#gender incongruence

[genderqueerpositivity]

I learned yesterday that Judy Singer, the sociologist who coined the term neurodiversity, is apparently transphobic as all hell. She made a couple of terf-y posts over on Twitter and then deleted her account...but not before people took screenshots.

Struggling to wrap my head around that.

Imagine knowing and understanding that there many different ways--a great number of which we still do not fully understand--in which a human brain can develop and function that fall outside of the definition of typical. Imagine fully understanding that these differences in neurotype/development/genetics are a perfectly natural and necessary variation, but somehow still managing to be transphobic.

Cisappointing but not surprising.

I've said this before but it's worth repeating (and expanding on): transness is neurodivergence; the experiences of gender incongruence and gender dysphoria happen in the brain.

My gender dysphoria is every bit as real as my sensory sensitivities are, and often just as painful. My transness is as hardwired into my brain as my ADHD is. Expressing my gender is just as necessary as my stimming, and while you might be able to shame or abuse me into suppressing those things temporarily, the need does not go away and the result will be discomfort and dysregulation.

When something in the environment causes sensory overload or a meltdown, we make changes to either remove the ourselves from the environment, remove the source(s) of the distress, or--if those options are not possible--we implement ways of managing and coping with the environment and the stress that it causes.

I've found that accomdating the needs I have due to my gender dysphoria is a very similar process. I've also realized over the past several years that there is a lot of overlap sometimes between the things that cause me dysphoria, sensory overload, and overwhelm.

I threw away the last of the makeup I owned years ago, I keep my nails as short as possible, only wear men's jeans and cargo pants, buy all of my shirts at least one size too big, prefer to only wear a very specific type of sock, only wear bras that compress and have no under wire or hooks, keep the sides and back of my head shaved and the top short enough that it doesn't touch my ears or neck. And all of these things are accomodations for both my sensory issues and my gender dysphoria.

A lot of neurotypical people look at autistic and ADHD folks and they see only our external behaviors and responses, and they judge us (and our parents) by those without having any understanding of our internal experience.

Refrigerator mothers. Didn't get spanked enough as a kid. Too much sugar and food coloring. Spoiled. Too much television and video games. Vaccines.

Cisgender people make similar judgements of transgender people and transness.

Social contagion. Influenced by liberal parents. Too much time on social media. Not raised with traditional gender roles. Not raised in the church. Vaccines.

You can't cure transness any more than you can cure autism or dyslexia or ADHD or any other natural variation of human brain development.

And any neurodiversity movement worth being named as such must include transness and gender dysphoria.

[antitransmedicalism]

Trans isn’t a Neurological disorder, transmeds are just neurotrenders :)

FUN FACT: Gender incongruence (or being trans) isn't a neurological disorder and transmeds are hypocrites who love being neurotrenders by falsely claiming they are neurologically disordered because the 70+ articles they source-dumped said so (the articles didn’t lol)

How to call out transmed lunacy: 

STEP 1: Inform them about the WHO’s ICD-11, the APA’s DSM-V, the WPATH’s Standards, and other equivalents like the APA (the psychological one) and the WMA’s consensus on dysphoria being a requirement (hint, they all ruled dysphoria ISN’T a requirement).

if not enough, 

STEP 2: Ask them if they paid top-dollar to get an MRI scan to “prove” their neurological illness. I GUARANTEE you they’ll say no cuz 

MRIs are Incredibly Expensive, and

Insurance companies ain’t gonna cover an MRI for some whiny transmed trying to prove that they are “trans-brained”.

MRI’s can’t find “brain transness” cus it doesn’t exist

Hospitals and clinics have to use MRI’s on people with, y’know, ACTUAL or POTENTIALLY REAL neurological problems!!

Have fun being hypocrites idk, keep that nonsense to urself lmao

[alexisyoko]

Please check it out! (I added some Black Butler related tags because I used images of me cosplaying for comparison and not only.)

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

[ Autotranslated by Google ]

Patient safety for children and young people with gender incongruence

Published: Mar 9, 2023

People with gender incongruence and gender dysphoria have different wishes and needs for health services. Many people live well with their gender incongruence and manage it without health care, and others want and need health care. (See glossary  in chapter 13 for word explanations)

When Ukom enters the topic of gender incongruence, we look at how patient safety is safeguarded in help and treatment services for gender incongruence and gender dysphoria. Our aim with the survey is to ensure safe help and treatment for children and young people with gender incongruence.

