Practice with Female-to-Male Transgendered Youth

Abstract

This paper examines the multiple experiences of female-to-male transgendered identified adolescents also known as FTMs. The information utilized in this paper is based on the available literature on FTMs and the result of over two years of listening to the narratives of FTM trans-gendered adolescents with whom I have worked and from professional counseling experiences with several FTMs ranging in age from their mid to late teens to their early forties. The paper also focuses on current theories, offers a strengths-based approach to practice, and concludes with implications for practice with FTM clients.     

Finding Our Way

Abstract

The world of mainstream psychotherapy encounters unfamiliar territory when a four-year-old girl, desperate to have a different-gendered body, is treated over a three-year period by a psychologist who is not a gender specialist. Evolution of the work with the child, family, extended family, and school is described. Implications for theories of the etiology of transgender identity are considered in light of the family structure. Treatment issues are highlighted, including the interface of transgender issues with family dynamics.     

Effects of Testosterone Treatment and Chest Reconstruction Surgery on Mental Health and Sexuality in Female-To-Male Transgender People

ABSTRACT. Objectives: This study examined the effects of testosterone treatment with or without chest reconstruction surgery (CRS) on mental health in female-to-male transgender people (FTMs). Methods: More than 200 FTMs completed a written survey including quantitative scales to measure symptoms of anxiety and depression, feelings of anger, and body dissatisfaction, as well as qualitative questions assessing shifts in sexuality after the initiation of testosterone. Fifty-seven percent of participants were taking testosterone and 40% had undergone CRS. Results: Cross-sectional analysis using a between-subjects multivariate analysis of variance showed that participants who were receiving testosterone endorsed fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression as well as less anger than the untreated group. Participants who had CRS in addition to testosterone reported less body dissatisfaction than both the testosterone-only or the untreated groups. Furthermore, participants who were injecting testosterone on a weekly basis showed significantly less anger compared with those injecting every other week. In qualitative reports, more than 50% of participants described increased sexual attraction to nontransgender men after taking testosterone. Conclusions: Results indicate that testosterone treatment in FTMs is associated with a positive effect on mental health on measures of depression, anxiety, and anger, while CRS appears to be more important for the alleviation of body dissatisfaction. The findings have particular relevance for counselors and health care providers serving FTM and gender-variant people considering medical gender transition.     

Transitioning Transgender: Investigating the Important Aspects of the Transition: A Brief Report

The purpose of this study is to identify important aspects of the transition to facilitate decision-making and improved care for transgender patients by transition-care providers. A survey was used to identify transition aspects deemed significant by transgender persons. Among transgender women, the most important transition elements were legal gender change, hormone therapy, breast augmentation, frontal bone setback, and removal of body hair, and among transgender men, change of dress/clothing, name and legal gender change, speech therapy, hormone therapy, chest reconstruction and breast binding. This information is useful to physicians as they care for transgender patients to better offer transition-related counseling.     

Mapping Discrimination Experienced by Indonesian Trans* FtM Persons

This work sought to document how Indonesian trans* FtM persons experienced discrimination across the interlinked domains of social networks, religious and educational institutions, employment and the workplace, and health care institutions. Objectives were (1) to map the discrimination experienced by trans* FtM individuals in Indonesia, and (2) to establish the specific priorities of the Indonesian trans* FtM community. In-depth interviews, focus groups, and participant observation was used involving 14 respondents. Findings revealed that respondents experienced othering through rejection, misidentification, harassment, “correction,” and bureaucratic discrimination across the five preestablished domains. Health care and a lack of information emerged as areas of particular concern for respondents. This work calls for health care that is sensitive to the needs of trans* FtM people coupled with high-quality information to alleviate the cycles through which discrimination is sustained.     

Terms of Connection

Abstract

This article is based on a qualitative study of 18 mothers who learned that their daughters identified as transgender. The interviews reveal a process of reconciliation that included themes of initial devastation, daughter-loss, and recollections of early gender-variant behaviors. Turning points such as adjustment to a male presentation and a perceptual-cognitive shift enabled mothers to view their daughters as male and begin to respond to them as their son. A discussion of psychotherapeutic issues and techniques is also highlighted.     

“I'm in Transition Too”: Sexual Identity Renegotiation in Sexual-Minority Women's Relationships with Transsexual Men

ABSTRACT

This qualitative research study examines the experiences of sexual-minority women in relationships with transsexual men (N = 20) using grounded theory analysis. This paper reports data on the core theme of “Sexual Identity Renegotiation” and reflects the process by which women manage their sexual-minority identities in the shifting social context of their partners taking on increasingly male signifiers. The research findings suggest that conflicts and strategies surrounding identity depend on the investment in, and the nature of, a sexual-minority identity. These struggles are also affected by the degree of visibility as a sexual-minority, influenced by both gender expression and the racialized experience of that expression. Clinical applications for work with this population are proposed.