Our daughter just announced she wants to transition to intersex - but we think she's rushing into the decision, and we're terrified she's making a mistake. She refuses to communicate with us calmly about it, and we're made to feel evil for questioning anything. Any advice would be appreciated :-(

I think both you and your child mean "non-binary".

Thank you, understood. I will bear this in mind going forward.

But it does hurt when it's forced on them as a means of gatekeeping by parents.

I realise this. But I'm also aware that a small minority of people who transition end up regretting it. Now I realise this is a very tiny minority, but as a parent, you fear the worst for your child, and only want the best for them. I'm simply trying to take the steps to make the chances of regret as tiny as possible - therapy being one of those steps. I'm sorry this has seemed to cause offence to many on this thread - to those people, I would say that I am trying to empathise with you, and I would like you to try and bear this in mind when considering things from my viewpoint too.

As for it being "unfathomable", it's likely you don't experience gender dysphoria around your breasts. So it's natural you don't get it. But Abbie might experience dysphoria around their breasts, causing them great psychological pain.

That is exactly it, I simply cannot comprehend because I do not have the same dysphoria that Abbie has. Again, my worry is that the dysphoria came about only recently (or at least, it initially appeared that way to me), and I hope that if Abbie is in a happier place mentally then it could go again.

I've been binding for only a couple years and I already feel pain from it.

Can you explain a little more about binding? Someone else in this thread mentioned it and I'm afraid I know very little about it. I will look on Google but a first-hand account would be interesting too.

/r/asktransgender Thread Parent