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aspergers and gender dysmorphia

markjulips

Hi - I have a 31year old son whom I think may have a mild form Aspergers but has never been diagnosed as it never entered our heads before my neice started having "problems" with her young son and he was diagnosed with autism (which made us do a lot of reading and research with her).  My son has an extremely high IQ and always been good at mathematics and computer programming and has always had obsessions in the past which have always fizzled out when he finds another.  He finds it extremely difficult to make friends, keep a job and has always had relationships with girls but when they end he gets depressed and suicidal.

Last year he revealed he has gender dysmorphia since having counselling sessions after when a psychologist suggested his failed relationships could be because he feels uncomfortable in his male role and I am concerned that this may be yet another obsession which will be irreversible if he does become a woman.  He has now been gioven the go-ahead to take hormones after 4 hours of specialist couselling and 1 seesion with a specialist psychiatrist.

Have any other parents been through this sort of thing or do they think I am just clutching at straws and just watch him go ahead?

Parents
  • Former Member
    Former Member

    I can throw in my tuppence worth, if it's at all helpful.  I'm both ASD and transsexual (I normally just identify as female as it's what I'm most comfortable with and consider transsexualism as something I did rather than something that defines me; but since it's relevant) and they are separate things, though there is apparently quite a large number of transsexual people with ASD, from what I understand.

    In combination they don't make life a lot of fun, but they are separate matters which each need their own treatment.  Generally speaking, transsexualism is something that few people tend to be uncertain about and it's not something that anybody would really enter into lightly: it's a lot of aggravation and change and that in itself would tend to filter out anybody who's uncertain.  The people tasked with assessing those with transsexualism are also very rigorous (I ended up being assessed by my GP, two local psychiatrists, one of whom was a professor of neurochemical malarky, three specialist consultant psychiatrists at the gender clinic and a surgeon before I'd managed to complete the procedure.)

    Gender is a very important part of somebody's identity and I would ask that it's taken seriously: it's a difficult period of adjustment for everybody, but in particular for the person trying to get their life together, which is really nothing more than the majority take for granted from birth.

    A few people are "gender nonconforming" which isn't something I fully understand myself but I can appreciate that it's still terribly important and to respect their wishes and decisions.  If I can't quite get it, I figure I should make the effort, because they're already making a much bigger effort just to be able to be themselves.

    I hope none of that came across as being shouty or militant.  Hopefully I'm being informative rather than preachy or argumentative!  That's my intention, anyway.

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  • Former Member
    Former Member

    I can throw in my tuppence worth, if it's at all helpful.  I'm both ASD and transsexual (I normally just identify as female as it's what I'm most comfortable with and consider transsexualism as something I did rather than something that defines me; but since it's relevant) and they are separate things, though there is apparently quite a large number of transsexual people with ASD, from what I understand.

    In combination they don't make life a lot of fun, but they are separate matters which each need their own treatment.  Generally speaking, transsexualism is something that few people tend to be uncertain about and it's not something that anybody would really enter into lightly: it's a lot of aggravation and change and that in itself would tend to filter out anybody who's uncertain.  The people tasked with assessing those with transsexualism are also very rigorous (I ended up being assessed by my GP, two local psychiatrists, one of whom was a professor of neurochemical malarky, three specialist consultant psychiatrists at the gender clinic and a surgeon before I'd managed to complete the procedure.)

    Gender is a very important part of somebody's identity and I would ask that it's taken seriously: it's a difficult period of adjustment for everybody, but in particular for the person trying to get their life together, which is really nothing more than the majority take for granted from birth.

    A few people are "gender nonconforming" which isn't something I fully understand myself but I can appreciate that it's still terribly important and to respect their wishes and decisions.  If I can't quite get it, I figure I should make the effort, because they're already making a much bigger effort just to be able to be themselves.

    I hope none of that came across as being shouty or militant.  Hopefully I'm being informative rather than preachy or argumentative!  That's my intention, anyway.

Children
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