Dapper, I was already well aware about the great similarities of the clitoris to the penis (SERIOUS science geek, personal interest in the surgery that was done to me, etc.. :-}). Might be news to others that read it here though, so no problem. I'm still surpised at the low level of genital dysphoria in MTF's you report, but then that's hardly surprising because I've never experienced the condition you guys have.
Nope, socially internalised didnt come into it. I'm surprised you'd even suggest that - to me it sounds puzzlingly as if you're talking about bodily dysphoria as being due to social brainwashing there, and that is emphatically not the case, as I would imagine you are well aware. The whole point of the process of going through the system at Gender ID clinics was to try to separate those who genuinely had bodily dysphoria from those who had some kind of other problem making them think that maybe they should transition.
It may be that our use of terminology is slightly different though - to me bodily dysphoria rules out all factors external to the individual concerned. Stuff involving external factors is more social dysphoria, to me. I had that as well, sure, but only because the world didn't see me as the woman that I knew myself to be! Contrast that with cases where someone thought that 'maybe' they should have been a woman because they couldn't fit the expectations society has of males. Social dysphoria in both cases, but different things driving it, internal in one case, external in the other.
Yes, I was offered the choice of having breast implants at the time of my surgery - I declined, as my brain was happy with the level of breast development I had from oestrogen alone. Slightly bigger would've been nicer, but THAT's simply because I'd then have filled out dress tops a bit better and more interestingly; aesthetics, if you will, and I'm hardly the only woman in the world that wished her boobs were a tad different for aesthetic reasons. I think I can live with being normal :-}
Sorry, but I am still none the wiser as to where and how insurance companies enter the picture over there. Based on my admittedly limited understanding of what insurance is and how it works, I cannot conceive of a sane way in which an insurance company would be involved in paying for reassignment surgery as a general thing. There's clearly something about the situation that I fundamentally do not understand (or have not realised) involved. Please don't feel that you have to try to get me to understand though - it's not important to me, I'm merely mildly curious about it.
Yes, they expected a certain level of 'normal femininity' here, too - I looked conventionally femme back then (one GP actually told me that had I not mentioned that I was trans when I signed up to his surgery after I'd moved home, that he wouldn't have been able to tell short of an internal examination). I was working and living as a woman, accepted by colleagues at work as a woman, clearly doing OK in society. The fact that my interests included military history and wargaming, and my being a science geek as well apparently wasn't sufficient in their minds to override my loving clothes and pretty and cute things and having a 'wifey'/'supportive' mindset. So yes, they had a frankly risible expectation of 'normal femininity' of us MTFs, one which not a few cis-females would not meet, but I largely fitted within their expectations.
|