by Charlotte Goiar

Copyright @ 2005-2010, Charlotte Goiar.

 All Rights Reserved

shb-info.org


 
 

HBS is not a simple condition to diagnose. Although it is highly probable that there are biological indications for the syndrome, current medical technology is not sophisticated enough to detect them.

Autopsies carried out on people with HBS have strongly pointed out that these factors do exist. In addition, researchers have recently discovered genes that may be responsible for causing some cases of HBS. However, gender is a very poorly understood subject, and we are far from being able to carry out reliable medical tests for the syndrome.

However, even if such tests were possible, they might not be very useful. There may be multiple causes for the syndrome, so testing for a single cause would be far from conclusive. Therefore, the appropriate treatment regimen for any given individual would have to differ from case to case.

Therefore, it is generally up to the sufferer to solicit aid from specialists to diagnose their problem. Psychiatrists and counsellors can sometimes give assistance in this, but individuals with HBS have to understand that they have a physiological problem, and they must recognise that medical attention is necessary to attend to it.

That something is wrong is usually clear from a young age; many if not most children with HBS feel different from other children, and uncomfortable with people’s expectations of them. They may also be unhappy with their physical anatomy, especially so at the onset of puberty.

However, that does not automatically translate into an understanding that they are not truly of their ascribed societal gender. Gender has such a fundamental importance to human society that the possibility of being so wrong about it can be literally unthinkable, especially when one’s gender discomfort is concealed or secret and one does not talk about it.

While some people with HBS do understand their problem for virtually all their lives, many do not comprehend their situation until they are in their teens, twenties, or even older.

It does not help that HBS has serious social stigma associated with it, and society perpetuates much misinformation concerning this topic. Therefore, most people diagnosed with HBS merely wish to amend their condition as thoroughly as possible, place it in the past, and live a normal life.

Consequently, the people who receive the most publicity are an outspoken minority that is not at all representative of people with HBS in general. Unfortunately, ignorant or sensationalist media place people who do not have HBS at all into the same category as those who actually suffer from the condition.

This makes it hard for people with HBS to recognise themselves because the media portrays the condition so poorly. Moreover, society’s attitude towards HBS makes it difficult to talk to anyone about the possibility that you may be suffering from it, or even consider that you may have it.

People with HBS are usually uncomfortable with their bodies, ranging from simply feeling that they are not quite right in some way to outright loathing of the physical aspects that do not match their neurological gender identity.

They tend to associate well with people of their actual neurological gender. Conversely, they do not identify at all with those of their ascribed societal gender. Moreover, most have interests and personalities more typical of people of their actual neurological gender, albeit influenced to some extent by socialisation and hormones.

Of course, we are not speaking here of gender stereotypes. People with HBS are just as varied in behaviour, interests, and beliefs as anyone else in the general population. In any case, it is not possible or healthy to label any particular personality trait as exclusively masculine or feminine.

People with HBS usually respond very favourably both emotionally and physically to hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to adjust their endocrine system to what is normal for their actual neurological gender.

They find that changing their social gender role is of immense psychological benefit although this comes conjoined with negative effects from social disapproval. Virtually all people with HBS find this cost far outweighed by the peace of mind gained through the congruence of mind achieved by harmonising societal and neurological gender.

Not everyone who claims to or believes that they have HBS actually does. There are cases of homosexual men seeking to become women to "make themselves straight". Furthermore, some few suffer from mental disorders that can result in the expression of a desire to change their sex without any genuine identification with the matching gender or physiological basis for the belief.

Although psychiatric evaluation and counselling cannot diagnose or treat HBS, it can be useful in weeding out people who have some other problem. It also helps some to come to terms with associated societal stresses for those who do suffer from the condition.