Nowadays
, it is common to hear about people being transgender. But what does that mean? I am here to clarify that and maybe clear up a few misconseptions you had about transgender people. I will talk about what it means to be trans, gender dysphoria, transitioning medically and socialy as well as talk about my personal experience as a trangender person.
Beign transgender means that you don't identify with the gender you were assigned at birth. Some people identify with the opposite binary gendrer, while others do not. Those people are nonbinary and are by definition, trangender. Some are genderfluid which means their gender fluctuates and changes from day to day. Transgender people never use their old pronouns and have extreme discomfort when hearing the name they were given at birth. Most of them will ask you to refer to them only by their new pronouns and name when talking about the past. Most trans people are also usually some other form of LGBTQ+ . The trans experience is different for everyone, but for me, I always felt disconnected with my birth gender. Any mention of me being a girl would cause me to dissociate and never felt like my name was truly mine, I new I wasn't a girl, but I didn't have the vocabulary to verbalize it. My new pronouns (he/him or they/them) just came naturally.
Gender dysphoria is a very common thing ammongst transgender people. Although not every trans person has gender dysphoria, most do. Gender dysphoria is better discribed as a state of discomfort regarding your assigned gender at birth. Most trans men 'female to male, also known as "FTM".' have top dysphoria, which is extreme discomfort regarding your chest, voice dysphoria, and bottom dysphoria, (extreme discomfort regarding your genitals) which is not as common. For trans women, the most common kinds of dysphoria are bottom dysphoria, voice dysphoria, and dysphoria regarding facial hair. Personally, I deal with gender dysphoria on the daily. experience chest, voice and height dysphoria. There are ways to lessen it, (binders, which compresses your chest to hide it completely, or tucking, for trans women) but the most effective one is to transition. Transitioning is tricky, because not every trans person wants to transition, medically, and because it is difficult to transition.
There are many steps to be able to transiton. The first on being to talk with your doctor. If you get refered to a gender therapist, they might start looking into hormone blockers. (which stops puberty) they can't give them the hormones they want right away since the results are irreversible, but if they do, they will start to see changes happening. There are also surgeries trans people can go through. For trans men, the most common one is top surgery, where they remove the breast tissue. Bottom surgery is a thing for trans men, but the chances of complications are high. For trans women. The most common one Is bottom surgery. Since eostrogen gives them breasts, they don't need top surgery social transition is just as hard. It os difficult to get a name change and change your gender mark on your ID. Personnaly, I am very early in my transition. I am not on any hormones, though I want to. I would also like to have top surgeries, but The prossess is long and so is the waiting list.
I concider myself fully socially transitionned, since most of my friends and family knows I am trans.
In conclusion, the trans experience is different for everyone and so is gender expression. Many trans men still enjoy wearing feminine clothing and some trans women enjoy masculine clothing. The way they express their gender does not make them any less trans. Because at the end of the day we're just people trying to live our life. Transgender people face a lot of discrimination, just this year, in the U.S, 40 trans people have been murdered. Most of them being trans women of color. Trans people face hatecrimes and bullyign due to other people's ignorance, the thing is, the trans experience is unique and beautiful and I wouldn't trade it for anything else.