DEVIATIONS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL ORIGIN: TRANSSEXUALITY
Transsexuality is not the same thing as homosexuality. A transsexual is a man who feels he is really a woman, or a woman who feels she is really a man.
Nor is this the same phenomenon as transvestism. A transvestite is someone who has an episodic obsession with taking on the external trappings of the opposite sex – their way of dressing, their way of speaking, their behaviour. But, far from denying their sexual identity, transvestites are proud of their own sex.
A number of explanations for transvestism have been put forward, none of them very satisfactory and none supported by scientific evidence. Neither biology nor psychology can explain the phenomenon.
All genuine transsexuals have a strong desire to change sex physically. A surgical operation can help, but will only give the person the approximate appearance of the opposite sex. The man, for example, is given a cavity in imitation of the vulva, but he cannot get any pleasurable sensations from it. He has no clitoris, and can never have an orgasm. The only erotic feeling he can get is from his breasts, which can be made to grow fairly easily with an oestrogen treatment. This treatment also helps by softening the lines of the face a little and reducing facial and body hair.
For a woman, it is possible to graft on the equivalent of a penis. Some transsexual women are happy enough with a dildo held in place by straps between the legs and round the hips. Transsexual women can still have orgasms, since they still have a clitoris. Even where the clitoris has been removed, the scar is known to provide agreeable sensations.
Transsexuals have to handle far greater psychological and emotional problems than bisexuals. Paradoxically, the men find it fairly easy to accept the complete absence of orgasm. It has been established that transsexuals, whether or not they have had an operation, have a very weak sex drive.
Transsexuals of both sexes suffer most of all from their awareness of being abnormal. Moreover, however hard they try to blend in with the opposite sex, their success rate is very low and most of the time they find themselves isolated and rejected. They run a high risk of anxiety, stress and mental problems. Medical treatment and psychological help can palliate these problems to some extent.
The proportion of transsexuals in society as a whole is not known with any accuracy, but in any case it is very small. This leaves them even more isolated and marginalized than homosexuals. The condition is even rarer among women than among men.
In some Western countries transsexuals have the further problem of being unable to change their status officially.
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