What is transsexualism?
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Transsexualism is an example of natural diversity in human sexual formation that has been around for all recorded history. It is not some new thing that doctors have thought up. Transsexualism is the predicament whereby an individual experiences him or herself as being one sex (male or female) even though their body wants to look and functions like the opposite sex. Another way to say it is that a person's innate sex identity (or neurological sex or "brain-sex") is different from or sexually incongruent with the sex indicated by the other aspects of the person's sexually differentiated body - such as their genitalia. Transsexualism is characterised by a personal certainty of individual sex identity in the face of all other indicators and social forces, rather than a predicament of confusion, uncertainty or disorder. Transsexualism comes within the broad diagnostic label termed "Gender Identity Disorder" in the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Association of Psychiatrists called "DSM IV", but is a not a mental illness or mental disorder at all. When specialist psychiatrists and clinical psychologists diagnose a young person or adult as experiencing transsexualism (or "GID", "extreme GID" or "GID (transsexuals type") they do not mean that they have identified a mental illness or mental disorder, but that they have ruled out mental illness or disorder as a cause for the presenting predicament of a person experiencing him or her self as being of one sex while having been assigned to the other sex on the basis of readily observable bodily characteristics. The disorder aspect of transsexualism which requires medical treatment is the conflict between sexually differentiated mind and body. By 4 or 5 years of age our human brains are 'hard wired' as to our sex identity. In the absence of mental illness, a human being does not change his or her mind about which sex he or she is - and could not do so by force of willpower and no matter how threatened or cajoled. A person with transsexualism will experience so tremendous suffering as a result of the conflict between their innate sexual identity and their body's sexual formation; so much so, and especially at puberty that he or she may even self-harm. This is a cry for help. The medical help needed to resolve this mind/body sexual identity disorder and disability is that which will help bring the person's body into sexual harmony with their mind's innate sex identity. We call that personally therapeutic medical treatment "Sex Affirmation Treatment" - because that is what it is. There is no "sex change" and no one "changes their minds" or "reaches a difficult decision" about which sex they are. Young people with transsexualism simply affirm the sex they have always known themselves to be. They are courageous in so doing and deserve our support. |
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