Do trans people get any pluses for the hell they go through?

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We see here that ASD/AS people talk a lot of about the + and - of their condition. What about trans people ? We only talk about the - .

Some possible positives:

1. "Intelligence" - Doctors will expect you to be very smart. So, it appears that trans people are expected to be above-average intelligence.

2. "Gender Insight" - we have insight into gender roles/gender thinking and probably spent enormous amounts of time reading about trans issues which further gives insight into the genders.

3. Creativity - I am not sure this applies to ASD/AS trans people. however, the brain exposure to high amounts of testostorone and estrogen hormones means possible creativtiy since it may result in unusual brain /personality development. (take note of the ordered list of items which is what my brain does - order, logic , structure which seems to be non-creative, unless creatively can also be expressed in a structred way?)

4. "Social Isolation" - similar to ASD/AS people - trans people can become so affected by their condition that they may become socially isolation which might be used constructively, so similar to AS/ASD people where social isolation may be a benefit.

5. "No children" - this might be seen as a benefit. I see it as a loss though.

6. "Shorter life Expectancy" - high suicide rate/murder rate/develop of cancer cause of the different hormones, complications from surgeries - exiting this world sooner could be seen as a benefit.

7. Be a "freak" to others - I did enjoy being untransitioned at work and upsetting people, disgusting people, and making the women unhappy. Probaby my autism made me enjoy it

8. Playing with Gender - This is when you move in between roles of male / female and speak to others in a gender-aware way. This is a fleeting ability though as your transition and "old you" dissappears.

9. Being two genders in one life might be seen as a benefit.

Anyone want to add or enhance the list ?

<--- Doesn't enjoy being a freak.

Same here.

If I wasn't AS/HFA but still trans, I'd be a billion times better at life than I am now.

If I wasn't trans, but still AS/HFA, I'd be a billion times better at life than I am now.

This is not fun at all.

I think this comic describes how I feel -- Imgur - Comfort Zone

I love those 4 panels!

Can any comment on if we have "creativity" ?

I think people do think trans people are suppose to be "creative". My boss expected me to have creativity a few times, and I don't seem to have much of it.

It seem autism overrides "creativity", and instead I have order and structure.

My autism doctor asked me if I was intelligent, cause I come across as a database of information, yet, not able to speak outside the database of information I memorized. So,
if that is true, then I would of had to "learn" creativity.

Possibly I have "new ideas" in a ordered, structured way. It does not seem so though.

I'm creative, but it rarely applies to any situation at hand outside of hobby. And even within the creativity, it's structured.

I paint gaming minis, but I don' design or make mini-figs.
I pyrograph, but can only use stencils for patterns
I can do geometrical abstract art, and fractals, both of which rely on math.

I can make jewelry and write, both of which are the least structured creative thimgs I do, but I got into them because I got obsessed by them.

I've dabbled in ASCII art, floral arrangements, 3d pics, photography, and a few other things.

Well ...

1. I'm intelligent. Tested and verified.

2. I've put in quite a lot of effort to understanding gender issues.

3. I was quite uncreative before transition. I don't think I've improved much.

4. Social isolation - that's an interesting one. I was quite isolated before and I'm quite active socially now,

5. Children. Hmm - I have 12 of my own ...

6. Shorter life expectancy. I am aware of the dangers.

7. I'm not a freak. I'm a fairly ordinary woman who just happened to have been a man before.

8. I didn't play with gender. I did have a time when I knew I was a woman but nobody else knew. That's not a game though.

9. Two genders? Yes I have a lot more experience than most people. The question is, can I make good use of it?

Unfortunately, because of western society being incredibly shallow (especially towards feminine things, IE society at large sees little value in a female if she is not physically attractive, other talents of a woman or her intelligence are very often neglected, biased lines of thinking like "it's ok to be ugly for a man, it's rugged" are rampant), only very young-age transitioners have a fully normal and enjoyable life as a woman.

If you halt puberty with spiro or cyproterone (or disrupt it early enough), then get on estrogen around age 18 or so (whenever society stops making you jump through legal BS over the estrogen), you will pretty much age and live as a hyperfeminine girl, by 100% passable, etc. It may not necessarily translate to 10/10 knockout "hotness", but typically it does translate to perfect passability.

As for myself, I was never all that masculine, puberty did not leave me with stuff like facial or body hair, the hair I did get was very very fine and slow to grow, I never got armpit hair or anything, pubic hair was about the only thing I got. In guy mode in high school, people accused me of shaving my legs all the time, even though I actually didn't at the time (I do now just for the smooth factor), my body just didn't want to grow hair. Despite sort of lucking out in this respect, I developed a level of height that is not typical for a woman, as I am 5'11", I did not luck out with a very feminine facial structure, always had kind of a wide jaw. Shoulders and chest were definitely not as small as a cis woman. While I know many trans women can claim these problems, the fact is, we all would have avoided them if we had never gone through a male puberty.

Sheesh, some of the 90s-born trans girls these days are so lucky and they don't even know it, they just have no indication of ever having been male or anything, because it is becoming relatively accepted to consider halting puberty in a 10 year old who comes out as trans. I don't hate on those girls, but I will fully admit my endless jealousy of them, I'd be one of them if I wasn't born in the time and place that I was. For trans girls, it definitely pays to be born in progressive large cities like NYC or LA, instead of crummy rural towns like I was.

