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Comment by gnah | Hacker News Reader

If I had grown up in a culture this accepting of transgender people I would have transitioned. That would have been the worst decision of my life. I've grown into my identity as a man since then and I'm thankful for my parents and society pushing me in the right direction. We need to be careful to avoid putting borderline cases like me into a group with such high rates of suicide and depression.

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Conversely, had I grown up when it was more accepted, I wouldn't have ended up having to fight against internal self-hatred to see who I needed to be, would have transitioned much sooner, would have consequently had a much easier re-integration into society, and wouldn't have been scarred by abuse, discrimination, and frequent thoughts of suicide.

You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to...

You would have only transitioned after lots (maybe years) of sessions with doctors and therapists where they would have made sure that it's really what you need.

As the article mentions, the biggest change right now is delaying puberty for some kids so that if they _are_ trans, they get the chance to transition more easily later in life.

Regardless, I'm glad that you're happy with your body.

Delaying puberty and sexual maturation is quite odd in this case.

It's a bit hard to know what gender you identify as when you aren't even remotely sexually mature hormonal and neurological changes during puberty might be a very important factor. And while yes sex isn't equal gender in this case but it still means allot. If you pump a man full of estrogen and make him feel like a woman you'll might be able to push him hard enough to identify as one.

This is interesting. Given the drastic and irreversible nature of surgical gender reassignment, if gender identity is not fixed then we need to be aware of this. Does anyone have any idea what proportion of people who feel they are the wrong gender change their mind over time?

You know, I haven't seen any good evidence that transitioning causes high rates of suicide or depression. I'd be very surprised if suicidal inclinations aren't present in people that go for physical alteration to a much higher degree. The reason is, if you're happy, there's no need to take such a risky course of action. If you're unhappy, this is one way you might try to fix things. Then you're still unhappy, and you've run out of options.

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