Examining the prevalence of trans phantoms among transgender, nonbinary and gender diverse individuals: An exploratory study

Abstract

Background

Trans phantoms are bodily sensations of gendered body parts that a person was not born with (i.e., a phantom penis experienced by a trans man, or a phantom vagina experienced by a trans woman). This is distinct from the experience of many transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people, who experience awareness of their bodies as missing a gendered body part, or configuration, which is a major characteristic of gender dysphoria.

Aims

Our purpose was to gain greater understanding of the prevalence and quality of trans phantoms.

Methods

Data was gathered through a brief, online survey on trans embodiment. Respondents who had both completed the survey, and were deemed appropriate for inclusion in the study, based on their survey responses, comprised our sample of 1,446 adults.

Results

Results indicated that trans phantoms are a typical embodied experience of TGD people. Almost 50% of study participants reported experiencing a trans phantom, most of whom also reported feeling erotic sensation in their phantom.

Conclusions

Though the phenomenon of trans phantoms is not universal, it is clearly one that warrants further study.

Keywords:

• Aplasic phantoms
• embodiment
• gender
• nonbinary
• phantom sensation
• trans phantoms
• transgender

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank our participants, and extend appreciation to David Rhodes, President of School of Visual Arts, Debi Farber, Chair of the Art Therapy Department at School of Visual Arts, and Michael Severance, Operations Manager of Academic Affairs at School of Visual Arts, for their continuing support of our research. We are indebted to our research assistants who contributed to this project: Ella Hilsenrath, and Hailey Wojcik.

Disclosure statement

None of the authors have any competing interests to disclose.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Statement of human rights

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Statement on the welfare of animals

This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes

1 Such resolution can be accomplished through three means: (1) Brain signaling that creates changes in the body, in order to restore homeostasis, (2) prediction-updating that occurs in the brain, or (3) external action.

2 Bigender in this study refers to a subset of bigender individuals who experienced alternation in their gender.

3 The full survey is available by request to the corresponding author. Please also note that this is not a validated measure.

4 Though anatomically non-gendered, these particular body parts have, within historical, and present-day cultural contexts, been imbued with gendered associations, according to appearance (e.g., fuller lips are considered more feminine), which is why they were included.

5 Interoception is the perception of the body from the inside. Proprioception is the perception of the body in space, related to position, and movement.