A better /trans.*/ medical classification

Well, I really do not want to turn this into a /trans.*/ blog. I will probably make a rather non/trans.*/ next post.

I have been thinking on the idea of how Transsexuality would be best classified. Transsexuality from what I have for knowledge is the desire to go though MtF therapy complete with a decent transitional surgery.

The whole issue here, is marketing. How the disorder is classified.

If it is not listed as being anything particularly wrong with the person--that is "completely normal with just a slight quirk". People--especially people in positions in health care systems--will be less inclined to provide surgery for it. They would just as soon provide surgery for that person who whistles too much on the street.

It needs to be listed as an ailment in order to get treatment.

Naturally the classic idea has been to make this a mental illness. This is probably a bad idea.

Instead, let us go with life threatening birth defect. Think like a child being born with a tail, webbed feet or flippers instead of arms. Usually if these are not dealt with, it will usually lead to a more retarded physical development of the person. Leading them to not be as ready in their day to day life. In some cases, it has been noted that not repairing the birth defect of flipper arms can lead to complications from infection. Though, in that case, it may stem more from what caused the child to be born that way in the first place.

If it stays as a mental illness, there will be more people suggesting the idea of just giving transsexuals enough pharmaceutical drugs until the mental illness no longer bothers them.

For contrast, I am certain if somebody with a flipper, webbed feet and a tail were given enough psychotropics, they would pretty much stop caring about the situation they were in too. However, this would not allow them to be a functional member of the world we call society.

The move should be to move this over to a "life threatening physical deformity". While this would only enable health care coverage for treatment of extreme cases, I am fairly certain most people would find this acceptable.

This would allow or the hormone and transitional therapy be covered more as a form of "preparation physiotherapy" of sorts. With the final surgery being seen as, "hey, you would not stop him/her/it from getting a tumour removed, why not let this occur."

Rather than the current stigma that a lot of /trans.*/ receive, which is: they got depressed for whatever reason (somebody dumped them, lost their job, etc.--think emo blog material type stuff), and instead of moving on, they walk into the doctor's office and say "chop it off, I want to be Sally!"

The mental illness classification will not remove this in any way. It also does not help, that there are many people who pull that "depressed trip to the doctor's office to ask to be lopped off into a Sally". Most transsexuals know at least one--if they are lucky. Usually it is something that tends to piss of /trans.*/ of most kinds.

I mean, yes, there have been mental illnesses designed to restrict various groups over the years. Homosexuals were listed as mentally ill, because "sodomy" was thought to be an action harmful to another man. Black people had a few mental illnesses in the early starting point for such things as, "not wanting to be a slave" and "wanting to slack off every now and again". Though--looking at the current world, we have a nice equality here, as those mental illnesses have been spread out to include people of every colour, nationality and creed.

Not to take this off topic, but look at how people who "do not want to be held down" or "do not want to work their fingers to the bone their entire waking hour" seem to be seen as crazy or sick to most of us. There is a sign of jealous and envy--but these ideas are generally thought of as wrong.

Women, even have a few. Looking at most of the symptoms of bipolar and schizophrenia, it seems like it is geared from the start to target women. Bipolar's basic diagnosis defines of, "high points and low points on a cycle with mood swings intermittent"... which was nice that I had a doctor tell me that if this cycle is a month in length, it still is a sign of bipolar. As per Schizophrenia, most of what I have seen overly schizophrenic women do, I have sen undiagnosed women do at a similar rate, they just grow out of it. Perhaps a little bit more introverted to try to keep it to themselves.

Though--in this case, the idea of the mental illness being used to try to "control us" (for lack of a better description--does not imply the controllers have a clue what they are doing or any particular plan) is not entirely that accurate.

In this case, it is merely a life threatening birth defect that has had a symptom of mental stresses to the point of causing snapping points in some people.