Hmm, for me I wasn't born into the wrong body, just the wrong culture :c

I just consider me being female in the wrong body a birth defect that is now being corrected. I answered "No One," for if you carry blame hate or guilt around with you you'll never be able to move forward.

Ally

Quote from: HughE on March 28, 2014, 07:22:00 PM
Sorry, I have to disagree with you there! I think there are plenty of reasons why it is important to know what causes transness.

* I think it makes a massive difference to both you and those around you to know that you're not crazy and that what's happened to you isn't a purely psychological condition; that something happened during your prenatal development that physically altered the structure of your brain and gave you a "brain sex" that doesn't match your biological sex. I also think it would vastly improve public attitudes towards trans people in general if the full facts come out about what happened with DES.

* if one synthetic hormone can cause transness, then the likelihood is that others can too. While I don't see anything wrong with being trans, it causes a lot of difficulties later in life, a need for ongoing medical treatment, and of course has a high associated mortality rate (from suicide, alcohol and drug abuse, and a general tendency towards self destructiveness). If there's any possibility that some of the miscarriage treatments still in current use are also causing transsexuality, then that needs to be addressed!

* for natal DES daughters in particular, it's important to know about it if you were exposed, because you're at increased risk of vaginal, cervical, breast and ovarian cancer, and you should be having regular screening for cancer above and beyond what most natal women receive.

* the whole system for dealing with gender variant people is geared towards transition and gender reassignment. People like me, who've got some elements of male and some of female, aren't catered for. I know perfectly well that I'm not a woman, but one thing that worries me is that people similar to myself might end up being railroaded into SRS when it's not the most appropriate way of dealing with their situation.

* one common effect of these prenatal hormone exposures seems to be that your body's ability to control hormones later in life is impaired. While you're young your body seems to be able to compensate for this reasonably well, but as you get older there's an increasing likelihood of endocrine-related health problems and infertility. Among the DES daughters I've chatted with, two things I've seen mentioned a lot are PCOS and premature menopause, while hypogonadism and infertility seem to be very common experiences among DES sons. If you've had one of these hormone exposures, you'd be well advised to have any children you're planning on having sooner rather than later! You should also be aware that most doctors don't have the first clue when it comes to hormones, and get around this problem by refusing to diagnose or treat endocrine-related disorders in their patients. I'm not sure about the long term effects of untreated PCOS in natal women, but untreated hypogonadism in natal males (once it gets to the point where you develop the symptoms of acute hypogonadism, such as depression, loss of sex drive etc), will completely destroy your quality of life as well as setting you up for all sorts of health problems in old age.

You misread my post

quote
Yes why GI are born is important to find out, do we can identify and help GI people in the future.
unquote

Who caused GI is irrelevant.

'Random biological processes'  should be added to the list. I consider transsexuality as a biological defect. Something went wrong somewhere, whether it is genetically or environmentally, or likely a combination of both. I don't blame my parents, nor a higher deity.

Also this can't happen, I think:

QuoteWith all that extra-strong oestrogen in her system, it makes sense that some of it might have converted to testosterone and it could have affected my brain.

I'm no doctor, but I believe T can convert into E, but not the other way around. Of course, all that estrogene could have had an impact in other ways, as indicated by previous posts.

The question wasn't WHAT causes trans, it's WHO causes trans, in the sense of who are you going to *blame*. That's quite a different question. Of course, since I feel that being trans is normal (though not convenient), I don't feel it is something inflicted on me. Though I think Mr X's "random biological process" works for me too.

--Jay

I actually agree with Malachite.  I will never forgive my parents for doing what they did to have me not to mention in the wrong body. I am also aware of it being unhealthy as hatred will only consume my energy but it can't be helped.

Nature. I think something went wrong while I was developing that caused me to be trans. I don't blame anyone other than nature because my parents didn't decide to have a trans kid, and I certainly didn't decide to be trans. Some things just happen. Nature screwed up. Sure, it sucks to have to live with it, but there's nothing we can do about it.

I suppose God.. But i don't really consider it something constituting blame. It's a journey.

Yeah, life is harder than I imagine it would have been to grow up as a cis-female, but I can't really know that for certain & i doubt I'd have the same, wonderful people in my life had I been.

