More cases of GID I would say probably have to do with better accesses to information and differing attitudes about Gender and Sexuality in general. Like it or not, the Trans Community is linked the the LGB one, and if you look at workplaces and state nondiscrimination policy you will see that in the last 15 years massive strides have been made in protections for LGBT people in America. Since the United States seems to make up the bulk of the internet I think this has also been a change clearly shown in the web as well.

There were probably always this many people with GID or for that matter other LGB people, now there are many more people who would admit to being part of the LGBT community, but that is like I said probably a shift in culture, rather than people looking online and being copycats to try to solve a problem they never had. Trans people, have always existed, but many of them just thought they were "normal" or that they were the only ones that felt this way.

I guess it is just hard for me to see someone "catching" GID from anywhere, no more than I would "Catch" wanting to sleep with men from hanging out with people who do. Do people get confused? Sure, but that is what the Standards of Care are for, I am sure that if someone doesn't really have the desire to live as a different gender that only a very small percent would get past the point of RLE and have surgery.

In ~ 1954! I wanted to be rid of my 'extra' , be girl! No web then, no information, no doctor knew a thing, no nothing!
Just shut up your face don't act like a lunatic --- yep, lots of that there was then.

The web did help, MUCH later though, to figure out what on earth was going on with me, feeling like a girl inside.

Still LOTS of non-information on our GID subject. Not one councillor, therapist, awareness group trainer knew --- at least didn't want to know.
It was all just too much, too off-the-wall, even for mainstream psychologists, at least in SA, and also in Munich Germany in the 90s still!
If you found one that WOULD listen, you could look forward to be getting electro-shock therapy – get welcomed to the cuckoo's nest. Fancy that?
Better to shut up and keep pushing it down.

It was an UNSPEAKABLE, THE unspeakable, thing. You just push it right back down, cram the lid back on. Be a man, if you can't take it – put a bullet through your head. That was the solution – with VERY few exception.

Male-lesbian as I felt, when mentioning it to ANYONE, they think you plumb crazy.

Yes, in the end the web helped to understand what the heck was going on inside me.
THAT I WAS NOT CRAZY, that there actually was a thing like GID.

Even today, only ONE psychiatrist is "qualified" to deal with this issue in SA, as a "gatekeeper"! Old style. Maybe because he is gay? Yet, as a gay male to get into our MtF heads is on another page. He actually can't and is not interested either. Just ticking off boxes.
I suffered this individual for 1 year. So, the web also became my support group. There is NONE in the whole (SA) Gauteng province!!!
By that token we still live in the dark ages as to what GID is concerned, at least in SA.

My 2 cents, eh
Axelle

Let's see...well it started when I was in preschool, around 5 or so, when I wondered to myself, "What would happen if I went to preschool as a girl?" The thought ended up becoming more and more appealing, and I even asked my sister if I could go to preschool as a girl. She said something along the lines of, "Nobody would know who you are, though," which was a good enough answer for my 5 year old brain at the time.

Later, I was watching a rather distasteful contest on TV with my sister where I first found out that a man actually could become a woman. It was a show where they took a bunch of cis-women and trans-women and judges had to guess which was which. I look at the idea of that as idiotic and discriminatory now, but it planted a seed in my head that continued to grow over time. Or maybe the seed was already there and that was the fertilizer. Hmm...

Now the internet comes in. A few years after I finally started using the internet on a regular basis (I was probably 9 or 10 at this point), and on a whim I decided to look up a term I thought I had made up: Sex Change. It turned out that I hadn't made up that term whatsoever. Instead, I found hundreds of articles about men who had become women and women who had become men. Not all of them were necessarily good, mind you, but I finally was starting to learn that I kind of wanted that to happen to me. Over the years I would keep coming back to the web whenever I had a big "I want to be a girl" phase, and the urge eventually got larger because I kept learning and learning and learning everything I could about transition, about the different types of people that felt the same way I did, and about how I felt.

I'd say I didn't "catch" this problem from the internet, but it definitely showed me that something could be done about the way I feel, and that if I really wanted to I could successfully live as a woman. It also allowed me to go through the many stages leading up to acceptance a lot faster than I would have otherwise. While I do not doubt that some people use the internet to lull themselves into the thought that they are transgendered when they really are not, I also believe that the number of those people is relatively small. I believe the internet can serve as a learning source for people who feel "different" to find out that they may not be so different after all, that they are not freaks, and that something can be done about the way they feel. On the other hand, I did fall into some seedy sites when I was younger that I wish I had never seen, so it's not like the internet is all good for this sort of thing...

