Readiness for assessment depends on multiple factors, so how do you know if you’re ready?
Gender assessment can feel somewhat therapeutic for many, however, it is different to exploring your gender in therapy.
Assessment focuses on multiple interrelated factors, including but not limited to diagnosis, ruling out differential diagnosis, readiness for treatment, and stability of gender identity. The report produced following assessment is not just a list of discussions about different factors, but the summary of assessment, and the recommendations come from clinical consideration behind the scenes.
The reason the report has weight and can be relied upon by medical professionals and the gender recognition panel is that it is based on the clinical considerations of the assessing psychologist.
Signs you may be ready
You have known about your gender identity for more than six months, this does not have to be one of two genders within the gender binary, there are many nonbinary identities
You have known about what your gender identity is and not solely what it is not for more than six months
You have known about ways in which you strongly wish for your body to better align with your gender for more more than six months
You have experienced living within your gender of experience. This may mean socially transitioning in ways that express your gender, such as use of pronouns to reflect your identity, clothing or other ways of expressing yourself in your appearance. It may be that your expression has always aligned with your current identity or that this changed as you socially transitioned.
You have a level of emotional maturity and understanding of the need for the report for people like members of the gender recognition panel, endocrinologists (hormone doctors), medical doctors, nurses (e.g. nurse prescribers), and surgeons , that allows you to engage in the process of assessment collaboratively, so we can trust one another and do good work together
You have come out as trans or are known to be trans, and/or are known in your gender by people who know you. It may be that there are a few people who do not know, for example relatives you don’t see in person much anymore, or an elderly relative with dementia who would not be able to retain the transition. You may have a particular situation the has not quite resolved yet in which it would not be safe to come out. However, for the vast majority of your current life experience, people know to call you by your name and pronouns, and to treat you as living within your gender.
If you have other complicating or influential factors to your identity and sense of self such as trauma/complex trauma, personality disorder diagnosis, or issues with body and identity, you have done the work to understand these issues for yourself, and you are aware of how these relate and do not relate to your gender
You feel ready and are seeking a treatment or a legal recognition of your gender, and you wish you have a high quality assessment that is collaborative and respectful of you, and a good report to summarise this that you can use in your next steps
Signs you may not be ready
You have not known about your gender identity for six months, perhaps you have recently realised that you are trans and you have been searching for a first step
You are unsure of your gender identity. This does not have to be about nuance and complexity around labels or absolute precision between microlabels, but rather you are in a stage of exploration or questioning your identity, and you may need some time and exploration still to work that out
You are unsure about what you want for your body or gender recognition. This may for example be about not knowing much yet about available treatment options, or wanting some but not other aspects of hormone treatment. This may be about feeling ambivalent about your body changing, or about feeling set on something that does not yet exist
You have no or very little experience of social transition or living in your gender. This may for example be about wearing some of the clothes you may wish to wear but only ever in private, never having asked anybody to use the pronouns you would like to use, or living in your gender only in gaming or online/social media spaces. This is not because we expect a particular prescribed or stereotypical gender expression. Even if you feel that you do not care how anybody perceives you, gender does have significant relational elements. If you have no experience of being perceived differently, we cannot together assess and demonstrate thoroughly your psychological readiness to live with the social and relational aspects of gender affirming treatments.
You are unwilling to discuss your gender or other aspects of assessment, as we cannot assess something we cannot discuss
You struggle to collaborate with professionals, or have a strong desire to lead the assessment in a way that would be a barrier to our ability to complete the assessment. This may include too strong of a temptation for dishonesty or a lot of contradiction in what you tell us, or a style of communication wherein you use overt or covert threats or pressure with the goal of producing the report you desire or a particular outcome without completing the assessment as needed
You have a tricky situation in which you may know your own gender identity but cannot come out due to your current life circumstances
If you have other complicating or influential factors to your identity and sense of self such as trauma/complex trauma, personality disorder diagnosis, or issues with body and identity, and you have not yet done the work to understand these issues for yourself, and you are not aware of how these may relate or not relate to your gender
You do not feel ready