Editing Gender transition (section)

==Various aspects==
Transitioning is a complicated process that involves any or all of the gendered aspects of a person's life, which include aesthetics, social roles, legal status, and biological aspects of the body. People may choose elements based on their own gender identity, body image, personality, finances, and sometimes the attitudes of others. A degree of experimentation is used to know what changes best fit them. Transitioning also varies greatly between cultures and subcultures according to differences in the societies' views of gender.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Book Review: Sally Hines, Transforming Gender: Transgender Practices of Identity, Intimacy and Care. Bristol: The Policy Press,2007.227 pp.ISBN 978-1-86134-9170 £24.99 (pbk).ISBN 978-1-86134-9163 £60.00 (hbk)|first=Patricia|last=Elliot|date=1 October 2008|journal=Sexualities|volume=11|issue=5|pages=646–648|doi=10.1177/13634607080110050603|s2cid=145654831}}</ref>

===Social aspects===
{{redirect|Social transitioning|social changes on a societal level|Social change}}
The social process of transitioning begins with '[[coming out]]', where others are told that one does not identify with their [[Sex assignment|birth sex]]. The newly out trans person may adopt a new name, ask to be referred to with a new set of pronouns, and change their presentation to better reflect their identity.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Olson |first1=Kristina R. |last2=Durwood |first2=Lily |last3=Horton |first3=Rachel |last4=Gallagher |first4=Natalie M. |last5=Devor |first5=Aaron |date=13 July 2022 |title=Gender Identity 5 Years After Social Transition |url=https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/150/2/e2021056082/186992/Gender-Identity-5-Years-After-Social-Transition?autologincheck=redirected |access-date=2024-07-21 |journal=Pediatrics|volume=150 |issue=2 |doi=10.1542/peds.2021-056082 |pmid=35505568 |pmc=9936352 }}</ref><ref name="Bigner" /> Socially transitioning does not involve medical intervention or gender affirming surgery, but it may be a prerequisite to access transgender healthcare in some regions.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last1=Evans |first1=Shelley |last2=Crawley |first2=Jamie |last3=Kane |first3=Debbie |last4=Edmunds |first4=Kathryn |date=December 2021 |title=The process of transitioning for the transgender individual and the nursing imperative: A narrative review |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jan.14943 |journal=Journal of Advanced Nursing |language=en |volume=77 |issue=12 |pages=4646–4660 |doi=10.1111/jan.14943 |pmid=34252206 |issn=0309-2402|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web |last=Rachlin |first=Katherine |title=Medical Transition without Social Transition: Expanding Options for Privately Gendered Bodies |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/tsq/article-abstract/5/2/228/134507/Medical-Transition-without-Social |access-date=2024-07-21 |website=read.dukeupress.edu}}</ref>

People may socially transition at any age, with documented cases of children as [[Transgender youth|young as 5]],<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last1=Kennedy |first1=Natacha |last2=Hellen |first2=Mark |date=2010 |title=Transgender Children: more than a theoretical challenge |url=https://www.gjss.org/sites/default/files/issues/chapters/papers/Journal-07-02--02-Kennedy-Hellen.pdf |journal=Graduate Journal of Social Science}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Olson |first1=Kristina R. |last2=Gülgöz |first2=Selin |date=June 2018 |title=Early Findings From the TransYouth Project: Gender Development in Transgender Children |url=https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cdep.12268 |journal=Child Development Perspectives |language=en |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=93–97 |doi=10.1111/cdep.12268 |issn=1750-8592}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Olson |first1=Kristina R. |last2=Key |first2=Aidan C. |last3=Eaton |first3=Nicholas R. |date=April 2015 |title=Gender Cognition in Transgender Children |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797614568156 |journal=Psychological Science |language=en |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=467–474 |doi=10.1177/0956797614568156 |pmid=25749700 |issn=0956-7976|url-access=subscription }}</ref> or adults as [[Late transitioners|old as 75]].<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Fabbre |first=Vanessa D. |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315731803-5/gender-transitions-later-life-significance-time-queer-aging-vanessa-fabbre |title=Gender Transitions in Later Life: The Significance of Time in Queer Aging |date=2015 |isbn=9781315731803 |doi=10.4324/9781315731803-5}}</ref> While many of those who socially transition will pursue a medical transition, not everyone can access gender affirming care, and not all may wish to pursue it.