There is an ongoing public debate about treatment options for gender incongruity. This is demanding, and many refuse to participate in the debate. It can be challenging and difficult to participate because disagreements are large both between groups and within groups. We see that choice of words and understanding of the complexity is important. The situation of insecurity and disagreement affects the development of healthcare services.

In our report, we have tried to highlight different perspectives. At the same time, it is important for us to be clear about our findings. That is, what challenges patient safety. Many have worked and are working to confirm and build a good health service for people with gender incongruity and gender dysphoria, both nationally and internationally. Ukom's report builds on this work. We point out that this field now needs a boost to improve patient safety, especially for the health care that is to be provided to children and young people in Norway.

Summary

Ukom has carried out a survey of the treatment offered to children and young people with gender incongruence. The background was notifications directly to Ukom from relatives who question several matters related to patient safety. Several actors, both from the authority side, health personnel and patient and relative organisations, are questioning the soundness and organization of the treatment offer. 

The report deals with children and young people in general. There has been a large increase in inquiries to the health service from people with gender incongruity in recent years. In particular, the number of children and young people in their teens who apply to, or are referred for assessment and treatment in the specialist health service, has increased significantly. The biggest increase is among adolescents and young adults who are registered as girls at birth, but identify as boys. Our attention has therefore been particularly directed at teenagers and young people with gender incongruence and gender dysphoria who seek health care. Children and young people are not fully developed physically, mentally, sexually or socially. This requires special vigilance with regard to patient safety. Our findings and recommendations will also be relevant for the offer for adults.   

In the report, we have divided our findings into six main areas: 

Insufficient knowledge 

The knowledge base, especially research-based knowledge for gender-affirming treatment (hormonal and surgical), is insufficient and the long-term effects are little known. This is particularly true for the teenage population where the stability of their gender incongruence is also not known. There is a lack of research-based knowledge about the treatment of patients with non-binary gender incongruence. In order to safeguard patient safety, Ukom considers it necessary that the knowledge base on gender incongruence and gender dysphoria be strengthened, and that the health service offer be arranged in line with the knowledge base. 

Overall management - a guideline with a different background 

The Norwegian Directorate of Health's national professional guidelines for gender incongruity lay down guidelines for the health service offer. It concentrates on organisation, equality and rights. This may have been important at the time the guideline was drawn up, because it was necessary to confirm the health service offer to people who experience gender incongruity. At the same time, we consider that deviating from the requirement for the development of knowledge-based guidelines has created room for uncertainty and diverging expectations. Health personnel have been given great opportunities for interpretation within a relatively narrow subject area that lacks a systematic summary of knowledge in Norway. The guideline gives rights without clarifying questions related to prioritization and soundness. This is demanding for the health personnel who manage the services on a daily basis. 

Requirements for soundness - particularly related to children and young people 

The national professional guideline for gender incongruence is not normative. It does not set specific requirements for investigation or requirements for a medical indication for starting treatment. The mention of children's competence to consent and parents' right to information leaves room for interpretation. The guideline does not establish a sufficient standard for the health service offer, and we believe that for some patients it may pose a patient safety risk. This may go beyond the soundness requirement, which has broad roots in health legislation, and may also be demanding for the supervisory authorities.  

Right to healthcare – a gap in expectations

Our investigation suggests that there is a gap between what the guideline outlines and what is possible, given today's available offer and knowledge base. The national professional guideline creates expectations in patients that the health service can only fulfill to a small extent. This applies, among other things, to the right to specialist healthcare services. It is difficult for the service to meet expectations without the knowledge base being well documented, and without a good overview of any negative and harmful aspects of the various treatments. If there is a requirement to use principles for experimental treatment, it will provide a framework that ensures information, thorough follow-up and contributes to more knowledge. 

