Transsexualism – I am Transgender

Transsexualism or gender dysphorias are individuals whose gender identity is opposite to his or her biological sex. A person may feel trapped in a body of a wrong sex who wish to take on gender roles and physical appearance of the opposite sex and this creates conflict because their biological sex is not congruent with their gender identity. A biological male may feels she is a woman trapped in a man’s body with male genitals who wished to be identified as female and vice versa.

There is no clear explanation regarding the cause of transsexualism, some theory suggest this may be cause by hormone imbalance, chemical imbalance in the brain, genetics, and improper learned behavior. Transsexual people may identify themselves as heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual with regards to their sexual orientation where some are attracted only to men, some attracted only to women, and some attracted to both men and women.

The conflict between their biological sex and gender identity cause them great distress and many seek medical treatment to fix this problem. The medical treatment involves extensive screening, hormone replacement therapy, and gender reassignment surgery Some may undergo complete sex-change operation and some may only want the physical appearance and gender roles of the opposite sex and only be treated with hormone replacement therapy without surgery.

Transgenderism

Transgenderism or transgender are individuals who like to socialize as the opposite sex without correcting their physical appearance with hormone therapy or surgery. Transgender men may engage in variety of gender expression such as cross-dressing, drag queens, behave and socialize as women. Transgender women have desire for masculine qualities and may also engage in cross-dressing, drag kings, behave and socialize as men.

Transgender people may identify themselves as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or asexual. People with intersex condition normally identify themselves as either male or female and rarely experience problems with their gender identity but however in small cases intersex people are conflicted about their gender identity and some considered themselves to be members of the transgendered community.

There are three types of transgendered behaviors and these include androphilic men (attracted to males), gynephilic men (attracted to females), and gynephilic women (attracted to females).

• Androphilic men cross-dress to assume female role to attract heterosexual men.

• Gynephillic men are men who are attracted to women but they have the desire to become female and tend to cross-dress and socialize as women.

• Gynephillic women desire masculine qualities and are attracted to women but never seek sex reassignment.

Transvestitism

Transvestitism or transvestites are individuals who cross-dress for the purpose of achieving sexual arousal. Mostly men engage in transvestitism by wearing clothing of the opposite sex and they do not have the desire to correct their physical appearance with hormone therapy or surgery. Transvestites are different from transgendered who cross-dress mainly for the purpose of achieving psychosocial rather than sexual gratification.

A transvestite tends to engage in transvestic fetishism by wearing a piece of woman’s clothing to satisfy his sexual urges or to achieve the desire sexual arousal. Transvestic fetishism is a learned behavior and considered one of the paraphilias that can cause distress in which an individual engage in this unusual sexual behavior.

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