The question whether transgenderism is a disease is hotly debated in both the medical and transgender community. This paper seeks to reconcile this question by defining disease, examining the moral meanings of classification as a disease, and with this model clarifying both what is meant by treatment and whether the state of being transgender is in fact a disease.
Disease: A clinically significant adverse effect or experience for an organism due to an interaction between one or more biological traits of that organism and the environment in which it resides.
This definition recognizes the fact that abstracted from its environment, whether a given genotype or phenotype is a disease cannot be accurately determined. An illustrative example isnon-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM.)[1] The genes (and proteins and cellular phenotype they produce) which in the developed world results in NIDDM are not a disease when abstracted from their environment. When examined independent of an environment that provides an abundance of food and a relatively sedentary lifestyle, this 'thrifty phenotype' that preserves energy, stores fat efficiently, and provides energy stores for times of famine can be a positive trait.
Changing the appearance of your body to that of the opposite sex is a long process. This is because being viewed as female, or male, has a lot more to do with performance and role, than it has to do with what is between your legs.
Gender reassignment as a process, follows the same path for FTMs (female to males) as well as MTFs (male to females) at the beginning.
Beyond surgery there are formal changes that need to be made to personal documentation such as passports, identity documents and the like. When you undergo gender reassignment, your whole world has to shift at every level.
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for transgender and transsexual people replaces the hormonessex. Its purpose is to cause the development of the secondary sex characteristics of the desired gender. It can not undo the changes produced by the first natural occurring puberty of transgender people, this is done by sexual reassignment surgery and for transwomen by epilation. Some intersex people also receive HRT, either starting in childhood to confirm the gender they were assigned, or later, if this assignment has proven to be incorrect. naturally occurring in their bodies with those of the other
While some argue that hormonal therapy does not truly masculinize or feminize, the question is one of definitions. If by masculinize and feminize one means to completely reproduce the male or female biological state, that cannot be done with current medical or surgical therapy. However, the goal of HRT, and indeed all somatic treatments, is to provide patients with a more satisfying body that is more congruent with their true psychological gender identity. It should be noted that the effects of hormonal therapy are often much more satisfying to transgender men than transgender women. It is easier to produce secondary male sexual characteristics with androgens than it is to rid transgender women of those established characteristics.
Unlike it's frivolous name, this book is actually a serious look at the nature of transsexuality: what it is, why it is, and how sex reassignment is accomplished, both surgically and socially. You may be surprised to learn that one out of ten adults in this country believe themselves to be transgendered to some degree.
What does it mean to be transgendered and how does that relate to being transsexual? Before we can define transgenderism and transsexuality, we must first be able to define gender and sexuality without the "trans".
Surprisingly, although most everyone has a good feel for what these terms mean, hardly anyone has a good understanding of them. Before we try to describe the nature and process of sex change then, let us take a brief moment to examine human sexuality in general.
When taking male hormones (generally some form of testosterone) you are changing your hormonal morphology to that of a physiological male, so you adopt all the possible health risks that ordinary males have - ie. an earlier risk of heart attack, high blood pressure etc. However you do cut your risks of developing women’s diseases such as breast cancer, and thrombosis etc. So just when you thought life was getting better, healthy living is back in fashion!!!:-
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The gender reassignment process
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for 
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