The help and treatment offer - variation in practice and expertise 

There is great variation in what offers and what expertise is offered in different parts of the country. There is a risk of both under-, over- and incorrect treatment of children and young people with gender incongruence and gender dysphoria. In addition, we see that there are challenges in establishing a decentralized offer in a narrow and complex specialist field. In order to strengthen the offer, Ukom believes that it is important to strengthen the health service offer in the primary healthcare service, build increased interdisciplinary expertise in the specialist healthcare service at regional level and ensure that the national treatment service has sufficient capacity for today's demands. 

Speech climate and interaction

We see that in the field of gender incongruence, a demanding climate of expression has developed. The speech climate in the public space affects the information available for children and young people with gender incongruence and gender dysphoria and their families. There is a significant impact on children and young people, also related to treatment and health services. We hear about fear and dread of making mistakes from all quarters. Different opinions about what is the right treatment can create a difficult cross-pressure. Different emphasis and mention of what is necessary at group level can confuse and destroy the patient-therapist relationship and a personalized approach for the person concerned. There is a need to establish a constructive community for everyone who is engaged in good health care for people with gender incongruity. 

Ukom recommends 

We are concerned that children and young people with gender incongruence have a safe and sound healthcare service. We therefore come up with recommendations that can contribute to this group receiving a better and safer health service offer in the long term. Our recommendations relate to revision of the guidelines, safe frameworks for treatment offered to children and young people and measures to strengthen the knowledge base. The recommendations will also contribute to the systematic collection of data and promote follow-up research. It is important that children and young people with gender incongruity and gender dysphoria, including non-binary ones, are properly looked after while the development of the healthcare service is ongoing.  Ukom recommends:

that the Ministry of Health and Care commissions the Directorate of Health to revise the national professional guideline, Gender congruence. The revision must, among other things, be based on a systematic summary of knowledge. We point to several elements that should be included in the audit. 

that puberty delaying treatment (puberty blockers) and hormonal and surgical gender confirmation treatment for children and young people are defined as experimental treatment. This is particularly important for teenagers with gender dysphoria. 

that the Ministry of Health and Care is considering whether a national medical quality register should be established for the treatment of children and young people with gender incongruity and gender dysphoria. Necessary measures must be implemented so that such a national quality register can be established, operated and financed in order to contribute to an overview, better quality and reduce unjustified variation in patient treatment.

--

Also, newspaper report:

[ Autotranslated by Google ]

Want safer treatment for children who want to change sex – Insufficient knowledge of the risk.

In recent decades, there has been a large increase in children and young people who want gender confirmation treatment - Insufficient knowledge of the risk, according to a report from the Commission of Inquiry.

A new report from Ukom now questions whether all children and young people who are unsure of their gender receive proper health care.

Ukom believes that clearer management and measures are necessary to ensure proper health care and treatment

[..]

From 1975 to 1990, there were approx. four referred persons per years for such treatment in Norway. In the last ten years, there has been an increase in referrals from approx. 50–70 per year in 2007–2010 to 400–600 referrals per year in 2018–2021.

[ More... ]

==

Norway has historically been held up as a "gold standard" for the faith-based ("gender affirming") model.

With a 150x increase in demand, that "gold standard" has now identified that there severe deficiencies - starting with lack of evidence - necessitating dismantling it. With a little luck and sanity, the holdouts, including the US and Canada, will find themselves pressured to undertake their own independent reviews.

The rickety house of cards just lost one of its support pillars.

[rottenteeth]

If you say you don't need dysphoria to be transgender you need to follow it up with the need to have gender incongruence. Not doing that makes people assume being trans is a choice. It is not. If you have chosen to be trans you will have a rude fucking awakening soon.

For most people gender incongruence causes dysphoria but for some nb people that may not be the case.

Also social, mental, and emotional dysphoria are all real types of dysphoria... people seem to forget that

Don't bring up euphoria if you experience euphoria that means that there is some underlying dislike for your agab.

[ohchr-news]

What Is Gender Incongruence (GI)?

By Julie Lynn Marks and Medically Reviewed by Dr. Allison Young, MD

While the American Psychiatric Association (APA) uses the term “gender dysphoria,” it is not the preferred term worldwide.

Some people experience feelings of discomfort, uneasiness, conflict, or distress when their biological sex and their sense of gender identity are at odds. (e.g.) These feelings are what’s known as gender incongruence.

