GenderLife Forum: The Information Exchange

Hi everyone. My question is in regard to the obvious differences between category A and category B transsexuals. I had my procedures completed some six years ago in London and although i have absolutely no regrets, i still have the same pit of the stomache empty feeling when i read about category A women. I can appreciate that i went through Gender change and not Gender correction and therefore maybe i will always feel this way, but i still feel that my life is on hold! My life is fine on a day to day basis and i know i fit in completely with my peers but anything more than that seems a step too far. Category A transsexual women are indeed happy. Why not me?

To be honest, I don't think their is such a thing as category A or B transsexuals, if someone thinks there is, I have no idea what their definitions are, but I doubt one group is happier than another. there are many reasons people transition, not just the 2.

Gender change surgery? gender correction surgery? I never knew either of them was even possible. Gender, while fluid in some people, isn't something that changes with genital surgery or even transition.

Gender is what is between your ears, sex is what is between your legs.

Well, it was explained to me by one of the psych's at Charing Cross that i was not category A. When they meet a category A it does not take them long to make an assessment and so put them on the road to correction. I say correction because they believe that they are in the wrong body and that they are indeed female. Things are not so clear cut for category B who do not necessarily suffer as much when young and might well go on to marry and have kids That is why for them it really is sex change.

I should just mention before you go to far that whole cat A and B twizzlewazzle the CHX nincompoops have fed you stuff is complete and utter bunkum.

Now why you are unhappy, that I can't say. But I doubt it has anything to do with the age you transitioned or if you were married or had kids prior.

When you first posted the question I was scrathing my head trying to remember what cat A and cat B was.

Now I remember a while back I found a book about diagnosing transexuals. It was edited by Dr Barret of Charing Cross GIC. I got a ways through it reading the relavant bits about Cat A and Cat B before thinking "what a load of twaddle! I have to agree with Hitomi on that one.

I have my first appointment at CX in a few weeks and am dreading what they are going to say or try and classify me as. I mean the fact that I've managed to put this off until my 40's doesn't in any way mean I have not suffered. I have big time. If they try and classify me as B or even A I'll likely blow a gasket. I just want to live my life the way I must and be happy for the first time in my life. I'm starting to dread CX for a variety of reasons and am seriously considering the private option!

Katja

Seriously though do you have any sense of what their criteria are for labeling someone as Catagory A or B?


Katja

It isn't criteria as such, and certainly has no bearing on decisions made, ( which are down to us as well as them )It was just him explaining that the difference simplifies matters for them. As for me i just still yearn to have peace of mind and a sense of being female. Don't imagine that taking hormones and having genital surgery makes you a woman just like that, it is either within you already ( type A ) or not quite as strong, as in type B.

Dear LL: what you're dealing with is self-acceptance. This takes a while. It can take a few years. Be patient. Enjoy your life. It will have its ups and downs. There will be issues involving your past and relating that to the present that will be difficult. That's what we're here for.

So six years ago and still have that pit in the stomach, eh. It could stick around for another couple years. Or not. It does go away. Wow... I just thought of this. 15 yrs ago I transitioned. It's been 14 since all the procedures finished. If I recall about 6 yrs after I had the same pit. Be careful of pits, though. I fractured a molar last month on a prune pit -- they were supposed to have been pitted. (lame attempt at humor).

FWIW I think this categorizing stuff is for the academics. They're keeping statistics so someone can publish a paper.

Well I guess I'm cat A then, always have been
always will be. Whether they think that who knows, who cares I guess.

I hope you soon find peace of mind

Katja

I've always found it odd that people so easily put a mass of 100 billion neurons, with 100 trillion synapses, into one bucket or another. Seems that the human brain would be a bit too complicated for absolute classification.

Just do what's right for you, not what others tell you is right for you.

Ok,you all seem pretty adamant so i guess i will accept what you are saying. Life is certainly not all worry,worry,worry though, i do find some of it still scary. I have actually given up going to Charing Cross now after being seen by an endocrinologist fo a while. It was him who told me that i do not see what other people see. That i was actually good looking and quite unremarkable. I did not like that last bit but he explained that it was a compliment! He has arranged CBT for me local to my home so i will give that a go. Thanks for your opinions on my post, i do have other questions so will post again at some time.

So true.
CHX psychs, a bunch of buffoons who make this stuff up entirely on a basis of serving their own megalomaniac needs. You are not in the company of friends when you talk with such people.

It can only cause problems to give them the least credibility instead of just getting on with life. They have the power to do what they do, and some people have no choice but to work with that. But that doesn't mean that they or their opinions are worth beans. They will definitely be recorded in history on the wrong side of the ledger.

My treating psychiatrist made it very clear to me that the surgery was not some panacea that would fix all my problems. I was clear that what was in my head from my gender to my issues wasn't going to change with surgery.

I think I used to know what those categories meant back in the 90s. I forgot about what they meant back then too.

Just be yourself. If you even KNOW you "fit in", you still have a long way to go - because you're thinking about it. ;-)

Roxanne you are wise as when we first talked in 2005. The question I asked myself when I started transition was- How am I most comfortable as? Thransition is the in between journey till you accept yourself. Hormones, surgery, clothes do not make you who you are, its your mind. Best of luck Cheryl_Lynne aka Teryll