I believe I would qualify, based upon my very strong transgender desire and focus on becoming castrate through whatever means necessary. It's also beginning to affect my ability to concentrate on work, several days each week. Does anyone here have experience in gaining this diagnosis through consultation with their psychiatrist and/or therapist? If so, I would really appreciate your comments. Thanks.

Caith721 (imported) wrote: Fri Nov 19, 2010 11:07 am I believe I would qualify, based upon my very strong transgender desire and focus on becoming castrate through whatever means necessary. It's also beginning to affect my ability to concentrate on work, several days each week. Does anyone here have experience in gaining this diagnosis through consultation with their psychiatrist and/or therapist? If so, I would really appreciate your comments. Thanks.

Psychiatrist is who diagnosed me...then I connected with a therapist

for the referral... for estradiol...both are trans friendly...that makes a difference....I hear a lot of rumors on the ones that are not trans friendly

dragging there diagnosis out longer..

Either one can diagnose... amount of sessions may very before they diagnose.

I was diagnosed after several sessions...its pricey 90$ therapist/125$ (or more} for

psychiatrist.. so good insurance is a plus...

.......Remember a little longer time spent getting an accurate diagnosis is always wise decision....

Be ready for a lot of questions....they will study your body language alot also....

Also the DSM-4 is updating to DSM-5 so that may change the way they

make their decisions!! hope this helps

I'm familiar with therapist and psychiatrist rates, and fortunately the therapist is a gender specialist. I'm seeing the psychiatrist first, as she is an MD, more easily accessible, and provides plenty of documentation for insurance. As my psychiatrist, she previously prescribed Cymbalta for clinical depression, understanding the depression was related to my transgender nature. I also don't think she will drag things out, fortunately. She's more practical and down-to-earth, thankfully. My therapist will probably require more sessions, as she digs deeply into the individual motivations for a diagnosis, primarily for the benefit of the patient.

What truly disappoints me is, in a major metropolitan city in the southeastern US (not Atlanta), there are only two therapists specializing in gender issues, one of them much less experienced than the other.

smoothie (imported) wrote: Fri Nov 26, 2010 3:33 am .......Remember a little longer time spent getting an accurate diagnosis is always wise decision....

Be ready for a lot of questions....they will study your body language a

lot also....

I'm prepared for a lot of questions and many, many, many sessions, but not necessarily happy about it. I'd expect that's typical for many older TG people. Body language is probably my weakest point, I've been male for soooooo damned long it's definitely a conditioned behavior.

smoothie (imported) wrote: Fri Nov 26, 2010 3:33 am Also the DSM-4 is updating to DSM-5 so that may change the way they

make their decisions!! hope this helps

Many, many thanks for your reply. I know the DSM-5 review process just completed, but are there drafts available anywhere for public reading?

Caith721 (imported) wrote: Fri Nov 26, 2010 7:30 am I know the DSM-5 review process just completed, but are there drafts available anywhere for public reading?

http://www.dsm5.org/Pages/Default.aspx

kristoff, thank you VERY MUCH for that link. It is truly encouraging to see the DSM-5 may finally recognize the great spectrum of gender diversity present in the world, and that TG folk don't consider ourselves as having any "disorder". It is also joyously encouraging to read this text in the End Notes to the Rationale:

16. Although the DSM-IV diagnosis of GID encompasses more than transsexualism, it is still often used as an equivalent to transsexualism (Sohn & Bosinski, 2007). For instance, a man can meet the two core criteria if he only believes he has the typical feelings of a woman and does not feel at ease with the male gender role. The same holds for a woman who just frequently passes as a man (e.g., in terms of first name, clothing, and/or haircut) and does not feel comfortable living as a conventional woman. Someone having a GID diagnosis based on these subcriteria clearly differs from a person who identifies completely with the other gender, can only relax when permanently living in the other gender role, has a strong aversion against the sex characteristics of his/her body, and wants to adjust his/her body as much as technically possible in the direction of the desired sex. Those who are distressed by having problems with just one of the two criteria (e.g., feeling uncomfortable living as a conventional man or woman) will have a GIDNOS diagnosis. This is highly confusing for clinicians. It perpetuates the search for the “true transsexual” only, in order to identify the right candidates for hormone and surgical treatment instead of facilitating clinicians to assess the type and severity of any type of GI and offer appropriate treatment. Furthermore, in the DSM-IV, gender identity and gender role were described as a dichotomy (either male or female) rather than a multi-category concept or spectrum (Bockting, 2008; Bornstein, 1994; Ekins & King, 2006; Lev, 2007; Røn, 2002). The current formulation makes more explicit that a conceptualization of GI acknowledging the wide variation of conditions will make it less likely that only one type of treatment is connected to the diagnosis. Taking the above regarding the avoidance of male-female dichotomies into account, in the new formulation, the focus is on the discrepancy between experienced/expressed gender (which can be either male, female, in-between or otherwise) and assigned gender (in most societies male or female) rather than cross-gender identification and same-gender aversion (Cohen-Kettenis & Pfäfflin, 2009).

