Do it or die!

[EnderD_503]

Originally Posted by Nadeest

It took me a long time to figure things out and be able to accept myself fully. At that point, though, it was either transition or die. I couldn't deal with it any longer. As I told a friend of mine who had asked me why I was transitioning, I was simply tired unto death, and it was time for a change.
I think that there is varying degrees of GID and that influences how badly that we need to transition. Another factor that we each tend to consider is the price that we are liable to have to pay, if we choose to transition. After all, we risk losing everything in our lives that we have built up, from our relationships to our financial affairs. The older that we are, the more that we have built up, and the more that we are used to dealing with the situation as it is. This would tend to influence our decisions, I would think.
As far as the FTM surguries not being a priority, I do tend to agree with PaPa, but I also think that there might well be other factors in play, here. There may be technical difficulties to be considered as well, you know. I do not know for certain, nor have I done the research to be sure, one way or another, but I was told long ago, by an elderly ftm that I met at a support group meeting, that babies with indeterminate gender at birth were often coercively assigned female by surgury, as it was easier to dig a ditch, then build a pole. (Um, that was his choice of phrase to explain it, not mine, but it does work.).
Another factor to be considered, I think, is that it has generally been easier for someone that has been coercively assigned female at birth to express their masculinity via clothing and actions then it has been for someone that was coercively assigned male at birth to express their femiminity. This tends to lead MTFs to need to transition more then it does for FTMs, and thus, the demand for FTM surguries tends to be less then for MTFs. Of course, I could be all wet, as well.

I agree with most everything you've said except for that bolded part. While I agree that in today's society (though not necessarily in the past as many older transguys will attest to) it is easier for people assigned female at birth to be accepted when they express cultural masculinity (though to be accepted as male is different) than it is for people assigned male at birth to be accepted when expressing cultural femininity, I don't think that translates into anyone "needing" to transition any more than anyone else. Lots of guys would love to have bottom surgery but because there are so many horror stories about the results/risk of infection etc. floating around out there, a lot of guys are worried they'll be worse off than before. In places where it isn't covered by public healthcare, it's just far too out of what many can afford (whether transmale or transfemale, for that matter). If you look at the amount of guys getting top surgery (which, because it was and is more common, there are better access to the results/first hand information from guys who have had the surgery, plus more financially feasible for a lot of guys), it's much higher.

I think the need for some kind of surgery is the same, and I don't really see the need to transition as a reflection of the desire for social acceptance for all trans people. Many of us want it for ourselves rather than for social acceptance.

I'm more inclined to think that the lack of progress in bottom surgery for transguys is technological, as you said. I do think that there is some, though, in the scientific community that come from a background that makes them more inclined to not want to progress bottom surgery for transguys. Who are somehow invested in maintaining the traditional myth of "maleness" and what it constitutes.

[Nadeest]

I can definitely agree with you, EnderD_503 about the probability that there is some disinclination to make bottom surgery better for transguys out of people's investment in the traditional myth.