YORK, Pa. — The T in LGBTQ+ stands for Trans. Some transgender children and adults express their gender identity without any medical steps, while others want to make changes to match how they feel and how they want others to view them.
So what is it like to transition? In this week's Health Smart report, we found out it's different for everyone.
Changing gender from man to woman or woman to man can be complicated physically and mentally.
"There's the social transitioning, there's legal transitioning, there's medical transitioning.... so every person is going to want different pieces of that. Some people want to do all three of those things some people might just want to socially transition," said Alexander Stefanini.
He started Arrive Therapy in Chester County, offering a safe place solely for transgender individuals to receive mental health services.
"It's an existential pain when we are living a life in a body and an existence and inside we know that nobody sees us right. The person we really are is not being seen or reflected around us," he said.
Stefanini says transitioning is a process that can take anywhere between several months to several years, with the ultimate goal of being seen by people for who the trans person feels they are.
"There's a certain amount of relief that happens just when there are others around us who see us and who accept who we are," he stated.
It's something he knows first-hand as Stefanini transitioned in 2018.
"Transitioning was very freeing. It alleviated a whole lot of anxiety, self-hate, stress, feeling awkward in the world, not feeling right in my body," he recalled.
For him, the process was easy, "I could really finally be myself. I could finally look in the mirror and finally saw that person was me. I wasn't distressed putting on clothes.I just feel so much better."
But he admits transitioning is a very different journey for everyone. "A lot of times people maybe just don't have the money to even go to the doctor, get the hormones, so each person's journey is very different," he cautioned.
While it may look different, he says transitioning genders offers someone the same end result: The chance to express their true identity.