Healing Gender Dysphoria Without Transitioning
Gender dysphoria is a debilitating condition that transgender people deal with and risky, irreversible medical procedures are often described as the only way of alleviating it...or is it?
Gender dysphoria is a debilitating condition that transgender people deal with on a daily basis. The only way of alleviating the condition is often through risky hormone replacement therapy and surgeries. However, while many may feel better, there are plenty that don’t and often have a worse life after transitioning. So, we’ll be discussing some ways you can alleviate dysphoria without going through a transition. Whether you’re not willing to take the risks of hormones and surgeries, or are physically unable to, this information will help you better understand dysphoria, the true cause of it, and what you can do that doesn’t involve risky, irreversible medical procedures.
To understand the ways of alleviating dysphoria, we must first analyze what causes it. Unfortunately, there is no known cause as it’s still a mystery. However, there are a plethora of things that can cause one to feel uncomfortable in their bodies, such as a hormone imbalance, trauma, and even partial intersex characteristics.
Dysphoria is often related to body dysmorphia where someone dislikes part of their body and proceeds to alter it medically as much as they can. In a sense, dysphoria is very similar to this, except medical professionals affirm the one with dysphoria and turn away those with dysmorphia. This makes it seem like altering your body if you have dysphoria is an acceptable way of curing the condition, but it simply will not help everyone.
Gender dysphoria is a symptom, for many things such as hormone imbalances and trauma, but can be a natural and rare phenomenon that happens prior to birth due to a variety of factors. Whatever the cause is, it’s important to understand why you are the way you are. If you were born partially intersex, or some other anomaly happened prior to or at the time of birth, then transitioning is very likely the best remedy for you. However, if you experience dysphoria due to a hormone imbalance due to exposure to phyto and xeno estrogens, endocrine disrupting chemicals, or have been the victim of trauma, then transitioning will help only temporarily. This is due to the fact that the true cause of your condition wasn’t addressed and thus hormones and surgeries only masked the symptoms.
In this case, medical transition is a suppressant. You suppress something about yourself and it will come out again eventually and often much worse. If you instead were able to balance out your hormones, seek psychological help for past trauma, and get to the root as to why you feel the need to change your body, then you may be able to love the person you were born as instead of hating them.
Hatred towards the past self is an incredibly common part of a transgender person’s identity. They often hate their birth sex so much that they don’t want to talk about it and get triggered hearing their birth name, or when someone misgenders them. This is a sign of trauma that should be remedied before transitioning. Something happened in the past that caused this, and it could be so deep that it may take years to truly understand what happened.
Finding this article helpful?
So, what is the true way of healing dysphoria without transitioning? Find the cause of your dysphoria. If it’s hormonal, seek medical help to understand why your hormones are out of balance and what you can do about it, in addition to avoiding phyto and xeno estrogens, and endocrine disrupting chemicals. If it’s caused by trauma, then it’ll often take many uncomfortable years of talking with a therapist to uncover what really happened in the past and allow you to heal. Once these things are done, then you’ll be able to love yourself deeply, and accept the things you once disliked and not feel the need to alter who you are. Once you accept yourself in your entirety, nothing can stand in your way of greatness.
Let me know how this works for you. Have a great day!
Additional Info
As someone who dealt with abuse when I was younger, from a mother who wanted a daughter and not a son, I understand now where my feelings of wanting to be a female stem from. These issues were not addressed prior to transitioning, and thus I took hormones and had surgeries, all for things I disliked about myself. After transitioning, I still disliked many things about my life and body. It didn’t help. It was only when I was talking with my therapist for many years did it allow the trauma to emerge and remedy itself. From there, I began to accept the person I was, even my male self. Then I realized that I made a mistake…that I should’ve dealt with the trauma first instead of transitioning. But, it was too late, the damage was done, and now there is no way to go back. I have accepted how my life is now, but know more can be done to stop people from going through with these irreversible surgeries that often do not help.
About the Author