=== Psychological aspects ===
A person's ideas about gender in general may change as part of their transition, which may affect their [[Transgenderism and religion|religious]], philosophical and/or political beliefs. In addition, personal relationships can take on different dynamics after coming out. For instance, what was originally a lesbian couple may become a heterosexual one as a partner comes out as a trans man - or parents of a boy may become parents of a girl after their child comes out as a trans woman.

===Legal aspects===
{{main|Transgender rights|Legal recognition of non-binary gender}}

Transgender people in many parts of the world can legally [[Name change|change their name]] to something consistent with their gender identity.<ref name="Bigner">Jerry J. Bigner, Joseph L. Wetchler, ''Handbook of LGBT-affirmative Couple and Family Therapy'' (2012, {{ISBN|0415883598}}), page 207: "gender transition can be achieved through the use of clothing, hairstyle, preferred name and pronouns,..."</ref> Some regions also allow one's legal sex marker changed on documents such as [[driver license]]s, [[birth certificate]]s, and [[passport]]s. The exact requirements vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction; some require [[sex reassignment surgery]], while many do not. In addition, some states that require sex reassignment surgery will only accept 'bottom surgery', or a genital reconstruction surgery, as a valid form of sex reassignment surgery, while other states allow other forms of gender confirmation surgery to qualify individuals for changing information on their birth certificates.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.lgbtmap.org/equality-maps|title=Movement Advancement Project {{!}} Snapshot: LGBT Equality by State|website=www.lgbtmap.org|access-date=2019-10-07|archive-date=2019-04-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422164047/http://www.lgbtmap.org/equality-maps|url-status=live}}</ref> In some U.S. states, it is also possible for transgender individuals to legally change their gender on their drivers license without having had any form of qualifying gender confirmation surgery.<ref name=":1" /> Also, some U.S. states are beginning to add the option of legally changing one's gender marker to X on legal documents, an option used by some [[non-binary gender|non-binary]] people.<ref>{{Cite web| url=https://loveisarainbow.com/2018/04/gender-neutral-choice/| title=Gender Neutral Choice in Legal Documents - Love is a Rainbow Article| date=2018-04-14| website=Love is a Rainbow| access-date=2019-10-07}}{{Dead link|date=February 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

===Physical aspects===
{{main|Gender-affirming care}}

Physical aspects of gender transition can go along with social aspects; as well as wearing gender affirming clothing, transgender people often hide features from their natal puberty, with many transgender men [[breast binding|binding their breasts]] and transgender women shaving. Other physical aspects of transitioning require medical intervention, such as [[transgender hormone therapy]] or surgeries.

=== Grieving gender identity ===
Over the course of a gender transition, people who are close to the transitioning individual may experience a sense of loss and work through a [[Grief|grieving]] process.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Norwood|first=Kristen|date=March 2013|title=Grieving Gender: Trans-identities, Transition, and Ambiguous Loss|journal=Communication Monographs|volume=80|issue=1|pages=24–45|doi=10.1080/03637751.2012.739705|s2cid=35092546|issn=0363-7751}}</ref> This type of loss is an [[ambiguous loss]], characterized by feelings of grief where the item of loss is obscure. Family members may grieve for the gendered expectations that their loved one will no longer follow, whereas the transgender person themself may feel rejected by their relatives' need to grieve.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McGuire |first1=Jenifer K. |last2=Catalpa |first2=Jory M. |last3=Lacey |first3=Vanessa |last4=Kuvalanka |first4=Katherine A. |title=Ambiguous Loss as a Framework for Interpreting Gender Transitions in Families: Ambiguous Loss in Gender Transition |journal=Journal of Family Theory & Review |date=September 2016 |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=373–385 |doi=10.1111/jftr.12159 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jftr.12159 |access-date=30 December 2022|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Feelings that arise are described as a way of seeing the person who is transitioning as the same, but different, or both present and absent.<ref name=":0" />