The International Classification of Diseases (ICD), a diagnostic tool used by healthcare providers globally, uses the term “gender incongruence” instead to reflect contemporary understanding of gender identity and sexual health.

[myersesque]

I GOT A TESTOSTERONE PRESCRIPTION YEAAAAAAAAA

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

watching black sails while having a popular post about knights sure is making me think about pirates and knights as very specific romantic ideals of violent men bound to each other by oaths, one ostensibly within the law and one emphatically outside of it

[scytheral]

✦ㅤENNORMiSSEㅤA gender That feels / is Paradoxical. A enigma Of ambiguity , Evident anomaly && incongruousness , A contradiction of Puzzles , a Numb mystery At it ' s Journey , anomalous Essence && Similars.

[ PT / Ennormisse: a gender that feels/is paradoxical. a enigma of ambiguity, evident anomaly and incongruousness, a contradiction of puzzles, a numb mystery at it's journey, anomalous essence and similars. / END PT. ]

─── ��✦✦ ───ㅤCoined by The Prince.ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ─── ✦✦✦ ───ㅤRequested by Noboo.

[antitransmedicalism]

@fattening-water​

@nonbinaryresource bro I'm begging you to speak to a real transmed, we don't hate ourselves nor did we want this

I find it EXTREMELY hard to buy your stance when the transmed communities on the internet are festering with people that 

have an abysmal and unhealthy level of self-hatred for being trans, and

expect trans-based self-hatred (and dysphoria) to be the norm and foundation for being a “true trans” person

become vitriolic and express disdain for trans people that don’t fall into the mold and experience transness the way they do.

I know the excuse that transmeds use to justify their self-hatred is “there’s no need to be proud of being trans!! Being trans is just an aspect of some people’s human condition!! I can have some level of self-love and confidence absent of being trans!” but you gotta remember that shit like below is a constant in transmedicalism:

ANOTHER SET OF EXAMPLES are when, during my time as a transmed, I witnessed transmedicalists on this confounded website mobbed up and drove people out for having specific beliefs or were being trans in a way they found unacceptable. 

One 13yo trans boy at the time was sent hateful anons and treated like crap by transmeds because he previously thought himself as a nonbinary lesbian and used neopronouns.

you would think that transmeds would WANT people to stop using neopronouns and be binary (cis or trans), but once the person did this, he was still treated like crap and suspected of “faking it”.

Another transmed (who was vigilant and took part in attacking the above 13yo) drew fanart of male characters but as trans. Because the artist drew male characters with vulvas they were deemed “faker/trender” and chased out. I disliked the guy, but he was pushed out because he dared to draw NSFW of trans men (it was not fetishistic as I remember but trans smut regarding a trans person without bottom surgery is grounds for transmeds to accuse you of “faking” and deny that you have dysphoria lol)

Any transmed who believed that nonbinary is a thing (only speficic nb genders like bigender or agender being acceptable) would be constantly castigated and accused of “supporting trenders” or even accused of “trending” themselves.

Transmedicalism is an echo chamber and any type of opinions like being pro-nb, and even drawing trans NSFW is heresy and means to be heckled and deemed a trender and driven out. Look at the way people on the r/transmedical subreddit regard the people on r/truscum. Both people of both subreddits believe in transmedicalism, yet the former sub think the latter sub has been overrun by “tucutes and trenders”. BOTH groups pretend to be on a higher lever of superiority, transmedical to truscum, truscum to truNB, and all subs to trans people that don’t subscribe to transmed ideology.

Dysphoria is a painful and distressing thing to live with everyday. I GET that, my understanding goes beyond sympathy because I experience it myself. However, transmeds have a HISTORY of the above. “I’m here for embracing being trans” is null and void with transmeds when you guys actively scorn people for being proud of it and even embracing the euphoria and joy from passing, relieving their dysphoria, and living their truth.

It is impossible to “embrace being trans” when you guys berate proud trans people AND constantly desire being cis. Being cis as a trans person is impossible and you will never achieve it. The most you can do is tackle transitioning and relieve your dysphoria as much as possible. The sooner you let go of “desiring cishood” as you come to terms with your transness, the better you can tackle your problems.

