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Transsexualism
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Transsexualism, or Gender Identity Dysphoria as the syndrome is more correctly known, is thought to be caused by a combination of genetic factors and a hormonal imbalance while the child's body is being formed in the womb. When the child is born, it has the brain of one sex but the genitalia of the other and so its sex is incorrectly identified at birth. According to Dr Russell Reid, a leading NHS consultant, "it is the general experience of people born with this syndrome that they are being brought up in the wrong sex from their earliest memories". One consequence of the current legal position has been an "information vacuum". Doctors and parents find it difficult to get help and so children are suffering.
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Transsexualism (... known as transsexuality) is one of a number of behaviours or states collectively referred to as transgender, which is generally considered an umbrella term for people who do not conform to typical gender roles. However, some in the transsexual community do not identify as transgender, or see transsexualism not as a sub-division of transgender. Often, those people complain that non-transsexual transgender people are somehow "degrading" transsexual people by first describing them as "just tranvestites" (this refers to the assumption, that gender variant people can neatly be divided into "transsexuals" and "transvestites") or "perverts" or similar, and then claiming that this is not what transsexual people are. This is usually accompanied by demanding that medical treatment and legal change of name and legal gender should be reserved only for transsexual people. Some also see the term 'transgender' as subsuming and erasing their identity, rejecting it for themselves because to them it implies a breaking down of gender roles, when in fact they see themselves as fitting a gender role -- just not the one they were assigned at birth. Those contesting this view point out that the idea of a more inclusive "Gender identity disorder" has long replaced the idea of dividing gender variant people into "transsexuals" and "transvestites", that classifying transsexualism as a sub-division of transgender does not automatically erase any transsexual identity, that not all transgender people wish to break down gender barriers, and that any marginalized group trying to gain acceptance of those opposed to them by trying to oppress another group has not only never been successful, it is also ethically questionable according to certian individuals and faiths.
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Transsexualism challenges psychoanalysis from both a theoretical and a clinical point of view. The wish for transsexualisation is commonly regarded as an aberration, sometimes even, as monstrously unnatural. The demand that transsexuals address to those from whom they seek help - whether doctor or psychoanalyst - has only one aim, that of confirming a pre-existing conviction. Every transsexual hopes to attain from the consultant an objective judgement to the effect that he actually is a woman (or she, a man). At the same time this points up a specific aspect of transsexualism: those who seek sexual reassignment are far more concerned with obtaining social confirmation of their sexual identity than with their eventual sexual relations. (Incidentally, this is in marked contrast to the majority of transvestites.) Since the transsexual has already made a self-diagnosis of biological gender error, he or she have usually already begun to treat what they feel to be a pathological condition, for example by taking hormones and wearing garments of the opposite sex.
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Transsexualism: This is a strong feeling of gender dysphoria, where the person may say they are 'trapped in the body of the wrong sex'. A small proportion of transsexuals have sex reassignment surgery (a 'sex change' operation). Transexual people can now be legally recognised in their acquired gender. Under The Gender Recognition Act 2004, they will be able to apply for a gender recognition certificate. If they are successful, they can marry, retire and get a state pension in their acquired gender, and get a new birth certificate.
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For clarity on the "Surgery versus Psychotherapy" debate, Transsexualism cannot be cured through Psychotherapy. In that situation the psychotherapy is used to cure the person from being transsexual, whereas some may consider Surgery to entertain the person’s transsexual desires. It has been repeatedly proven in many cases that transsexualism cannot be cured through psychotherapy. Therefore psychotherapy as a Primary Treatment for transsexualism is truly ineffective.
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Transsexualism is caused by that second burst of hormones failing to happen, or only happening very weakly. . . There are a number of possible reasons for this failure; in some cases, the genitals do not develop normally, and therefore do not manage to secrete testosterone on schedule to alter the brain. This is likely to produce a certain degree of physical intersex in the infant as well as transsexualism. Most transsexuals... are not obviously intersexed, so subtler causes must be involved.
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Transsexualism