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Does gender dysphoria get worse with time?

Discussion in 'Gender Identity and Expression' started by jul1an, Apr 14, 2022.

  1. jul1an

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    As title. I've seen it does for me, but is it common? It's far more complicated and painful now than 3 years ago for instance.
    I'm in my middle 20s and I discovered I have this almost 10 years ago.
     
  2. chicodeoro

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    I wonder if any studies have been done about this? I suspect it probably varies greatly depending on an individual's situation and where they are in their transition.

    In my own case, during the first few weeks after I accepted myself as trans my dysphoria was acute. Sometimes I'd wake up in the middle of the night, be aware of what was between my legs and just lying there weeping, hating it. That has eased over time with the increased number of people I'm out to and time I spend in female clothes. Also...there's a sense in which my brain is rationalising it. I know that in time I will have the body that matches how I feel inside - I just have to wait.

    That said there are times when it flares up. I was in a shopping queue dressed in male clothing the other day and I could feel that familiar wave of...sh*tiness rising up inside me. As long as there are times I have to 'be male', it's always there, lurking to pounce.
     
  3. TinyWerewolf

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    It ebbs and flows for me personally. One day I might be able to function perfectly fine and push it aside for the time being, and the next I'm trying to keep myself from imploding into a ball of anxiety. It seems like a common experience for dysphoria to intensify pretty soon after coming out to yourself or accepting yourself, but that will vary as always. I was able to present as masculine right after I was out for a few months, so there was more euphoria. When that ability was taken away from me though, there was this crippling sadness and rage.
     
  4. Chip

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    There have been studies. And from the data I've seen, there's no consistent pattern; for some it stays the same, some it gets worse. However, among adolescents, there's also good data that for between 30 and 40% of people with gender dysphoria, it spontaneously resolves by early 20s with no intervention or treatment.
     
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  5. Mihael

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    I think that if you repress something, the problem tends to get worse than if you deal with it.

    I felt a lot better after I finally understood what I was experiencing. It was a relief to know and to stop going against the flow even in the way that I thought about things.
     
  6. staticinmyattic

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    I agree with the above posts, it varies so widely. In my case, I suffered from depression for over 30 years before realizing that I was experiencing gender dysphoria. I now identify experiences I’ve always had as gender dysphoria, so there is of course an increase in identified gender dysphoric experience. That said, identifying the feeling helps, so dysphoric experiences are easier to work through
     
  7. jul1an

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    Thank you all for the answers.
    Unfortunately, I don't think the dysphoria will disappear in my situation. It was very strong before I reached my 20s, then I think I repressed it for a while and now , for some years, it's here again. I'm not sure how I'd like to deal with it, but every time I feel it's worse, and I actually thought it was going to be more tolerable with age. I mean, I still hope it will.