Transgender people comprise 0.3 % of American adults, or about 700,000 people, according to a 2011 study by the Williams Institute. And their unemployment is 2X the rate of the general population, with athema also 4X more likely to live in poverty (according to the 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey, (n=6,450.) The challenge then is how do we get our …

I have been diagnosed as a female to male transsexual. However, I am dissatisfied with the word ‘transsexual’. First, ‘transsexual’ is a medical term describing a pathological condition, and I do not agree that the right to determine my own destiny constitutes mental illness. Further, I object to the word itself, with its implication of ‘trans’ meaning ‘to pass through’, …

This is one of the more controversial aspects of the transgender (TG) experience. There are many transgender folk who choose not to have any surgery, some who pick and choose which surgeries they want, and some who feel they have no choice but to go through all of them. There are also the moral pressures to consider from internal and …

There are many reasons why FTMs will be reluctant to seek out medical attention or even preventative health care. Many older FTMs have assimilated even without hormones or surgery. Their greatest fear is discovery. Sometimes even their own partners and families don’t have a clue about their situation, and if they do, they are just as frightened of discovery. Mainstream …

Mental health is tightly intertwined with general health. Most FTMs tend to isolate. Not only do they deny themselves contact with society at large, they tend to isolate from each other. Even though this has slowly been changing in urban areas within the past five years, it tends to be the rule of thumb. Many FTMs who meet at meetings …

Any person on hormones is a chemistry experiment. It is very important to listen to the FTM (or MTF) as they tell you what is occurring for them physically and emotionally. FTMs have learned to watch and monitor the changes they experience over time. On this note, it is very important that if you have a pre-op transsexual come to …

By and large, the transsexual condition is referred to, and often dealt with, as a sexual problem. Gender identity and sexuality are two separate aspects of our lives. Yet, it is amazing how many people have trouble conceptualizing the difference. Since transsexuals began approaching the medical community after W.W.II, the general view of those practitioners was one of taking a …