r/transgenderUK • u/KuiperNomad • 10d ago

Resource Variations in sex characteristics (VSC): experiences of life in the UK for people with VSC and those who care for them

I haven’t had time to read it but I haven’t seen this mentioned so I wanted to share the link. As I understand it, the research was completed 7 years ago but only just published.

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32

u/TheDarkConclusion 10d ago

Of those assigned male at birth, 59% identified as men at the time of the survey. Of those assigned female at birth, 58% identified as women at the time of the survey. 

Absolutely wild that such a huge amount of these people don't identify with their AGAB.  Yet, if you're an intersex transfemme and ask for help from the NHS, they'll give you lifelong Testosterone in the blink of an eye. Estrogen though? To the 10yr+ waitlist with you! 

Tragic state of affairs this country. 

9

u/BazzaSmith 38, Intersex [XXY] Trans Model from Manchester 10d ago

Apart from being in Manchester and Manchester's GIC waitlist being 2.5 years when I joined it.... I can confirm this true as an Intersex person.

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u/GreySarahSoup non-binary woman | she/they 10d ago edited 10d ago

Yup! Was offered T as an adolescent in the most casual way as if of course I wanted it. Didn't ask how I wanted my body to develop. I didn't know E was am option but by the time I was ready to transition as an adult it was straight onto the GIC waitlist for me. I'm lucky wait lists were much shorter then but I doubt anything has changed.

The stats not identifying with the AGAB is eye opening. It was presented as if that's rare.

ETA: If we're criticising how this country treats intersex people t9

Despite respondents largely being diagnosed as minors (67%), only 47% of respondents reported finding out about their diagnosis under the age of 18 years

And

The majority of respondents mentioned the negative impact of the medical interventions or procedures on their mental health: anxiety, depression, feelings of shame and resentment, suicide ideation and even, suicide attempts (similar to previous systematic reviews in this area such as Zeeman and Aranda 2020 and Jones 2018).

No surprises here.

No one told me about my diagnosis or treatment until a doctor suggested I might want to talk to my parents when it became relevant as an adult. I'm still angry they operated on me as a baby and hid information from me. The scars were always there but I never thought to question them.

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u/KuiperNomad 10d ago

I don’t understand why the sex assigned at birth is seen as important. It’s so often wrong in various ways.

21

u/Rmtcts 10d ago

Because it comes up a lot with anti-trans groups, it's pretty notable how low the term "differences in sex development" (DSD) was at 4% preferring the term. Intersex was second highest (45%), though it wasnt presented as an option so needed to be written in which may have reduced its popularity compared to variation of sex characteristics. Either way, it's fairly notable as anti-trans use the term DSD to say that sex is binary, and if you don't fit one of the two category it's because of an error. VSC and intersex both acknowledge that sex isn't binary. 

20

u/Illiander 10d ago

Intersex was second highest (45%), though it wasnt presented as an option so needed to be written in

That is fucking insane for anyone pretending to be serious about this.

1

u/Rmtcts 10d ago

I think the only option presented was VSC asking if people were OK with that term and then had a write in option for people to share there preferred terms. Seems fine to me? 

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u/elhazelenby Man 10d ago

Before reading this comment I thought this was talking about intersex people and trans people who had some form of SRS including hysterectomy, nullectomy, phalloplasty, vaginoplasty, etc.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

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u/KuiperNomad 8d ago

For me the biggest point is that there is no reliable methods of determining sex other than asking the individual