Reddit mentions of Men Trapped in Men's Bodies: Narratives of Autogynephilic Transsexualism (Focus on Sexuality Research)

Ask them questions to make them think, such as:

• What is gender, what is its purpose, and why is it so important?
  
• Are people born with a gender?
  
• Is it possible to have a "female brain in a male body?" Does this mean gender is biological?
  
• A study found one-third of identical twins are both trans, so doesn't this mean there are environmental and cultural factors to being trans?
  
• Do trans people enforce gender stereotypes?
  
  
• Is gender and sexuality interconnected?
  
• Why are more young butch lesbians becoming trans men?
  
• Why do trans women seem to have an erotic fascination with femininity?
  
• Case studies found some men are aroused by seeing themselves as women and having a woman's body, what if autogynephilia is involved?
  
• What is the difference between transsexual and transgender?
  
• Why are sex hormones needed to change gender? Are they trying to change their sex or gender?
  
• Can a penis be female?
  
• Should young children with gender dysphoria be given puberty blockers?
  
• Is it OK to sterilize children and prevent them from experiencing orgasms, like Jazz Jennings?
  
• Why do some people detransition? Did they make a mistake?

I find it admirable that you are seeking understanding of AGP, since most who have it don't want to understand it as being AGP. Since reading Anne Lawrence's book this past May, I've done a deep dive into the sexology on this and can suggest some reading material. If you have the money for the hard copies of these books, I highly recommend obtaining them because taking notes in a physical book is a much better way of learning and engaging with a text. This is an orientation that can drastically alter your life trajectory, so it is worthwhile to take the study of it seriously so that you may make truly informed decisions. The three books I will be recommending are listed in order from best through third-best. They are all excellent and important for different reasons.

Men Trapped in Men's Bodies, by Anne Lawrence

https://surveyanon.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/men-trapped-in-mens-bodies_book.pdf

https://www.amazon.com/Trapped-Mens-Bodies-Autogynephilic-Transsexualism/dp/1461451817

Transvestites: The Erotic Drive to Cross-Dress, by Magnus Hirschfeld . Translated by Michael Lombardi-Nash

https://www.amazon.com/Transvestites-New-Concepts-Human-Sexuality/dp/0879756659

Transvestites and Transsexuals: Toward a Theory of Cross-Gender Behavior, by Richard F. Docter

https://www.amazon.com/Transvestites-Transsexuals-Cross-Gender-Perspectives-Sexuality/dp/0306428784

The first two books listed above give the best overview of the phenomenon and contain plentiful first-person narratives that impart the flavor and texture of the orientation. I found it particularly interesting to see how AGP played out in a different cultural context(100 years ago) by reading Hirschfeld's book. The men fetishize different things because of their cultural context, but the general phenomenon is the same. The third book goes into detail about identity, cross-sex identity formation, and the different stages in the process of MtF spectrum phenomena. This book is particularly useful if you want an understanding of how engaging with different types of behaviors over time can lead to different outcomes. In particular, it stresses the correlation between engaging in interpersonal aspects of the orientation such as using a feminine name or presenting as fully female in social situations and the subsequent development of a feminine gender identity and increased dysphoria. Based on what I've learned from these books, I have decided to preferentially engage with primarily transvestic AGP and secondarily behavioral AGP with the goal of taking it slow and hopefully never developing a cross-sex GI as well as minimizing dysphoria. I am avoiding anatomical and physiologic imaginations, which is easy as I lack much imagination. This is to mitigate body-based dysphoria and hopefully avoid HRT. Above all, I am avoiding the interpersonal aspects of AGP because the evidence suggests that being treated as a woman socially through a feminine name and full feminine presentation is the fast-track to having the feminine identity gain control over the identity system. I am trying to stay a transvestite and identify as such, since transitioning will hurt my dating chances with women, make me physically weaker, and I will never(ever) pass since I'm currently a 6'4" broad-shouldered muscular man. I feel safer physically having muscles, and I do not want to give up the benefits of being treated as male. My situation aside, I want to also mention a couple studies by Kevin Hsu which I found highly informative.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266581880_The_Psychometric_Structure_of_Items_Assessing_Autogynephilia

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308036975_Sexual_Arousal_Patterns_of_Autogynephilic_Male_Cross-Dressers

The first one is fantastic, I wish there were more like it. You can answer the survey questions in the appendix and compare yourself to the study cohort to see where you rank in comparison. This study also shows the correlations between different types of AGP and gender dysphoria, among other things. They found that Interpersonal AGP was most highly correlated with gender dysphoria, which is in alignment with Docter's 1988 book which I linked above. Overall, they found that it is the total level of AGP that often matters more than which subtypes of AGP a person exhibits.

I hope someone finds this post informative or helpful. I have a wish to make all this information more accessible and digestible to fellow AGP males who are trying to understand who they are and what is the best course of action for them to take. Since AGP makes one's place on the MtF spectrum constantly subject to change, its important to know what actions, behaviors, and decisions are correlated with what types of outcomes. The science is still in its infancy, but we have some strong clues to go off of.

Actually, the book I recently read makes a strong case for AGP transsexualism (which i have) being a paraphilic sexual orientation (which I agree with). i'm not saying it applies to all TS's, but it applies to me certainly

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1461451817

Well, people have done some research on this in animals. I'm just going by memory from years ago here, but I know that if you raise some aquarium fish - I think it was guppies - in male-only groups from birth, then when they enter sexual maturity they'll start having sex with each other (there are interesting theories about why this happens as well). Then, if you move them to or add females, yes, most of them will start having sex with the females instead, but a large minority will refuse to do so, having seemingly been turned permanently gay. But raise them among females and that doesn't happen. I do also remember reading about similar problems breeders of e.g. cattle and horses were having with their bulls/steers, where they - raised without contact with the females - would sometimes refuse to have sex with them when paired up for mating.

So, we can fairly confidently conclude that the conditions of the organism when (or leading up to when) it reaches sexual maturity plays a role in establishing for it what proper sexual behaviour is.

How much this translates to humans though is hard to say. Human sexuality (especially in males, who seem far more fixed in their preferences when established) is a really weird topic that I really wish I knew more about. It does seem to be a more and more relevant topic as well, in the sense that it would help mitigate a lot of unnecessary suffering if we knew what caused people to develop sexual preferences (unchangeable once established) that turn out to be harmful to them. I'm reminded of reading Men Trapped in Men's Bodies, personal accounts from autogynephilic transsexuals, which is essentially a heterosexual man attracted to women who is so aroused by the idea of themselves as a woman that they feel compelled to turn themselves into one, and how the author (herself one) concludes that the only treatment for this condition - that causes them a lot of confusion and suffering - is transitioning. But if we could figure out what causes it to develop and prevent it, this suffering could be prevented. So there is, I think, moral and ethical incentive to understand this subject better, even if there might not be commercial benefit in it.