I don't think anyone is to blame for my having been born into the wrong body.  I consider myself lucky in some ways because I was given the choice to choose my path.  I would have struggled a lot if I had actually grown up as a boy.  I'm very effeminate and also bisexual with a leaning towards men and that would have made for a lot of hardship for me as a youth.  So instead I got to grow up as a tomboy which is socially acceptable, while also being able to cultivate my interests without shame or being called derogatory names.  Puberty was hard enough without also being called a sissy or beaten up for being gay.

So, yes, I'm thirty and struggling to change my body.  But mentally I'm in a pretty good place.  I know who I am and I'm okay with it.

I think that there is a God, but He didn't make me this way.  He allowed it to happen, either for a reason, or just because he doesn't meddle in our every affair.

Quote from: llerret on March 28, 2014, 01:01:43 AM
I wasn't born in the wrong body. I was born in a trans* body.

I agree. Why is trans a fault?

I am learning that everything that I have been through has lead me to be the person I am today. If I were cis would I be so compassionate? As patient? As loyal? As observant? As analytical? I love these things about myself.

I feel grateful that I can discard that about me that is unfitting, but blame? I blame transphobia for making me feel afraid. For teaching me to hide for so many years. For making this process difficult and confusing.

Quote from: Emerson on March 30, 2014, 08:33:08 PM
I agree. Why is trans a fault?

I am learning that everything that I have been through has lead me to be the person I am today. If I were cis would I be so compassionate? As patient? As loyal? As observant? As analytical? I love these things about myself.

I feel grateful that I can discard that about me that is unfitting, but blame? I blame transphobia for making me feel afraid. For teaching me to hide for so many years. For making this process difficult and confusing.

Everyone views being trans differently.  For me it's a fault, it's a defect that caused me to be born female instead of male. If I were cis would I have the same values?  Most likely, because that's how my parents raised me and my siblings to be.  They raised us to be kind, caring, compassionate, etc.  I would still have been instilled with those values.  Would I be the same person I am now?  Probably not, but then I wouldn't be the same person I am now if I hadn't finished college, or met my best friend. 

I think it's something biological. I was born two months too early, so it's entirely possible I was born during a phase of getting testosterone in the womb, and later on would have received more estrogen and converted my male brain into a female brain. Unfortunately, I decided I was tired of being stuck in there and decided to make my entrance a little more grand than most babies do. (nearly killed both of us in the process too)

I don't mind being trans most of the time. The times it sucks are the times where my feelings and needs are completely ignored by those who love me. I know they're coming to terms with it, but it doesn't make it hurt any less. I may be being punished for something in a past life, or I may be living out a past life as a male. Who knows?

I've also heard that being a FTM may be something that happens when a FAAB is born after a MAAB. I was born after a son, so it's entirely possible that also has something to do with it.

It's also possible it's inherited. I've got high functioning autism. They're coming out with studies that it's being linked to your father being on the spectrum (my dad is DEFINITELY on the spectrum, but undiagnosed, and he also almost reaches the savant level of autism with math) Autism has a LOT of comorbidity with other "disordered" and my alphabet soup of what I've been diagnosed with over the past two or three years is quite a lot.

I don't blame any one though, and I don't really have many regrets. I chose to pursue this. I saw a video where it summed it up pretty well for me. Either transition. Go crazy. Or die. I reached the point where those were my only options. I'm already crazy. I don't want to die. So transitioning is the path I'm taking, the good lord willing and the creek don't rise.

:p

I don't think that there is anyone you can blame for this, it's just a thing that happens. Blaming someone isn't going to help you to fix the problem - in my opinion it's better to just accept where you are and work towards where you want to be.

Quote from: FTMDiaries on March 27, 2014, 06:19:07 AM
I strongly suspect that I may have been born trans* because of the high-dose contraceptive pills my mother used to take back in the 1960s & 1970s. With all that extra-strong oestrogen in her system, it makes sense that some of it might have converted to testosterone and it could have affected my brain.

Actually, the main hormonal component of contraceptive pills is a progestin, not an estrogen. What's more, the progestins used in the first generation of contraceptive pills were derivatives of testosterone, not progesterone, and they turned out to have the ability to cause male development in a female fetus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progestin-induced_virilisation

As well as being used in contraceptive pills, progestins were (and still are) used in "difficult" pregnancies, and prior to its removal from the market were often co-prescribed alongside DES. The numbers exposed are far higher than is made out in that wiki article, e.g. see:
http://prenatalexposures.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/worse-than-thalidomide-consequences-of.html

and are probably well into the millions. As with DES, most of the exposure has taken place during the later stages of the pregnancy, after genital development has already completed and when brain development is the main thing going on.