As a Transgender support site we receive nearly a thousand emails a day after the spam is filtered out. We also see thousands of chat conversations as well as forum posts and instant messages. The amount of genuine heartfelt feelings, emotion, confusion, frustration, anger, pain and anxiety contains a wealth of knowledge and data un-paralled in one place. In contrast researchers only see a handful of us often confusing crossdressers and Transgenderists with transsexuals. Michael Baily's anti-transsexual study consisted of only 6 people. A Gender therapist can only see 6 patients a day and not all of those are Transgendered. Meanwhile as a community we are still misunderstood and researchers still don't know the truth about how we all really feel. The real truth is buried in the communications and real life stories we receive from our users. Some of it is heart wrenching and others awe inspiring as they slowly turn their lives around.

Three years ago I started compiling a general summary of what I read everyday. No personal identifiers were kept so the summary i record is strictly anonymous though I retain the mail. I then took the anonymous summaries and met with Psychologists to try to work out strategies for helping Transgender people. These strategies are incorporated into the site in articles and moderator training. These 2 therapists have learned more from you our users than any researcher could possibly hope to know. In this article I will share some of the things we have learned. More articles will follow in time.

The word Transgender is a spectrum painted with a very broad brush. Picture an eight lane empty highway with people standing shoulder to shoulder across it's width. Each person represents a different category or a mix of categories. One size does not fit all.

Everyone in that spectrum has at least one thing in common which is high anxiety. Whether they are a crossdresser, a fetishist, autogynephilliac or a Transsexual they all have it and many suffer with it to an unbearable point. This commonality alone should bring the community closer together not further apart.

Sexual Orientation is seperate and distinct from gender issues. One has nothing to do with the other. The gender issue came first. Incidents of homosexuality have the same occurence as in the general population. Prolonged hormone use may change orientation later for a few (not all) as the body changes.

Treatment for transgendered should not go beyond the point of anxiety relief. In the case of some crossdressers often dressing twice a week privately eliminates the anxiety. For others living the cross-gender role is enough. Some may need hormones as well, others may not. Again you only go up to the point of anxiety relief and no further. Stop after each change for a short time to get your bearings and re-evaluate. A smaller number will need to go further and obtain (GRS) Gender reassignment surgery. All treatment should be co-ordinated with a therapist who understands gender issues.

Bear in mind while we get a lot of letters from those happy with their hormone changes we also get a significant number (19%) from those who are not and wish to reverse the process. In the latter unsatisfied group 83.2% of these have never seen a therapist for treatment and were not prescribed hormones by a doctor. It is estimated that 30% of GRS patients either have trouble or are unable to reach orgasams. Some are OK with this and others are not. As procedures are perfected this number is decreasing. The question everyone needs to ask themselves is "Can I live without what I have now"? We have clearly received many letters from those who are unhappy. It is difficult to give a firm number as some of these now feel that they were never Transsexual. So it is from mixed categories. We will try to address this in a new upcoming survey.

Certainly I don't consider these numbers scientific as followups wern't done. How typical is this TG site compared to others? I really don't know. I do think the users emails were sincere and from the heart and that the letters do show a trend that can't be ignored.

We are working on several Transgender Professional style surveys that will be out soon. One is listed below. Keep those emails coming. You are making a difference. Thanks to all who wrote.

Laura's PLayground Transgender, Transsexual, HBS, Intersexed, Suicide Prevention Survey

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