ftm transgender, “lost” autism on the way…

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Well I’m still autistic of course, but hear me out…
When I started to transition, I mentioned my autism diagnosis (diagnosed several times by different psychiatrists specialised in autism) and they didn’t let me transition from female to male. I had severe gender dysphasia and I changed psychiatrists to find help. My new psychiatrist just mentioned depression in his report to my insurance, even though he knew more was going on… after his reports to my insurance I could transition and the insurance covered my surgeries. I had mastectomy, hysterectomy and phalloplasty. Now years later I moved to a different country and in the transgender ambulance with the psychiatrist I even mentioned that I started talking with 5 1/2 years old (so very late) and all thar, but they didn’t seem to care.

I got the feeling that they don’t even wanna know it, because this combination out of being transgender and autism causes trouble.
Anyone with similar experiences!?

Officially diagnosed autism, age 21. After that, age 21, diagnosed Gender Identity Disorder. (united states 2004). Age 24-26 and 36-40 (current, and counting), testosterone. Zero surgeries thus far. Not planning to get surgery. Autism diagnosis had no impact on testosterone shots. To get the testosterone prescription, was just one visit, and the doctor asked a lot of questions, but none of them were about clinical diagnoses. (However, in 2004, it was required to get 3 months of "gender therapy" [talk therapy] before hormonal transition, at that clinic. The clinic that prescribed testosterone, required that the "gender therapy" be conducted with only certain psychologists [not just any old psychologist]. The clinic did not allow any psychologists at my university, or Kaiser, to perform the "gender therapy". Furthermore, I had no car, and the public transportation in that city was not great. It took two buses to get there. Buses came every half hour and bus rides took thirty minutes. And the waiting list was six months long. and the "gender therapy" costs $$$. So glad it's over. I could never accomplish anything like that again. The current clinic/insurance, does not have that requirement.)

Autistic people are much more likely than nt people to be transgender, and this fact is sometimes used to try to invalidate us.

I've seen people try to argue that autistic people don't really understand how gender works, and that we're just easily influenced and clueless. So of course when we learn about transgender people we must think "hey I'm gender non-conforming, so that must mean I'm trans", without giving it any critical thought. As if autistic people aren't known for doing what's right for ourselves regardless of what other people think, and doing lots of research about the things we care about.

It's transphobic, ableist BS. The doctor that intentionally left out your autism diagnosis on your file was probably aware of this phenomenon, and was trying to help make sure you got the care you needed (since in the past you weren't aloud to transition because they saw you were autistic)

Yes, I think so also… it would’ve caused to much trouble to transition AND insisting being autistic like I did in the beginning. So it was probably for the best to leave it out… now I already transitioned several years ago (I started with hormones 2011, with my mastectomy and name change 2013 and I stated with my phalloplasty 2015 I think, but this went on for quite a while due to complications). So there should be no issue in adding my autism diagnosis back… but actually I stopped insisting on it. It’s more something I mention in a sentence and that’s it. Because it caused way too many problems in the past and I got tired because of it.

My gender dysphasia was so strong that I developed severe depression because of it. It was a terrible time of my life back than. I also developed PTSD back than, due to the treatment in the locked ward (I have cleitrophobia, the fear of being locked away and it totally totally freaked me out). So and all I had back then as a coping mechanism was autism so to say. I appeared much more autistic than I actually am and they didn’t let me transition what made matters worse.
I recovered from most of that, but I kept dysthymia in the long wrong, maybe a mild form of Bipolar II, not sure.

Not surprisingly, my body language is far better when my appearance matches my voice and mannerisms!
People get confused when there is a mismatch!

Good to hear that you were finally able to transition!

Yes, my social skills also increased after transitioning. But also also has to do with stress relief. I can cope better in a social world when I feel better.

But transitioning was very hard for me and my dysthymia never vanished.