WELCOME

Scope & Purpose:

This web site started out as a small information resource on Intersex Conditions. However, because there are intersex individuals who reject the gender role of their rearing and may even seek cross-gender surgical reassignment, the issue of Gender Identity was also relevant and much information was added on that topic as well. Today this site has information relevant to intersexed people and transsexual people who desire the social and/or physical facets of the opposite sex to that in which they were raised.

The primary focus is on the medical approach to these problems. Not everyone who exhibits GID is comfortable with the pathological approach to diagnosis or treatment. The focus on the medicalization of the problem is in no way intended to marginalize anyone. In fact, when properly applied the "medical model" is quite accommodating to a wide spectrum of gender identities and presentations.

Anyone who has experienced a gender disorder will tell you that they were not "talked into" it, nor can they be "talked out of it." In the past medical science attempted to "cure" people with gender disorders of what was usually viewed as being "delusional." Following a Victorian-era belief that the seat of sex was in the genitals, doctors erroneously placed the weight of "sexual identity" on the organs of reproduction. "Treatments" involved draconian, stereo-typical concepts of gender roles and sexual orientation as well as drug and "shock" therapies that harmed gender patients far more than helped them.

Hopefully the days of those horror stories are behind us now. But there are STILL some doctors practicing in the field who follow out-dated protocols or, due to their own prejudices, believe the gender patient can, and needs, to be "cured" by dissuasion.

Today most people in the medical community follow internationally recognized protocols for the diagnosis and treatment of gender patients, which when applied correctly, are aimed at alleviating psychological distress. There is also now an acknowledgement that the most important "sex organ" is the human brain.

Only in cases of extreme Gender Dyphoria is the most radical solution to alleviating the mental distress sought. Modern medicine has no means by which to change a person's mind, so the focus of therapy for GID is placed on reconfiguring the gender patient's physical form to synchronize it with the person's psychological identity and vision of self.

This site seeks to explore the subject of Gender Identity Disorders as a resource for both those who are Gender Dysphoric and for those who are not but are trying to understand it. This site is by no means authoritative on the subject and makes no claims to that end.

DISCLAIMER:

If you found the site useful, please point others to it. If you did not agree with the information presented here, simply do not visit it again. Every effort has been made to ensure that the information presented here is current and valid. The site author's Editorial comments are usually noted as such.

The content provided throughout this site is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice or as a substitute for proper care from a licensed specialist in the field of gender disorders. While every effort has been made to ensure the information presented here is accurate, no guarantees are made as to the accuracy and, where possible, information is referenced as to the source.