Kappa Beta Serving the transgendered community since 1988

I was struggling with the term "Gender Dysphoria" because it seems to connote a rare disease. I may have a cold now and then, but I certainly do not have a disease that has lasted since I was six years old. I first came to the conclusion that this was a disease created by the TS community in order that insurance companies would now have an identified disease and thus agree to pay for transition surgery (which I certainly do not object to at all). I still was not satisfied that that I knew what the definition of "Gender Dysphoria" was because it is not only used to describe a condition present in transsexuals, but also to describe the reason crossdressers dress.

I was still not satisfied with the media's definition of Gender Dysphoria, until I finally deduced the correct definition of "Gender Dysphoria":

By KC Tyler, from her Yahoo 360 page with permission

(I spent this week answering a TG questionnaire, which wanted to know “what message do you have for the TG community?” After discussing my answer with her, Shari Williams pointed out that if I have a message, I also have a vehicle to proclaim it. So here is my answer, expanded. I beg forgiveness from my non-crossdresser TG friends – to use a horrible Washington-esque phrase, I’m reaching out to my “base”.)

In my half-century of lifetime, I have seen a significant amount of progress in the conceptualization and perception of gender-diverse issues in the public eye. From my view at least, I’ve seen acceptance become relatively real for most of the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual parts of the gender spectrum. We sit here in 2006 with an incredibly popular movie with a strong gay theme, television shows that directly deal with lesbianism, and popular personalities comfortable with admitting, even proclaiming, their homo/bisexuality. This is not the 1960’s anymore, to be sure! Even the transsexual aspects of the T-community are in the first throes of acceptance, and let's hope the well-deserved Oscar nomination for Felicity Huffman’s incredible performance in “Transamerica” will provide a significant boost to mass appreciation of the TS issues. But sadly, the heterosexual crossdresser community has almost no positive movement or insight. When the best that we (and I’m in this group) can point to is the brother on “The Drew Carey Show”, we haven’t gotten much traction. Oh well, I guess I’ll grow into my old age simply regretting that some Hollywood script writer thought gay cowboys worked better than cowboys dressed as women. Maybe it’ll happen someday, but alas, I will have missed it.

Bunk.

In March, Jennifer and I had the opportunity to visit a small class of seven individuals at UNCC. I found it unique inasmuch as these students are future professional counselors. It was an opportunity to give a bit of Gender 101 to the helping professionals of tomorrow.

One of the many topics we discussed coincides with Trish's excellent piece last month in which she shared how she found her own place in the gender spectrum. Specifically, each of us pointed out as they build their practice, they will likely counsel patients dealing with gender identity issues. Many of these patients will have a burning desire to become a woman/man, as the case may be. Most of them will desire to complete their transition in the shortest amount of time possible.

Let's get the technical stuff out of the way first. Last August I received a shot of Lupron for a medical condition. One use of Lupron medication (usually administered via a shot by a urologist) is to shrink the prostate gland. The shot can be sized for one-month, three-months or four-months in duration. (It also can be administered by mouth on a daily basis.) Lupron works by stopping the production of sex hormones – testosterone for prostate shrinkage. Testosterone is fuel to the prostate, thus when the fuel supply is cut off, the prostate shrinks. Lupron is not like Spironolactone, or other androgen suppressors, which just inhibit the effects of testosterone, not the production of testosterone. Since Lupron stops the production of sex hormones, the production of estrogen is also shut-down. (Males produce small amounts of estrogen, just not as much as females do.) Without sex hormones, the libido goes into hiding.

As an added "bonus," hot flashes and night sweats are a daily (hourly!) occurrence while Lupron is in the system. I am not sure what mechanism causes the hot flashes and night sweats, but to this lay girl's way of thinking, I would go for the lack of estrogen (since it is the lack of estrogen in menopausal women that causes the flashes and sweats). But the medical profession states it is the lack of testosterone (in males) that creates the flashes and sweats. Once the Lupron wears off, the hot flashes and night sweats disappear and the libido returns to normal; or at least to what it was before the shot was administered. (As an aside, Lupron is also used to "chemically castrate" pedophiles.)

Recently, on one of the TG online support groups, someone said she wished “this CD thing would just go away.” She said it seemed there were only two choices in life, to be who we are and be lonely, or to live a lie.

I imagine everyone reading The Pink Slip has come to terms with who they are in one way or another, if only by virtue of joining Kappa Beta in search of support.

I also imagine each of us has, at one time in our lives, had the wish that it would “just go away”. If I think back through the mists of time, I could find such times in my own life.

Of course, we all know it won’t go away. Who we are is more than something we do. This “CD, TG, TS thing” is as much a part of who we are as is the color of our eyes.