In other news, I restarted electrolysis Saturday. I had some work done around my Adam's Apple seven years ago, but that was for ingrowns and cystic acne, all of which has since resolved. I chose a new electrologist less than one mile from home, and she is SOOOO much more talented than my previous one. We started with all the hairs in and around my lips, and the worst discomfort from her treatment was almost non-existent. The funniest thing was when she told me, "You're going to hate me, because you'll have Angelina Jolie lips for a few days." Of course I asked her, "Is that really a problem for anyone?" Her skill with the electrolysis needle and her modern Apilus machine meant I had only very minor swelling and redness following treatment. The redness resolved by the end of the day, and half of the swelling is gone, too.

Next week she'll be working on any other hairs appearing around my lip line, as well as the remaining dark hairs on my upper lip (about 50% of them.) It is going to be SUCH a pleasure not to have to shave around my mouth, anymore.

smoothie (imported) wrote: Fri Nov 26, 2010 3:33 am .......Remember a little longer time spent getting an accurate diagnosis is always wise decision....

Be ready for a lot of questions....they will study your body language alot also....

Also the DSM-4 is updating to DSM-5 so that may change the way they

make their decisions!! hope this helps

Ohh I've been assessed by a few psychiatrists and I've been given there mental assessments of me this man basically wrote a page of a 4 page document about my appearance demeanor and sexual history.

Although he said generally nice things about me and my feminine appearance and my feminine voice ect he did get abit uppity about why I wasn't wearing a dress or a skirt to this meeting and instead opted for casual jeans scoop neck t-shirt and zip up black blue striped zip up hoody.

To this insinuation that I ought to be wearing a dress I made a sarcastic comment about the weather. (I was actually saying 'Do I really need a reason to not wear a dress?') but he took that seriously and he put that in my official assessment expecting that I wear dresses all the time but that it was just too cold. O.o

Imagine the psychiatrist is your boyfriends dad... You want to impress him and make him approve of you. What kind of things dose a dad want to see in a young woman who's potentially going to go out with his son? Not a floosy not a slut, Very girly, kinda pretty, not nuts and not aggressive.

It's disgusting and objectifying to bend to his will like this but seriously if it gets what I want and need ugh fine I will do it. Of course you shouldn't lie however I might have omitted my previous assaults on my genitals or one or two of the guys I've kissed. He never asked specifically and I never evaded a question I just never volunteered it up.

Went to my psychiatrist/MD this afternoon. Had to wait too long past my appointment time, but it was well worth the wait. When I made the appointment two weeks ago, I drew up a list of talking points I intended to discuss, and we hit almost all of them before I took out the list to review. I calmly described all my reasons for desiring voluntary bilateral orchiectomy, and she asked if I had found a sympathetic urologist yet. She mentioned there was at least one sympathetic female urologist in town, if my regular male urologist has any ethical or moral issues about performing the surgery. Now I need to make a visit with my psychotherapist/PhD, as she has a lot more experience and knowledge regarding gender, MtF and FtM matters. It's likely she can point me to the urologist mentioned today

In case you can't tell, I'm a very happy person right now.

Caith721 (imported) wrote: Tue Nov 30, 2010 4:30 pm Went to my psychiatrist/MD this afternoon. Had to wait too long past my appointment time, but it was well worth the wait. When I made the appointment two weeks ago, I drew up a list of talking points I intended to discuss, and we hit almost all of them before I took out the list to review. I calmly described all my reasons for desiring voluntary bilateral orchiectomy, and she asked if I had found a sympathetic urologist yet. She mentioned there was at least one sympathetic female urologist in town, if my regular male urologist has any ethical or moral issues about performing the surgery. Now I need to make a visit with my psychotherapist/PhD, as she has a lot more experience and knowledge regarding gender, MtF and FtM matters. It's likely she can point me to the urologist mentioned today

In case you can't tell, I'm a very happy person right now.

I am very happy for you hon......that was the diagnosis you were hoping for!!!

I know that feeling very well, myself, when I was diagnosed.

I hope that all you dreams will be realized!!!

......I don't mind living in a man's world if I can be a woman in it.......

Denise

My psychotherapist replied to my e-mail request for an appointment, so I'll be meeting with her sometime before the end of the year, hopefully. She's very experienced and well-qualified with MtF, FtM, and the entire spectrum of gender and personality. My only fear is that she might take a 'gatekeeper' mentality for some unknown reason. Fortunately, I believe if she had any reason to do so, she would explain it to me.

I was very pleasantly surprised with my psychiatrist on Monday evening. When I discussed all my reasons for desiring bilateral orchiectomy, she mentioned it would eliminate the possibility of testicular cancer or any likelihood of prostate cancer. Since I don't have any family history of either (although I have had BPE/BPH for years, until starting anti-androgens and estrogen) I wasn't even going to mention those reasons.