Gender dysphoria is unhappiness with your given sex or sexual identity. There are mild to severe cases of gender dysphoria. Many people will experience gender dysphoria at some point in their lives.
What is a pre/post/non-op transsexual?
These are all transsexuals in various stages of the surgical procedure which will change the physical attributes of a person of one sex, including their genitals, to those of the opposite sex. Pre-op means "pre-operative transsexual," someone who has begun the hormonal and surgical proceedures and is very close to the operation.
A post-operative transsexual is someone who has had the actual genital surgery done. It is very difficult to tell a m-f post op transsexual from a genetic female. Up to very recently, female-male transsexuals had no effective surgical technique to create a penis. There are penile implants and grafts, but these are often easy to spot.
"Non-op" transsexual is a new word that is floating around. Originally from a computer language, it means a person who has had all the hormonal/surgical treatments, except the genital surgery, and has no desire to proceed with the surgery. GIDAANT is another term for this (Gender Identity Disorder, Adolescent or Adult onset, Non-Transsexual).
What is a transvestite/cross-dresser?
This word has a few different meanings. In its purest form, transvestitism means the same as cross-dressing. Some people make a distinction between dressing for sexual stimulation (transvestitism) and dressing for stress relief or non-sexual enjoyment (cross dressing). Many people, however, use the words interchangeably.
There are several different categories of transvestitism:
fe/male impersonators, who dress as members of the opposite sex for a show
fetishistic transvestites, who are stimulated by dressing up in the clothing of the opposite sex
drag queens/kings, who dress with the intent to amuse or offend
shamen who cross-dress during religious/spiritual ceremonies
transvestites who dress only for an hour a week
transvestites who live almost full time dressed as women or men
In addition, there are people who combine male/female characteristics (such as a bearded man in a miniskirt and heels); they are often classified as "genderf**kers".
What is an intersexual?
An intersexual is a person who is born between (inter) sexes, having partially or fully developed pairs of female and male sex organs.
Intersexual is preferred over the word "hermaphrodite".
What does transgendered mean?
Transgendered was a term put into general usage by Virginia Price. It originally meant a pre-operative transsexual with no desire to have surgery. It later became a catchword for transvestites, transsexuals, female and male impersonators, drag queens, intersexuals, gender dysphorics, and those without a specific gender label.
What is transition?
Transition is the period of time from when the individual first starts the sex-reassignement procedure until the individual is living entirely as a member of the opposite sex .
What causes the urge to crossdress or to change one's sex?
There is a great deal of debate in the medical community as to what causes transsexualism and transvestitism. Transsexualism is thought by some to be caused by a area in the brain called the "sexually dimorphic nucleus". Others claim that it is caused by a hormonal imbalance during pregnancy.
Some types of transsexualism (e.g. xxy syndrome) are genetic.
The two main types of transsexuality are called "primary" and "secondary" transsexualism. Primary transsexalism occurs in young adults who are gender dysphoric from a young age.
Secondary transsexualism occurs in middle-aged people who have not had very strong transgender urges in their earlier lives. This type of transsexualism is thought to be linked to hormonal changes in the body at that time.
There are also cases where people are forced into alternative sex roles due to religious, social, or family pressures. Some men dress as women to avoid draft or get out of the army. Very religious male homosexuals may feel the need to change their sex in order to correspond with their religious beliefs. Parents may dress their children in clothing of the opposite sex because they wanted a child of that sex.
Transvestitism has no definite cause. MTF cross dressers sometimes crossdress because it feels more comfortable than male clothing. FTM cross dressers are more easily accepted than male cross-dressers.
All of the frequently asked questions and answers were found on the following websites:
Michigan State Alliance LGBT SA Students
American Psychological Association
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