Resisting Trans Medicalization: Body Satisfaction and Social Contextual Factors as Predictors of Sexual Experiences among Trans Feminine and Nonbinary Individuals

ABSTRACT

Past research has constructed a medicalized model of trans women’s sexuality, where trans women are believed to be hyposexual and distressed by their bodies pre-transition, and are cured of their sexual dysfunction as a result of gender affirmative medical procedures. The current study engaged a community sample (N = 169) of trans feminine and nonbinary individuals assigned male at birth (TFNB) to investigate predictors of sexual experiences after addressing methodological biases of prior studies, including body satisfaction (using a modified Body Image Scale) and social contextual factors. Hierarchical regressions were conducted to test the hypothesis that after accounting for demographic variables and social contextual aspects (i.e., body satisfaction, social dysphoria, and fetishization), medical transition (i.e., hormone therapy) would not significantly predict five outcomes of sexual experience (i.e., receptive penetration, insertive penetration, importance of sex, sexual pleasure, and sexual intimacy). Across all models, medical transition was not a significant predictor of sexual experiences; however, sexual orientation, age, body satisfaction, and experiences of fetishization were frequent predictors. Results suggest that the sexual experiences of TFNB individuals do not align with the medicalized model and that demographic and contextual factors play an important role in the sexual outcomes for this population.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Notes

¹ In the literature review and subsequent discussion, the acronym TFNB is only utilized if the study included both trans feminine and nonbinary individuals coercively assigned male at birth.

² Blanchard’s typology of transsexual women does not resonate with trans feminine individuals who have described it as negative and too restrictive (Veale et al., 2012).

³ Penetration of the inguinal canal (e.g., with a finger, or by pushing the testicle back inside it).