Do any older women transition?

[Teatime55]

I feel like all I see are loads of middle aged men wanting to be women, and teenage girls/young women wanting to be male.
Are there middle aged women transitioning? Getting surgery etc.

I've known a couple, mid 40s.

Not many as far as I can see. Too busy getting on with life and coping with the challenges of being women in a misogynistic world.

Don’t they automatically become men after menopause
:sarcasm: tho I think I read that somewhere once….

I know one. We're not as in touch as we used to be so I don't know to what extent she has medically transitioned.

She has a vast amount of trauma in her past and a long history of mental health problems. It's hard not to see her transition as another thing she believes might be 'the answer' - and an escape from the female body which is fundamental to much of the trauma she has experienced.

I feel very sad for her.

As a middle aged woman myself, I just think, who could be arsed.
Maybe they are also a lot quieter and just getting on with things.

I think there are a few but nowhere near the same numbers of MtF transitioners. Can't think why ...

I wonder if the identity of butch lesbian previously covered the territory that transman now covers

As a middle aged woman myself, I just think, who could be arsed.

Exactly. So much effort and angst and, if going the whole hog, pain and potentially harder recovery. For what exactly? Is it worth it?

There is an FtM Over 50 subreddit.
Only has about 600 users, one new thread every 3-4 days.

There is a technically mixed-sex subreddit called ‘Translater’ which is overwhelmingly late transitioning males and that has 71,000 users

Not many, which is strange because menopause would be the ideal opportunity.

Woman in her fifties: “I’m a man!”

Nature: “Here is menopause.”

Woman: “But I’m a man now. See? Trousers.”

Nature: “Whatevs. Here is more menopause.”

Woman “Oh ffs why even bother.”

Not really because middle aged women tend not to have such wonderully inspiring fetishes.

Yes, I know of one, early 40s.

Many, many older women have experience of how reality and biology can hurt. Side effects from contraception, the ongoing pain of harm as a result of pregnancy and childbirth, lack of appropriate medical care because the medical model is designed around men. We've usually got an idea by our middle age that fucking with nature is a bad idea and no, not everything can be fixed. So we're probably more wary of surgical / hormonal intervention.

As far as 'living like a man' - well most middle aged women I know wear trousers, many have short hair, so it depends what you mean? Lots do DIY and mow the lawn, take the bins out. Of course we tend to get paid less, especially if we've done the unpaid but demanding work of looking after children or caring for others at any point, and I seriously doubt ID-ing as a man would change that.

The expectation that, as middle aged women, we service everyone else and the upset if we say 'no' isn't going to be abated if we ID as men because self-ID as everyone knows only really applies to one sex. And it isn't ours.

Not many middle aged women have time to navel gaze and dwell on their own identities. Many are running between job / kid care / elderly care.

So basically I don't think there's any real benefit to ID as a man if you're an older woman. We're not deluded enough to think people won't still see our sex, and we know that's the main reason for lower pay and being treated badly.

I know one, late 40s early 50s.
Keeps going on about wanting to pull gay men. Which of cause is a pipe dream.

This person also thinks they can be possessed by ghosts. I'm not joking.

Their kids are grown up, thank goodness. And the hubbie left them to it.

Blanchard identifies this type of dysphoria as a small niche identity within his framework.

😁Brilliant. I think this also:

Woman in her fifties: “I’m a man!”

Rest of world: “Here is my washing.”

Woman: “But I’m a man now. See? Trousers.”

Rest of world: “Whatevs. Here are some kids that need safeguarding”

Woman “Oh ffs why even bother.”

(Not a hint of stunning and brave and pages and pages of media coverage of course).

Backed up with

NHS "that's nice dear! By the way you still need to attend your next smear its overdue and as you are now 50 please attend your breast screening appointment!"

🤣🤣

Yes, my friend who is nearing 50 is transitioning

Have they said why now rather than 30 years ago?

From the few late transitioning women I’ve lurked on via Reddit it seems to me (and obviously this is just my speculation):

1- Autism or other neurodiversity (often only recently diagnosed or still not diagnosed)
2- A bit of a mid life crisis situation, divorced, children all left home, feels like a ‘last chance at living’
3 -A longing for reinvention, sort of like a do-over but this time playing the game of life with a boy’s avatar
4 - general unhappiness about ageing in a female body with all the inevitable sags wrinkles, and perimeno - some women turn 50 and immediately themselves a set of whiter than white Turkey teeth and hire a surgeon to haul their boobs back to where they sat pre kids. The older transitioning women are doing something similar but their reincarnation starts even further back, with ‘second puberty’.

Dying here, thank you.

Yes I can't imagine it. Have enough drama in my life with Ex and two teenagers, ageing parents, full-time job and peri menopause without having to invent something to add more.