Gender Dysphoria vs. Body Dysmorphia 

I remember as a young trans woman i saw this sorta vein-diagram of overlapping symptoms between gender dysphoria and body dysmorphia. I wasn't trained or anything but my rule of thumb to people who asked me how to help themselves is to think of it like a body dysmorphia, "even if you perceive your body looking hyper masculine to you now, it may ebb and flow." Giving them accurate examples of their preferred sex appearing similar to them or to the traits that were distressing helped my friends. Showing them that they weren't as far removed from their ideal helped. I found myself helped during my transition by not looking at mirrors, wasn't until a few years on estrogen that allowed me to see myself without the dread and hopelessness. There was a high level of self-improvement that needed to be done to have a successful transition.

I wish I could give this video a hundred upvotes. As someone with BDD (as well as CPTSD, MDD, and BPD), I have always said that Gender Dysphoria is "Body Dysmorphia with extra steps." Gender is a reflection of how masculine or feminine you are; masculine=male/man/boy and feminine=female/woman/girl. People with GD are dysphoric about possessing traits that are masculine or feminine, and these people want to make themselves appear more feminine or masculine, respectively. The vast majority of these traits are physical in nature--boobs, private parts, hair, wider or more narrow hips/shoulders, jawline, etc. BDD is the exact same thing, except it's what modern folk would call "cisgender." I "identify" as a fat slob with revolting facial features, even though people tell me the opposite all the time. I won't leave the house some days over my appearance, and have attempted taking my own life due to hating the way I look. But I (male) don't want to look like a woman; I want to be a man who is leaner, more muscular, and has a smaller nose with a more chiseled jawline, perfect teeth, and thicker hair--all of which are things that would make me look more masculine. And I am fully aware that this is mental illness. GD is no different--it's still got its own chapter in the DSM even after all of the lobbying to get the original illness (Gender Identity Disorder) renamed and redefined. Yet people still deny this fact; they say people's GD is society's fault because society hates "trans" folk, and now we aren't allowed to treat or even refer to these people in the same manner that we treat or refer to anyone else with any other mental illness. GD is just transgender BDD, and the treatment is managing the symptoms of the dysphoria/dysmorphic thinking, while using therapy to get to the root of the dysphoria and to learn self-acceptance. Cross-sex hormones and hacking off sex organs is not "gender-affirming care;" it's gender-defying as well as reality-defying, and it's absolutely ridiculous that we've let this foolishness get to the point that it's currently at. Thank you for "affirming" my sanity!

I find it extremely problematic that detransitioners are silenced and marginalized and in some cases ostracized because they have essentially "left the cult." They are spoken of like they don't exist and like their experiences aren't real, valid, or typical. It's absolutely hypocritical, and like you mentioned, this push to erase detransitioners makes it almost impossible to gather data about them. This in turn leads ignorant/misinformed people to fall for the narrative that "detransitioning is so rare that it virtually never happens," which is the same thing they say about minors getting surgeries...even though from 2019-2021 there were 776 mastectomies and 56 genital surgeries performed in the US on patients 17 and under...that's over 20 mastectomies and about 1.5 genital surgeries a month, and these numbers only reflect information from insurance claims and don't include procedures that were paid for out-of-pocket (source: Komodo Health). Thank you for working with people from this demographic and for not being afraid to speak on their behalf!