The Hidden Struggles of Transitioning: Midway Hurdles!

Dr. Z discusses the biggest challenge of going through gender transition because she feels like we talk a lot about starting gender transition, and figuring out who you are. We talk a lot about—or a lot of people actually, a lot of YouTubers out there, a lot of people on social media—tend to do a lot of before and after. So we see a ton of people doing before they started their gender transition, and miraculous, beautiful, amazing after. But this part—the most difficult part of gender transition (and she has yet to see a person who would say that this was not the most difficult part of gender transition)—seldom gets talked about. And that is the middle part of the gender transition. That's the middle phase of gender transition.

She will explain to you why that particular middle part is the most challenging, the most difficult. A lot of times, people think starting gender transition is the most difficult, and part of it feels like it is the most difficult because that's when you make the decision, that's when you confront a lot of things that maybe you did not want to confront, that's when you also have to face the potential reality that comes with it. For that reason, it may feel like that's the hardest thing about gender transition. But that is not the hardest part. Anybody who's been through gender transition (whatever that may mean for you—whether it is just going through social elements or going through all the social and medical elements of gender transition) knows that's not the difficult part. It is difficult, but the most difficult part that people seldom talk about is the middle part.

Watch this video as Dr. Z addresses why the middle phase is so challenging and what you need to know.