I tried to talk to two cisgender female friends about the transgender experience, and it was insanely hard, haha. I asked them what made them women. They replied: having breasts and a vagina. I asked, what other things, not physical, make you women? They replied: estrogen. I asked, what makes you feel like a woman. Again, they replied: estrogen in the body.

That makes a lot of sense. However, it totally doesn't explain why transpeople feel the way we do. How can I feel like a man when I have tons of estrogen coursing through my body, and probably very little testosterone? It just doesn't make biological sense. If any of you know how this makes sense, please enlighten me, I would appreciate it. 

The truth is, clothes and mannerisms don't equal gender. Obviously, there is plenty of variance in behavior in both men and women, and very often people will have feminine and masculine traits, and this is considered healthy and balanced. So...what is gender?

Gah, I know there is no simple answer. >.<

gender to me is like this
<---------------------------|---------------x------------->
infinitely male                 Androgyny          (me)         infinitely female
and everyone is some where on that line , i've always been trying to understand what causes GD because i thought maybe if i understand the reason of the problem it would be easier to solve , but nothing
no one could really understand gender , because people with no problems take it for granted , it's only people with gender problems who have to think about it and try to define it 

To me it's like spending 40 years of your life being told you are hopeless at doing anything much in the way of manual tasks, you know you are highly intelligent, but just can't seem to be other than clumsy.  And then one day you realise - you are not left handed after all!

Quote from: justmeinoz on April 26, 2010, 07:49:55 AM
To me it's like spending 40 years of your life being told you are hopeless at doing anything much in the way of manual tasks, you know you are highly intelligent, but just can't seem to be other than clumsy.  And then one day you realise - you are not left handed after all!

Yes!!!

I explain it trying to reverse the situation.
It's alittle bit more complicated from your perspective

to men.
"Imagine your penis fell off and your voice was squeaky and stupid, Ya... that's what it's like to be trans"
Most guys can understand feelings of emasculation at some point or another it's often redundant to explain further.

For women.
"What if you started growing facial hair and your head hair began falling out... Wouldn't be good for your emotional health or self image would you suddenly be a man in your mind or a girl with a deformity?... That's what it's like to be trans."

There is no real way to explain it.

There's some evidence to suggest structures in the brain may be responsible for self-perception of male and femaleness. These structures like pretty much everything also being hormonally influenced, but hormonally influenced as a fetus and largely unchanging after the fact.


A bit like how hormonal abnormalities can result in physical intersex conditions, but only if they happen as a fetus, once you're born hormones can't influence some of the directions already taken.