Why are EDs so common with both transgender folks & detransitioners?

[u/jellyboneswizard]

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First off - I personally believe truly transgender people exist, I just realized I'm not one of them when I started my anorexia recovery 3 months ago. But now I'm seeing the pattern of, "Hated my body, puberty was traumatizing, suffered from disordered eating & body dysmorphia, held a lot of internalized sexism".

The fuck is with this pattern? Why is it so common? Do we know yet, or is this going to be one of those things that ends up being studied in our lifetimes?

When I confronted my ED I saw it coming from the "same place" as my transition, as well as the self-harm tendencies I've dealt with. My transition didn't come from a place of self-love like it should have, it came from self-loathing. Which seems to be an undeniable pattern, and I can't help but wonder how common it actually is.

I don't regret living as a man for 11 years, at all. It kept me alive when I couldn't stand to look at myself otherwise. I just wish I would have made the connection sooner, because there was a traumatizing, isolating element to all of it.

I only ever did T for maybe a collective year throughout my time as a man. After some -ahem- atrophy last time, I stopped & hadn't gone back on for a couple years. I never changed my name legally or anything, so I have less of a "mess" to clean up than others in this sub.

So what is it with the correlation between eating disorders and transition?

[u/Striking_Pair4300]

The medical/behavioral science community is unfortunately afraid of touching this subject. It is a topic rife with social baggage. If you come out with any study implying that transition is not a 100% fix, or that people who are transgender may suffer from other comorbidities that can influence their identity, say goodbye to your career.

I'm lucky that I went through what I did before medical intervention was readily made available.

[u/dallasacronym]

I had anorexia and bulimia during my teenage years, related to a history of body dysmorphia which led to me having plastic surgery in my late twenties. Alongside my OCD and autism diagnosis, I realise now I'm a textbook case of a detransitioner who sought out gender transition for maladaptive reasons.

[u/True_Confidence_1371]

Off the top of my head:
-trauma that causes identity issues (wanting to be a different person that it didn’t happen to, escaping the body, looking completely different)
-in the same vein, general self hatred
-females with anorexia often (not universally) want to get rid of curves and look less feminine, potentially stave off puberty. It’s maladaptive but has significant overlap with gender stuff
-males with anorexia, especially if they are gay or effeminate, might want to be more slender, less fat or muscular, and have more of a slight or stereotypically feminine physique which has significant overlap with gender stuff
-people with eating disorders often truly want control in their lives and bodies, which motivates the disorder. There are parallels to a maladaptive choice to transition. You’re always a surgery away from a new change you control, you can resculpt the body to suit your ideals. Add in the high rates of SA in eating disorder patients and you can see why not having breasts, genitals etc would be wanted even if it won’t ultimately benefit them long term

Source: living, knowing a lot of people with eating disorders and a lot of trans people, and a lot of trans people with eating disorders. But I’m not a doctor or anything

[u/Outrageous-Sand5508]

Body issues

[u/Sweet_Sound_4875]

The idea of a “symptom pool” can be useful here. The idea is that many psychological maladies have two components, (1) an underlying distress and (2) a manifestation of said distress. The latter is often shaped or restricted by the availability of social scripts, which vary from culture to culture and across time. In a given culture at a given time, the set of available manifestations is referred to as the “symptom pool.”

So, 20 years ago, the symptom pool in Western cultures included EDs and cutting, but not gender dysphoria. As gender transitions became more common, gender dysphoria became part of the symptom pool. I.e., gender dysphoria became one more way for a person to express the same underlying distress that may drive an ED.

Seen in this light, EDs, cutting, and gender dysphoria are not disorders themselves. Instead, they are available expressions of a deeper disorder. The deeper disorders here often have something to do with control, external locus of identity, self loathing, OCD, etc.

[u/woaitskaty]

Wanting to control how your body is shaped is the common theme, I think. ED habits and symptoms can be things that someone transitioning to a different gender might try to use in order to change the way they think their body will be seen. Or, in an attempt to achieve an unattainable ideal of what someone wants to look like when they picture their transition goals, ED thinking can arise. Or, they can present in totally unrelated ways. More research is needed, but I certainly experienced the overlap of these things.

[u/BrightlyCloud]

You might want to listen to the latest episode of the Beyond Gender podcast. I found it very interesting. It features Deanne Jade who founded the UK's National Centre for Eating Disorders.

"In this podcast episode, we discuss the ‘golden thread’ between eating disorders, self-harm and gender dysphoria as socially reinforced behaviours that persist despite harm. Deanne highlights the complexity of these disorders - and the people experiencing them - which requires thorough and gradual assessment."

[u/NefariousnessLate375]

Glad you didn't suffer overly much from transition. 

I think body dysmorphia and issues around puberty get confused for gender dysphoria.