Hey everyone. So when I first discovered what transgender meant, I thought that every transgender person is born transgender, but I've been questioning that. I know that people don't choose to be transgender, but I believe that there could be causes of being transgender. When I came out to one of my friends as transgender, he supported me and said that there's nothing wrong with the way I feel. He also asked me if I was seeing a counselor because these types of behaviors are caused by bullying, trauma, etc. Also, there this YouTuber who's a transgender female and her name is Autumn Asphodel. She said that she thinks that her experiencing a lot of abuse, bullying, trauma, etc. throughout her childhood may have caused her to want to start a new life as a different person, and that could've been a possible cause of her being transgender. I always thought that all transgender people were that way since birth, but due to what these people have said, I've recently been thinking that there could also be causes of being transgender. Also, I'm transgender and I've been through severe bullying and I've been abused and I've went through a lot of stressful things in my life, and I felt like I related to Autumn. Do any of you know if being transgender can also have a cause?
I don't know, but I don't think Autumn Asphodel is a very good person to compare to. I don't have anything against her, and I watch all her vids. She just seems... I don't know. She is a bit too holisticly minded, for my tastes. She is not the person to rely on for scientific facts. If listening to her helps, then power to you.
No idea. To me it always seemed like more of a consciously motivated thing than straight or gay sexuality. But as I have gotten older, I've reaized that if I expect people to understand my homosexuaity isn't a choice, I should extend that same open-mindedness to transgender people. It's always tempting to question the cause. I think the bottom line though, is that we have to understand it's unchosen no matter what the reason is - and that's part of accepting it in general.
The way I see it, if you feel a certain way, then regardless of where the feeling "came from" it doesn't change what you feel. That's my current perspective on the subject, though I admit that it's a simplistic approach.
I've heard it's becoming an accepted theory that it's a hormonal imbalance that takes place in the womb.
Heard? People say that about being a possible cause of homosexuality. I guess the mothers womb is to blame for everything.
It makes more sense than saying upbringing is a cause (or those people who say Freud was onto something).
You might look up a brochure called "doh-transgender-experiences.pdf" . It states that being trans has biological connections, to do with development before birth which influences the sense of self. Inside of the brochure is a link to further references (findings and studies). One explanation are certain hormone levels at certain times before birth, for whatever reason. In sum, gender identity, whether consistent or inconsistent with other sex characteristics, may be understood to be “much less a matter of choice and much more a matter of biology” (Coolidge et al., 2000). The scientific evidence supports the paradigm that transsexualism is strongly associated with the neurodevelopment of the brain (Zhou et al., 1995; Kruijver et al., 2000). It is clear that the condition cannot necessarily be overcome by “consistent psychological socialisation as male or female from very early childhood” ... It is understood that during the fetal period the brain is potentially subject to the organising properties of sex hormones (Kruijver et al., 2000; 2001; 2002; 2003). In the case of transsexualism, these effects appear to be atypical, resulting in sex-reversal in the structure of the BSTc, and possibly other, as yet unidentified, loci (Kruijver, 2004). The etiological pathways leading to this inconsistent development almost certainly vary from individual to individual, so no single route is likely to be identified. Different genetic, hormonal and environmental factors, acting separately or in combination with each other, are likely to be involved in influencing the development of the psychological identification as male or female. Psychosocial factors and cultural mores are likely to impact on outcomes (Connolly, 2003).