Kia Ora folks,

Because of some of the comments so far I just thought a poll would be of interest...

Thanks for your participation so far

Metta Zenda

I think the internet speeds the process up for a lot of people. When I believed myself to be TS, it certainly accerlarated my ideas, added pressure to them and made me very unhappy with myself, but it was also the internet that led me to the concept of androgyne.

Haha, my story is pretty funny.

I've always LONGED to be in possession of a male body. Most recently, when I saw the character Mystyqe transform into a man at will, I was envious. I've always wanted a super power that would turn me into a man.

...I actually wasn't aware of surgeries that were available for people like me back then. I always thought it impossible to become a man physically.

Then I found the Internet (as in, I actually researched instead of waste my time on games). It told me that sex-reassignment was possible! You should've seen my face. So here I am, making friends with people who understand how I felt. (envy, dysphoria, and other terrible feelings)

...boy, I sure felt stupid for not knowing.

I had no idea transitioning was possible until I stumbled across some Youtube videos about 2 years ago.  Without the internet, and happening upon those videos, there's a good chance I still wouldn't know today.  I was looking for answers, I just didn't know the right questions to ask.  (I Googled things like "I hate being a girl," "I want to be a boy," "I want a mastectomy and a hysterectomy," etc., but I didn't find what I was looking for.)  So I voted yes, "very helpful."

I found the internet to be a good source of info as long as I made sure it was correct by multiple checks.  Up until recently I was living in a rural area with limited direct contact with GLBTI people, so it has helped get over any isolation.
And it let me find you all. Thanks.

Karen.

QuoteIn ~ 1954! I wanted to be rid of my 'extra' , be girl! No web then, no information, no doctor knew a thing, no nothing!
Just shut up your face don't act like a lunatic --- yep, lots of that there was then.

The web did help, MUCH later though, to figure out what on earth was going on with me, feeling like a girl inside.

Still LOTS of non-information on our GID subject. Not one councillor, therapist, awareness group trainer knew --- at least didn't want to know.
It was all just too much, too off-the-wall, even for mainstream psychologists, at least in SA, and also in Munich Germany in the 90s still!
If you found one that WOULD listen, you could look forward to be getting electro-shock therapy – get welcomed to the cuckoo's nest. Fancy that?
Better to shut up and keep pushing it down.

It was an UNSPEAKABLE, THE unspeakable, thing. You just push it right back down, cram the lid back on. Be a man, if you can't take it – put a bullet through your head. That was the solution – with VERY few exception.

I very much relate to this, but my story took place in America a few years later.
I really wish the competitive folks who like to number their transness and judge those who get here later could grasp that reality.
We are some tough old farts. 

QuoteI've always LONGED to be in possession of a male body.  ...I actually wasn't aware of surgeries that were available for people like me back then. I always thought it impossible to become a man physically.

Then I found the Internet...boy, I sure felt stupid for not knowing.

And that pretty much sums up the rest of it for me, too.

The internet for me sped up the desire to transition once I found out that many others did it.  Growing up when I expressed similar feelings the response from family would be "you just need prayer" and I believed them and just did nothing about my feelings but now that I have access to the internet to see that this is not just all inside me head the respones will still be "you just need prayer" but at least I know that this is a documented condition.  Thanks internet!

Put me under the group who knew since they were young (age 6 for me), but didn't know there was anything to be done about it. Personally, I did the "just get over yourself and deal with it, you're a weirdo so you should keep it all hidden" thing. Then one night after a semester where my depression really hit bad, I remembered that I was always sad as a child because I didn't like who I was at some very core level (ie, that I was born male). Searched for transgendered people/transsexuals on YouTube and Voila! I had a big list of people's transition stories that mirrored mine exactly... to a T

It didn't help me diagnose, I was already past that, however it did save my life in getting me to believe it was true and providing a structure for me to handle it and move towards transition. (Whoah! Run on sentence... Sorry, my brain is fried from writing all day... lol)

  It was the mid 60's when I saw Christine Jorgenson in a local interview on TV.  I caught it later in the library.  No WWW back then.
  Joelene