than I could count since age 4. Even my school uniforms I would choose a smaller size so the pants would be tighter like a woman's. Of course I deeply envied the girls who got to wear skirts and dresses as their school uniform and even tried on some from my female relatives. I really melted down when the girls my age started wearing bras. I cried a lot and wanted to kill myself. I also gave my dad so much trouble once puberty hit because I just did not care about life being in the wrong body.

I had limited opportunities to dress because I lived with my dad and there was no female clothing in the house. I had to do it when I went to moms and had alone time which was somewhat rare. Or I had to depend on other relatives. There were a couple of them who helped me and let me dress and said I would look so cute as a girl. I really really liked that. This was before age 10.

Fast forward to when I finally decided to transition, I started back CDing a lot and was just not happy with being in my body. The clothes didn't fit very well. Now the clothes fit a lot better and it is s struggle wearing men's clothing because pants for example do not fit right.

I never identified gay and could never see myself as a man with a man. I was only mildly effeminate and got ridiculed for it so I quickly boxed that back and shoved it into the closet. There was also the real possibility of violence and even being killed which I always had to be aware of.

[Mariah]

I didn't include it this in my original response since I only tried answer the OP's question, but I did crossdress starting before the age of 10.
Mariah

[Dee Marshall]

I only cross dressed once as a child and I didn't initiate it. I tore my Halloween costume walking home from school and my mother dressed me up as a little old lady instead. I considered it quite a lark, but didn't repeat it. Up until recently, when I started to see results from E, I didn't because the few times I tried after I accepted that I'm trans the incongruity of the clothes with how I looked actually made my dysphoria worse. Just trying on a bra could put me in tears then.

[AndreaLinda]

I started crossdressing when I was around 7, pretty young. That was my first encounter with mamma's closet lol

[Jill F]

The only crossdressing I ever did was dressing as a guy for most of my life.   I never wore women's things until I was 43, but I had wanted to since I was 4.

[Tessa James]

I was too fearful to even try dressing till I was an adult and did limited (top) dressing for decades.  Like Jill, I felt like wearing a suit and tie were actually imposed crossdressing for me.  I also know plenty of people who as kids did so called crossdressing but are not out as trans or gay today.

Formulas are for chemistry but don't work well for the complexity of people;-)

[Emily E]

Thank you all for responding its good to know that I'm not some oddball in what I did or how I feel in all of this.  I am still looking for a good counselor that I can reasonably fit into my life so my feeling that I have gender dysphoria is self-diagnosed and all based on what I know and feel.