Queerd

By Luke Roche                                                                                    luke.roche@queerd.com

People are born with a sex and a gender. Society teaches that our sex must match our gender, but that isn’t always the case. Sometimes our gender doesn’t match our sex.  We are known as transgender. In TRANSfiguration, I will be revealing my transition from female to male as it unfolds, what it means to be transgender to myself and others, as well as what it is like being transgender throughout one’s life.   Email me if you have any questions or comments.

According to Dictionary.com the definition of transgender is, “a person appearing or attempting to be a member of the opposite sex, as a transsexual or habitual cross dresser.” There are a two things wrong with this definition. The first being that a transgender person is not “attempting” to be their opposing gender. They already are their preffered gender. With that in mind, sex and gender are two different things. Sex is the parts one is born with, and gender is how one percieves themselves psychologically.

An example of this would be me, a female to male (FTM) transgender. Physically, I have a female body, but mentally, I identify as a man. My transition is not me “becoming” a man, but rather altering my female body to have a more male appearance. Obviously, I will never have the same body as a cisgendered man, however, through hormones and surgery my body will look more like a biological male.

It is important to remember that every transition is different. Not every transgender indiviual wants the same exact surgeries or wants to take hormones. More importantly, each transgender individual’s experiences are different, although they may have similarities.

A good majority of the trans community usually want hormone replacement therapy, testosterone for FTMs and for male to female (MTF) they take estrogen and anti-androgens. Most, if not all, of the trans community at one time or another goes through gender therapy in order to be prescirbed hormones. Unfortunately, some trans people don’t go through therapy, and get their hormones off the street. This is very unsafe because more times than not, they will start off at a very high dose and will cause harm to their internal organs.

When it comes to types of surgeries offered to the trans community, they are split up into two categories, top surgery and bottom surgery. Top surgery for FTMs are bilateral mastectomies and peri-areolar chest reconstruction, and for MTFs there are mammoplasty, tracheal shaves, and facial feminization surgery. Most trans people whether FTMs or MTFs opt for top surgery. That is not the same for bottom surgery, however. MTF surgery, vaginoplasty, has less of a risk in losing sensation and looks more natural than that of phalloplasty or metoidioplasty offered for FTMs. A lot of transmen would rather not have bottom surgery because they feel that it doesn’t look, feel, and will never function as a real penis, while a lot of transwomen want to have bottom surgery.

Every transition is different. The chances that you will find two trans people going thru the same exact experiences are very slim. One thing is true for most, if not all, trans people, transitioning is the difference between life and death.