How do transgender people transition?

Created OnApril 25, 2020

Last Updated OnApril 25, 2020

byDMGB

There are two different types of transition, or ways to affirm your gender: social transition and medical transition.

Social transitioning may include:

coming out to your friends and family as transgender
asking people to use pronouns (she/her, he/him, they/them) that match your gender identity
going by a different name
dressing/grooming in ways that match your gender identity

For trans men and some non-binary people medical transition may include any of the following:

hormone therapy (to create masculine characteristics such as a deeper voice, facial hair growth, muscle growth, redistribution of body fat away from hips and breasts, not getting a period, etc.)
male chest reconstruction, or “top surgery” (removal of breasts and breast tissue)
hysterectomy (removal of internal female reproductive organs such as the ovaries and uterus)
phalloplasty (construction of a penis using skin from other parts of your body)
metoidioplasty (surgery that causes your clitoris to work more like a penis, along with hormone treatment to make your clitoris grow larger)

For trans women and some non-binary people medical transition may include any of the following:

hormone therapy (to create feminine characteristics such as less body hair, breasts, redistribution of body fat toward hips and breasts, etc.)
breast augmentation (implants)
orchiectomy (removal of testes)
laser hair removal (to remove hair from your face or other parts of your body)
tracheal shave (making your Adam’s apple smaller)
facial feminization surgery (create smaller, more feminine facial features)
penile inversion vaginoplasty (creation of a vagina by inverting penile skin)