There is a rampant self-hatred problem in the transmed communities, and as an ex-transmed I not only witnessed it but I lived it too. I hate myself for a multitude of reasons, one reason is my dependence and that I personally do not deserve to exist. Being trans, nonbinary, black, Nigerian, or having ADHD, depression, anxiety and an unspecified personality disorder are not reasons that I hate myself. Those things are a part of me and I am proud of that.

Not every trans person has to be proud of being trans. They can be indifferent to it, or even hate it and find it a curse, but acting as if every trans person must feel indifference or hatred for it (or trans people CANNOT be proud of it) to be a trans person is ridiculous and dangerous. Trans people expressing pride for being trans and even declaring it fun on a personal level does NOT mean they “are faking it”. This is part of an observable set of opinions within transmedicalism. 

It’s toxic yet it is encouraged. It is encouraged because transmedicalism is a vitriolic, toxic, psudoscientific ideology held by people playing gender respectability politics and trying to uphold a harmful status quo that is incompatible with the progression of society and the trans people struggling to thrive in it. It is the conservatism of trans politics, deeply rooted in outdated tradition that people try to justify as good and just.

[uncanny-tranny]

The idea that manhood is a type of violence that can be wielded is definitely something that I've found impacts me - the idea that to be a man, I have to fight and bleed for it, that fostering anything else is sacrilege. It's honestly really sad to look at cis men who are entrenched in this idea because it's a curse. I've also found this threat of violence wielded against me in order to "prove" I'm not a man, that if I can not beat people into submission that I am not truly worthy of manhood.

I ultimately see this viewpoint of manhood as fragile - not because manhood or masculinity is inherently so, but because it relies so heavily on other people and if they approve of their manhood. It relies on climbing on other people through any means necessary. Should our manhood only be expressed through the blood on our knuckles? Is it right that we bathe ourselves in so many layers of machismo and false arrogance that our true selves are frozen beneath layers upon layers of apathy and fear?

[aq2003]

hello tedx talk about the concept of female actors playing hamlet from 4 years ago i wish you would not include funny haha gender essentialism in your points about how a woman would fit the character (because the concept that women take forever to make a decision is, in fact, a product of the sexist status quo you are trying to criticize) and instead consider that hamlet is someone that is constantly being made aware of their wrongness and inability to conform to nearly every standard set upon them, including gender, and so much of their inner conflict and self-hatred comes from that. yes a hamlet who is socialized as a woman would be extremely interesting but it's not just because girls deserve representation of a morally gray character w depression but because hamlet faces this expectation of docility in the face of an injustice that only they perceive, and they are made so aware abt how they're near constantly being watched, and they are so intelligent and talks circles around ppl yet they have so few ppl who they can trust who will actually listen to them and this all gains a layer of deeper meaning if it is made abundantly clear that this is all a direct result of misogyny

[eclaire-went-bam]

ouuggg i can't wait for surgery i can't wait to mutilate my body i cant wait to chop off my organs ouugggggg haters are so jealous my will is the limit

[canichangemyblogname]

When I started therapy, I was actually hung up on the fact that I didn't seem to have ever experienced dysphoria, which is a lie that has its origins in part in the fact I had no fucking clue what dysphoria actually is. I've since found that it's actually kinda hard to explain, and that's why these narratives that dysphoria is when trans people are revulsed by their body and agab, or when they "hate" their past self, persist. It's also why these "trapped in" bodies and "wrong" bodies narratives exist.

Like. I'm in my body. My body is my body. My consciousness isn't in another person's body; it's in my own. And I know myself. I know myself well enough to know that I am not a woman despite society telling me that my bits, pieces, and parts "make" me one. And how else do I explain this to someone with no frame of reference for this? I liken it to "Freaky Friday," despite the fact that's- technically- what it isn't? It’s like having an out-of-body experience. You're looking at your body. You know it's your body. But there's also a disconnect. Something's missing, and something's there that makes no sense.

I also don't think I could ever hate the girl my parents tried to raise or the woman I wanted so desperately to be. That wouldn't be very kind to me. She really tried her damnedest. And she's not "dead" because she's a vital part of my past. I, quite technically, wouldn't be trans if "she" never existed. I'd be a cis man if I was never afab. "Trans" is an important part of my lived reality.

