Talk:Transmedicalism

Free Will is winning here
Now I get the concept of gatekeeping and how it is annoying to many transpeople. What doesn't come through in the article is: either transgender affects are the result of a "condition" in some biological sense (deterministic), or there is, in addition, a choice function involved in the sense that the transgender person could have chosen otherwise than to identify as they have done and continue to do; and that once chosen, their identity has something of a permanent aspect that ought be respected, unlike more quotidian choices such as the color one might dye ones hair. The obvious difficulty with the second view is it is also deterministic. We are told that trans people are often so fragile that aggressive and unsympathetic sociological arguments may lead to fatality. I also object to such cold and gratuitous categorizations. There seems to be an unrecognized struggle between benign advocates of personal freedom (free will) and the uncharitable assertions of an inveterate determinism. Instead of carefully describing the situation we find at hand, we adopt a censorious view of "true scum" and leave the mess not much better than we found it.UncleKrampus (talk) 00:16, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

Survey section should be removed
A survey of 100 people on the internet is in no way a significant enough sample size to prove or disprove any claim about a group's beliefs. While a survey with a large enough number of responses to reasonably be representative of all transmeds would be very useful, 100 people is nowhere near enough responses to be used as anything more than vague speculation. Flibety (talk) 14:35, 16 March 2021 (UTC)

Trans without dysphoria is no diffrent to transracialism
If you want to claim that you can be trans without dysphoria with no hard scientific studies (unlike being trans with dysphoria which has plenty of hard neurological evidence https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-there-something-unique-about-the-transgender-brain/) by saying gender is a social construct (which i dont believe) than by all means since race is far more of a social construct than gender shouldnt transracialism be valid for the same reasons

to say one is valid and not the other is pure hypocrisy

2600:6C64:677F:BAF2:211C:7859:5057:7207 (talk) 16:44, 25 September 2021 (UTC)
 * This is a stupid comparison. 17:58, 25 September 2021 (UTC)
 * please tell me why enlighten me 2600:6C64:677F:BAF2:211C:7859:5057:7207 (talk) 18:10, 25 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Both are complex subjects but gender and gender expression has interplay of psychology, sociology, etc and falls into a complex spectrum, and that's generally accepted, but race isn't really all that valid as a construct due to it not really lining up to biology. I don't think you need to have a mental health disorder to be trans and I feel it's totally within realm of possibility that people can experiment with gender and gender expression without "requiring" disorder.  19:55, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

Transgender identity as a medical condition
Transmedicalists believe that trans identity is a biological condition and some consider it as falling under the banner of intersex. Trans people, are people born with a somatotopical structure either entirely (binary) or partially (non-binary) aligned with that of their birth sex, but all (or most) of their sex characteristics will be of a different sex. This causes extreme gender dysphoria, a sense of disconnection and disgust towards the body. On top of this, trans people are pushed into the wrong gender roles and stigmatized, making life harder. Transmeds acknowledge the only way to cure this condition is through gender-affirming medical treatment (e.g. hormones and/or surgery).

The existence of a medical condition known variously as transsexualism, gender identity disorder   or gender dysphoria   is not medically or scientifically controversial, although it is widely opposed by various religious groups, TERFs, and the anti-psychiatry movement. Rather, the controversy in this case is a social debate rooted in identity politics over the equivalence (or lack thereof) between people who have such a condition and people who have no such condition but still identify as transgender.

Transmedicalist arguments
Transmeds believe, fundamentally, that a person needs gender dysphoria to appropriately apply a trans label to themselves. According to a transmedicalist viewpoint that is based on multiple studies (Dick Swaab being a prominent researcher on gender dysphoria and its biological presentation),  being transgender is a medical condition defined by the experience of gender dysphoria from a young age. Transmedicalists prioritise access to healthcare to reduce the suffering and long-term trauma caused by gender dysphoria. Many transmeds take issue with phrases such as "gender is a social construct" as it not only ignores the science, but also implies that their experiences of gender dysphoria, often from an early age, are merely social illusions, that it is possible to "overcome" dysphoria by rejecting stereotypical gender roles, or that the feeling of dysphoria is external rather than internal. There is also an argument in transmed spaces that identifying as trans for a reason other than dysphoria (e.g. dissatisfaction with social gender roles) is a reinforcement of those gender roles. That is to say, identifying as a gender other than your birth sex because you don't fit in with Western gender norms only serves to say that certain behaviours/presentations/expressions are "male" and others are "female".