I know my life could be worse in a lot of respects, but it hasn't precisely been easy either. Even getting my transition rolling back at age 21, I still feel that I really missed the boat. I can't lie and say I am happy with this, I'd give anything to have started before high school or something. It is definitely hard to feel like I am passing in 100% stealth sometimes, somedays I feel really girly and passable, other days I don't even want to leave the house because I feel like everyone will stare at me and shield the eyes of their children from the "freak".

In other areas of my life, I do not feel special. Personality wise and interest wise, intelligence wise, all that stuff...it all feels the same as pre-transition, all I really did was begin taking medications and trying to get surgery done, I started wearing different clothes, makeup in public and letting my hair grow. My transition only really changed me from an appearance standpoint, so if I was special or intelligent or gifted in any areas before the transition, I was still all of those things after starting my journey into womanhood. There is nothing special or fun about being trans, it is a bandaid for a f****d up and unfair situation of being born in the wrong body, I can alter this crummy biological husk all I want, but if you told me I could reboot into a real female body and start life over, I'd do it in an instant without a second thought. I know restarting life is impossible, but maybe I will live long enough for some Ghost in the Shell type stuff to happen, maybe being a cyborg will, in the future, be as common as owning a smartphone is today. If that is the case, I wouldn't worry about my gross meat suit anymore, I'd pretty much be a robot girl, which is fine by me.

But as for now, this is the best I have and I'm trying to do all that I can with the hand I've been dealt. I might have a pair of fives, but some people don't get any playable hand and have to bluff their way through life, so I try to be grateful for what I do have and not lament what I don't have (this is easier said than done).

I will admit there is one perk for SOME trans women, that is the specific niche of pornography you can get into if you are attractive. While it requires selling out who you are and throwing the core trans community under the bus by portraying the stereotype that we only exist for the sexual pleasure of perverts with a fetish for chicks with dicks, the money is probably good. I feel that no matter how good looking I could become, I'd never do porn though. But that is how bad the trans situation is in a lot of the world, trans girls consider careers in porn and don't even entertain the idea of a career in a scientific or medical field, they'll get naked on camera because it's something society expects us to do. But, yeah, if you can get beyond these concerns, it CAN be at least a source of income to keep you from living in poverty.

WOW 12!

The concerns of being what is called a woman are secondary for me. I spent most of my life with psychotic & magical thinking from being on the wrong hormones and having an ASD.

I was first diagnosed schizo-affective based on delusion thoughts and ideas of reference. I said, "I am transgender" to the male doctor around 2003 ("transgender" is what I had heard the word is) and he loudly replied, "PEOPLE ARE BORN MALE OR FEMALE" to which my arm started uncontrollable shaking, and I became very disturbed. My fragile, low self-esteem, fake personality could not handle the overload of invalidation.

So, I got the "schizo-affective based on delusional thoughts and autism" diagnosis (That doctor said I had schizo-affective + ideas of reference + autism diagnosis all at the same time. I never knew what autism diagnosis he put down for me). Later, My autism doctor at the VA hospital said the prior doctor was wrong, and I have AS, and not schizo-affective disorder.

I was also taken by family to the ER a few times because of psychotic problems, and twice during my psychologists visits they took me to the ER to have me hospitalized, because they said "something is wrong with you and we need to observe you". This is how my whole life evolved.

I was able to eventually "unlock" my original personality, and integrate it with my male one. However, in addition to my psychotic history, I feel a "disconnect" between "old me" and "new me". Like, I never got to live my life, and "psychotic boy" was not me.

Lessening of the dysphoria. The chance to be more myself. New friends. Being able to function much better (far less bed bound).

I feel very much for you. Everything you've been through sounds very unfair. I can't pretend to understand, your life sounds very complex. I am glad you feel that you made progress with your personality integration. In some ways I can relate to the feeling of a rift between "old" and "new", though. Sometimes I feel I have two sides of me at odds. I try not to entertain ideas of things like karma and past lives, but sometimes I am not sure, it isn't very logical sounding, but I wonder if I was female in many past lives, and only in this version did something screw up and spit me out into a male body.

If I keep up this sort of thinking though, I'll be awake for the next 4 hours in a philosophical crisis, I need to be asleep!

I certainly don't see any pluses. In fact, I don't think I'm going to survive transition.

My creativity or being smart is worthless to me. Only due to luck or knowing someone have I gotten places in life, and that was when my AS/HFA couldn't interfere. If I allow my AS/HFA to show up by actually interacting with people, I lose out. I have yet to capitalize on any of my hobbies because no one gives a crap about my AS/HFA and wants me to be NT just like them in order to succeed. My AS/HFA ruins most everything. I think without my creativity in hobbies, I'd have been dead long ago because I've used them to keep me going, but I don't really have any control over them because I do them at the whim of whether I'm obsessed or not. I haven't been able to write for the last few days and I'm now back to playing video games. I hate this. AS/HFA is ruining my life.

My hobbies have also kept me alive, but it's the severe gender dysphoria that's ruining my life, not Asperger's Syndrome.

I should have added that in. If I was one and not the other, I'd be better, more stable, but it's not to be. I've ordered a sun lamp and maybe that will help improve my mental state right now. I just hope I last long enough to get it.