Transsexual Healthcare: It's About Alleviating Sex Dysphoria, Not Affirming A "Gender Identity"
Guest Essay
Ian G. Gasp*
In the evolving discourse surrounding transsexuals and our healthcare, we've veered off course into endless arguments over terminology and the legitimacy of gender ideology. Society at large constantly debates whether trans men and women are "real" men and women, while ignoring the crux of the issue: the aim of sex reassignment hormonal and surgical interventions is to alleviate sex dysphoria, not affirm some sort of nebulous "gender identity".
The Irrelevance of "Realness"
I've faced my fair share of people telling me I'm not a "real man," even as everyone who interacts with me on a daily basis perceives me as such. However, neither of these situations has any tangible impact on my medical condition. It's essential to understand that whether society believes transsexual men and women are "real" men or women is irrelevant to the disorder of transsexualism that causes us to experience sex dysphoria.
Treatment is About Own-Body Sex Perception, Not External Societal Validation
The key to understanding transsexual healthcare is recognising that its purpose is not to convince others of our "gender identity", but to allow us to accurately perceive ourselves. It’s not about seeing our bodies as flawed, as in body dysmorphia; it’s about seeing it as alien.
I take medication and undergo surgeries to alleviate the symptoms of my sex dysphoria. No amount of social validation can replace this. Words are just that — words. They don't have a magical power to cure a disconnection between neuronal circuits processing the perception of self and those mediating perception of ownership over the sexed body. Sex dysphoria isn't going to be "fixed" by people using certain words; if I can't accurately perceive my own sex characteristics, then something is wrong — clinically wrong.
The Real Goal of Treatment
When we talk about transsexual healthcare, it's crucial to focus on what the treatment aims to do, which is to alleviate sex dysphoria. At the end of the day, you can say all you want about how legitimate transsexuals are in terms of changing sex. But the goal of the treatment isn’t that— it’s just to manage the level of the disorder. We’re not trying to get from 0 to 10 on a euphoria scale; we’re trying to get from -10 to 0 on a dysphoria scale.
The Efficacy of Existing Treatments
Let's talk about results. Current treatment protocols—hormone therapy, surgery, and so on—are effective for many transsexuals, me included. Before I started treatment, my life was a nightmare of incongruence and inner turmoil. Why shouldn't I, or anyone else, be allowed to undergo a treatment that demonstrably improves our quality of life? Just because it makes you uncomfortable doesn't mean it's invalid.
The Pointless Debate Around Language
While everyone else is stuck debating terminology, transsexuals are living with the reality of their condition. I don't want to make a grand statement about society and gender; I just want to live without the constant discomfort of sex dysphoria. We are not your social statement or political ideology figurehead.
A Challenge to Detractors
There's a glaring absence of viable alternatives from those who vehemently oppose transition as a treatment. I've yet to see someone working on a "dysphoria vaccine" or any other form of treatment that could be more "palatable" to societal norms. So either get on it or let us go about the treatment that currently works.
Risks, Rewards, and Realities
Every medication has side effects, every surgery has risks, and every medical procedure we have today was once an experimental gamble. Life before I pursued sex reassignment medical interventions was significantly worse than any potential risks I might face now. That's the reality, whether we acknowledge it or not.
It's time to steer the conversation back to what matters: effective medical treatment for a debilitating condition. Arguments about "realness," terminology, and societal norms might be stimulating for abstract philosophical debates, but they are a smokescreen obfuscating the real, painful issues at hand.
In the end, it's not about what you call us; it's about how we see ourselves, and more importantly, how people afflicted with transsexualism can live a life freed from the shackles of sex dysphoria.
* Ian G Gasp is the pen name of a 23 y/o female-to-male transsexual who lives in the United States. He blogs on Medium and Twitter, “hoping to fix the disastrous representation of transsexualism through proper education surrounding the disorder and what it’s like.”
Indeed, I think that there are those who wish to trap us in linguistic chains and divert away from the actual issue, which you accurately identify.