Gender dysphoria and trans identity
Transmeds and medical professionals alike believe that gender dysphoria is necessary in order to be transgender. The feeling of gender dysphoria is characterized by feelings of immense depression and suicide ideation. 82% of people with gender dysphoria have strongly considered suicide and 40% have attempted suicide. Research around the pre-natal gendered biology in the brain, along with research in to pre-natal somatopopy, has been ongoing for several decades and is the main body of evidence behind the transmed rationale; as brains have been shown to have a "map" of the body it belongs to,  and those "maps" can be feminized or masculinized. For trans people, this means that their primary and/or secondary sex characteristics (depending on whether their dysphoria is binary or non-binary) cause such immense distress that it interferes with their day-to-day life (e.g. being unable to wash, change clothes, go to the toilet). The treatment for this distress is hormones and/or surgery, depending on the range and level of dysphoria.

Lack of access to healthcare and safe spaces
A large driving force behind the transmed community is the lack of available access to trans healthcare as trans identities become increasingly considered a social issue to the layman. With the aforementioned but alarmingly high suicide rates among people with dysphoria and the 73% reduction in depression after starting medical transition, a clear evidential link has been established between accessing gender-affirming healthcare and a reduction in trans deaths. However, as trans issues come to be perceived as social identities, the need for healthcare is taken significantly less seriously than it previously was. Recent developments in the UK saw Boris Johnson's Conservative government cut trans masculine lower surgeries on the National Health Service, choosing instead to focus on trans "talking therapies". Transmeds are also concerned with the lack of access to safe spaces for people with dysphoria. With increasingly large numbers of non-dysphoric people in trans spaces, focused discussions on help for dysphoria, or access to medical care, may become diverted by the belief that - in spite of the evidence - dysphoria is a "social construct". For trans people who have no other support systems, this means that even their "safe spaces" are often places where their reality is invalidated at the insistence of others, and can lead to further development of depression, self-harm, and suicide ideation. Many transmeds report being scared to talk about their dysphoria or challenge the misconceptions around transsexualism in trans spaces for fear of losing access to a support network.

Tucute arguments
"Tucutes" (or anti-transmeds) believe that anyone can identify as trans, regardless of whether they experience gender dysphoria. They believe that gender is a "social construct" and many view the medical treatment of trans people as a reinforcement of cis normativity rather than a life-saving process. This position is also held by some transmeds (who call themselves "soft transmeds"). Most tucutes don't believe that "transtrenders" exist. Others believe that they do exist, but support them regardless. Another fear of anti-transmeds is the fact that defining trans identity in terms of dysphoria pathologizes the trans identity. Viewing dysphoria (not trans identity itself) as a disorder is seen as more supportive and affirming of trans people. Transgender identity is now recognized not to be a mental illness, and tucutes believe advocating for a world under which the criteria for being transgender is having a mental illness undoes decades of positive transgender activism. However, prior trans activism has largely been around the need for trans people to access healthcare (regardless of whether their beliefs are transmed or tucute) and had largely been focused on treating dysphoria as a physical (i.e. biologically-inherent) issue through hormones and/or surgeries. Transmeds usually respond to this by saying that the demedicalization of gender dysphoria can make it harder for a trans person to transition - gender dysphoria is a problem, and treating it as such will make it easier to fix. Additionally, treating transness as a social issue makes the life-saving medical transition seem like a cosmetic treatment, rather than a vitally necessary procedure.
 * You do realize this more so an issue of healthcare ethics and politics then it is actual science right? No scientific evidence can be provided that one ought to medically gatekeep trans people from gender affirming care or that being transgender ought to be defined on the basis of a pathological model. This is just a faux-objective bigoted argument to restrict the liberty of gender non-conforming people and to insist that transgender people are mentally ill. It’s gross and I think we all see through it. - Only Sort of Dumb (talk) 18:07, 25 June 2022 (UTC).

Fallacies
"Perhaps the reason truscum exist is that their transgender experience is so wrapped around gender dysphoria they cannot comprehend the notion of a transgender person without it. Immersed in their own pain, they attack people who appear not to be suffering." is very obviously an appeal to motive fallacy. The accusation is not supported by its very weak sources (random blogs and Tumblr), and even if it was, the ad hominem attack in question neither proves nor disproves the claim itself. Lastly, using a pejorative in a non-referential tone is laughably juvenile. Amateur writing like this lessens the quality of the article, even for the echo chamber the article is presumed to be writing to. 69.60.33.176 (talk) 18:40, 1 July 2022 (UTC)