Transmasc intersex AFAB here— read your post on r/detrans about gender dysphoria and imbalanced puberty. I’ve interviewed a number of detrans individuals and fellow intersex individuals.
Please note: the following discussion on my part of purely anecdotal, and the trends I’ve gathered are so far purely empirical as there is not a large enough data set.
First of all, a massive thanks for the pioneering research you’ve done, and being one of the few providers out there with a “patient first” mindset.
I began visiting the detrans subreddit to gather different opinions and research. At the time when you posted your post about dysphoric teenagers who were “cured” of GD with anti androgens for AFABs or T for AMABs, I had been interviewing a selection of detransitioners to get their (sorely absent in mainstream) perspectives.
After interviewing around 20-30 of the most prominent detrans posters in the subreddit who didn’t transition because of sexual trauma/abuse/homophobia/loneliness, I came across a rather strange phenomenon. According to your research, if these teenagers corrected an existing hormonal imbalance, their ROGD would lessen or even disappear. Most of these detransitioners I interviewed had ROGD, and it seems they experienced legitimate gender dysphoria as their birth gender, experienced GD after transition related to aspects of the opposite sex, and when detransitioning they experienced the same dysphoria they’d started out with. How would your theory apply to these experiences? Would they be the rare cases of having non-binary physical dysphoria? Additionally, I still am confused about the mechanics of a hormone imbalance favouring the opposite sex and how it would create dysphoria in wanting to be the opposite sex.
I also help run a trans youth community and an intersex community. I’ve interviewed and talked to multiple trans intersex ppl like myself. According to the empirical data ive gathered after talking to about 50 or so people, it seems like intersex trans people have a different relation to dysphoria that aligns with your research.
Many I’ve talked to mentioned being almost a completely neutral presence in childhood, sometimes too feminine or masculine for the “assigned gender” but having much lower incidence of strongly feeling like a certain gender at childhood. In fact, many I’ve talked to reported feeling somewhere in between, a combination of both, or neither at all in childhood. Even those who did not know they were intersex. Obviously, there are also intersex people who defined w their assigned gender or the opposite gender strongly, but I find this incidence to be much lower compared to both cis and dyadic trans ppl populations.
Around 70% of said intersex ppl I interviewed experienced “two puberties” naturally, and their current gender identity or inclination budded with one of these puberties. Sometimes, if said puberty was strongly favouring one sex over the other, some intersex people (like a 5ARD FTM I interviewed who grew up a girl and then went thru full male puberty, an XX/XY chimerism MTF who had the opposite) just make the switch without much fanfare. I’ve also met a few whose androgynous gender identity persisted from childhood and strengthened with either absent puberty or two equally desired puberties.
Anecdotally, in my experience I was a completely gender neutral child, raised gender neutral, who was born w female leaning genitalia (classic CAH). I didn’t lean this way or that, had a collection of both classically masc and fem interests, inclinations and attitudes. Internally, I often felt like neither or both. I went thru an insignificant female puberty at 14 where I did not develop breasts or hips, and only got a period. I remained gender neutral as far as internal gender inclinations were. I came out as nonbinary during this time, and flirted w the idea of being FTM. Around age 15 i desisted for try out womanhood (complete with fake breast forms and a new wardrobe) to make sure I wasn’t making a mistake. Around age 16-17 I began going thru male puberty. Voice drop, growth spurt, body hair, dusting of facial hair, wide shoulders, male libido (complete with refractory period) and a greater inclination towards aggression. This was when I really began to consider myself something of a man. Performing womanhood, while neutral to me before, became like performing drag. I began dissociating the more I tried to hide the effects of male puberty and went thru the most suicidal period of my life. I retransitioned. Nowadays, I consider myself a man, or at least very masc leaning, and it’s almost like I’ve always known this. Except I haven’t, and it’s something I grew into. Everything changed— the way I interacted with fellow men, my emotions, my vision for the future, the way I wanted to carry out my ambitions. I hadn’t been sexually attracted to anyone before, only romantically to women, and I developed a sexual attraction to them that did change how my relationships were with them. I went from feeling like and being a blank slate to a man.
Many trans intersex ppl report an experience parallel to mine. Considering around 8-9% of intersex ppl end up “transitioning” in adulthood to the opposite of their assigned sex, or genetic sex, I think this gives a lot of insight into the biological roots of gender. I’m no medical professional tho, I’m an astrophysics major. I just thought these findings were intriguing in relation to Dr. Powers’ experience, and wanted to share it. Would appreciate any perspectives and discussion relating to this!
if anyone would like quotes from the interviews, let me know and I’ll make a collage. I’ll have to go back and ask the ppl I interviewed for their permission tho.
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