Was I ever a "girl"? A part of me still has no idea. I know I truly believed I was, but the reasons I believed I was weren't healthy.

I held on to a lot of sex-essentialist ideas for a good portion of my youth. Why? It was all that connected me to the identity society and my family was trying to raise me into. When my cousin gifted me a uterus pin with the words "Women's rights" on it, I wore it proudly. It was a very tenuous connection to womanhood, and it was a connection I needed to critically rethink when my mother and grandmother were both diagnosed with cervical cancer (I was 11). I knew that it ran in my family and that, one day, I might need to go through the same surgery they did just to live.

I asked my mom what connected her to womanhood, and she replied: motherhood. I was never, ever going to be a mother, so I returned to the drawing board. I asked my grandmother what connected her to womanhood, and she replied: standing up to violent men and men who denied her and other women the opportunity to work; community. And I realized that I had never been extended the same community my grandmother always had been. Part of the disconnect I felt was due to violence (sexual and not) I had experienced in single-sex, "women's only" spaces. Girls in "girl's only" spaces made it clear that I was not welcome, and, at the time, I didn't understand why they singled me out and picked on me.

Even though my family was trying to raise me as a girl, the society around me saw me as nothing more than a "failed" girl. I was an "unwoman," not "woman enough," for reasons such as what I preferred to wear. But it's not like in marking me as "unwoman," they made me into a man, far from it. They sorted me- on the basis of my queerness- into some other third category. Something of a eunuch.

And it seemed like the only thing I had was some sex-essentialist, cisgender pretense (I absolutely loved the linked blog post as I found it quite striking, even though I was *never* trans-exclusionary, and I never supported those ideas about trans people) to sort of reassure myself that I belonged in society. Every time I usurped or rebelled against our sex/gender norms, I would work to distract myself from how I constructed my body into a binary and thus ignore how being made into a girl was wrong for me. I literally disconnected myself from parts of my internal self & internal thoughts, and I denied myself the opportunity to construct an identity. I was constantly gaslighting myself and consistently engaged in thought-stopping. In part because I was terrified of being "different."

I so desperately wanted to be just like every other girl that I ignored the fact that I likely never was (and that there is no such thing as universal woman/girlhood). With that realization, I could hear the words of my school-yard bullies from years ago, words which, it seems, many trans masc people have heard in their lifetime, "What's wrong? We're all girls here, aren't we? We're all alike."

I've been unable to recognize my own dysphoria because I have spent my whole life purposefully ignoring and distracting myself from those moments of "huh. something's off." I spent some 23 years of my life essentially disassociating from myself (I'm 26 now). I felt detached from my body and detached from the world around me. It felt as if everyone else was moving, but I was floating in place. I disconnected myself from my thoughts and emotions in an attempt to be accepted by a society that finds queerness disgusting.

I literally felt like I was watching my life and body unfold without my consent rather than me unfolding it myself. So, I liken my experience to "Freaky Friday" because that's also what it is.

[gurorori]

i don't know, people can be trans in whatever way they wish and feel comfortable with, i just wish the people on the lower end of Actually Putting Work and Visible Effort Into It and Actually Experiencing Transphobia/Transmisogyny didn't feel like they automatically get a free pass to claim the same things we go through. if you do not share the experience of the vast majority of trans people, maybe you do not get to talk about it, or reclaim any part of it 😐

[ohchr-news]

Gender incongruence and gender dysphoria in childhood and adolescence—current insights in diagnostics, management, and follow-up via downloadable PDF.

Gender incongruence (GI) is defined as a condition in which the gender identity of a person does not align with the gender assigned at birth. Awareness and more social acceptance have paved the way for early medical intervention about two decades ago and are now part of good clinical practice although much robust data is lacking. Medical and mental treatment in adolescents with GI is complex and is recommended to take place within a team of mental health professionals, psychiatrists, endocrinologists, and other healthcare providers. The somatic treatment generally consists of the use of GnRH analogues to prevent the progression of biological puberty and subsequently gender-affirming hormonal treatment to develop sex characteristics of the self-identified gender and surgical procedures.