Body Dysphoria: How to Live with a Body Part You Hate by Dr. Z

If you're struggling with intense distress toward specific physical characteristics—maybe your height, your hands, your chest, your face—you're not alone. This is incredibly common, especially for older trans adults assigned male at birth. Prolonged testosterone exposure creates physical attributes that estrogen alone often can’t change for many adults, and some of you may be unable to access hormones due to health reasons.

So what do you do when you're walking through life with physical attributes you struggle with?

Unfortunately, there's no quick fix, but the most powerful tool remains acceptance—not passive resignation, but actively choosing to stop fighting what cannot change. Fighting against unchangeable characteristics only breeds more distress. If you can't alter it, dwelling on it becomes self-inflicted suffering.

The two clinical interventions that I have found helpful:

Downward comparison: We're conditioned to compare ourselves upward, measuring our worth against idealized bodies on Instagram. Instead, practice looking at those facing greater physical challenges. This cultivates humility and gratitude rather than anger and deprivation.

Mirror work: Systematic mirror exposure rewires the distorted lens of dysphoria. Rather than avoiding mirrors, structured observation allows you to identify automatic negative thoughts, challenge the villainization of healthy body parts, and deliberately acknowledge positive attributes.

You're walking this life with this body; therefore, it is essential to find a way to work in harmony with it, rather than against it. Notice that it's you doing the fighting.