Joanne Herman, transgender advocate, transwoman, and author of Transgender Explained For Those Who Are Not, wrote an interesting piece about transgender regret on The Huffington Post.
"Many will have regrets about the consequences of their transition, but few will regret the transition itself. In the unusual case where the consequences were overwhelming enough to prompt a de-transition, the return to the old gender is seldom satisfactory either."
Read the rest of the article here.
The subject of "transgender regret" has been getting a lot of attention since the suicide of Mike Penner/Christine Daniels.
ReplyDeleteAt least Joanne Herman makes a distinction between regretting the consequences of one's transition and regretting the transition itself. And, as she points out, the former are more common than the latter.
On the other hand, others are trotting out the now-discredited Johns Hopkins study from the 1970's: the one that prompted Johns Hopkins to discontinue gender-reassignment surgeries.
Today the possible consequences of a transition are better-known than they were thirty years ago, not to mention that the surgeries are much better. And there is a larger community--as well as many resources on the web--to help those who are contemplating a transition as well as those who are in the lives of the ones who are transitioning.
In case you're interested, I wrote about Mike Penner/Christine Daniels here:
http://transwomantimes.blogspot.com/2009/12/mike-penner-and-christine-daniels.html
Lady Staci,
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with Lady Justine that making the distinction between these two factors of transition is critical. Truly, one can not examine every aspect of the complete transition close enough.
I do believe that the health profession is slowly catching up to the level of understanding that our community needs, and hope they may offer better assistance to anyone considering this path in life.
Given there can never be enough discussion on this topic, but I would offer to anyone considering taking these step get as educated as humanly possible. As these recent articles point out the consequences of transition can easily be too much to bare.
This of course is the most unfortunate part of seeking to be one's true self. It is often hard to deal with the disappointment that as you finally reach a comfortable stage of personal development, society in general becomes your adversary. I pray every day that all people dealing with gender issues find strength to persevere. With faith and a little luck our community will achieve acceptance sooner rather than later.
My Affection & Respect,
Nikki