Transgender is a term that includes the many ways that people\u2019s gender identities can be different from the sex they were assigned at birth. Gender incongruence and\/or realization of identity as transgender can occur at any age.<\/p>\n
The number of young people who identify as transgender has nearly doubled in recent years, according to a new report that captures a stark generational shift and emerging societal embrace of a diversity of gender identities.\u00a0 This hasn\u2019t always been the case for other generations.<\/p>\n
The struggles faced by younger people are entirely different from those who transition later in life. Both Claire and Theo, patients of the UConn Health Transgender Medical Services, realized their gender dysphoria in their late 20s and early 30s.<\/p>\n
CLAIRE<\/strong><\/p>\n Claire was assigned male at birth and her earliest recollections stem from around 5 years old when playing house and wanting to play the \u201cmom.\u201d\u00a0 At the time, she thought nothing of it.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a kid simply playing with my friends,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n It was not until she turned 8 when things started to change. She was the quiet kid in school, not great at sports, who ran cross country and played video games but started getting picked on.<\/p>\n When realizing gaps in the things boys were doing, she stopped playing dress-up and began doing things to fit in with her male friends.<\/p>\n She didn\u2019t really like who she was and one birthday, her mom got her a book called \u201cI Hate Everything<\/em>\u201d that characterized her personality.<\/p>\n In her early teenage years, she started dressing in women’s clothes when her parents were asleep, she was happier when presenting more feminine but didn\u2019t really understand.\u00a0 At that time she didn\u2019t have the vocabulary or awareness that trans people existed. The cross-dressing continued in secret through college.<\/p>\n \u201cI would often sit up at night wishing I could wake up as a woman,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n She would want these things, but also fight them, repressing her thoughts or denying her feelings outright.<\/p>\n Her first job was in Kansas, in the middle of the Bible Belt.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt isolated, away from my family and the friends I had made in college,\u201d Claire says.<\/p>\n Working in computers, she found a social virtual reality game online and decided to give it a try. The game allows players to talk with one another virtually in different rooms known as \u201cworlds.\u201d The worlds range from cozy dim-lit bars and cafes to the tops of mountains. Players could choose and even create their own avatar to represent themselves in the virtual world.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a place that accepted people for who they are,\u201d she says. \u00a0\u201cPeople talked to you like you are a person, and would not care about what you looked like.\u201d<\/p>\n She immediately created a female avatar and tried different looks.<\/p>\n \u201cI was on cloud nine, it felt so real and I was so much happier presenting as a woman,\u201d says Claire.<\/p>\n Over time, she decided this was maybe something to think about and it was not a fetish or something to be hidden.<\/p>\n At a routine check-up with her doctor, she decided to come out and ask about her different options. Her primary care physician was extremely helpful and referred her to the UConn Health Endocrinology Department<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was nerve-wracking making the first appointment,\u201d said Claire. \u201cI thought I was going to have to prove myself to the doctor, that I was trans enough to move forward, but that ended up not being the case.\u201d<\/p>\n