The Old Age Traansgender Life

I happened upon and watched part of a documentary on TV last night about a transgender beauty pageant in Thailand, I think it was called the Miss International Queen contest. It was interesting to see so many men who transition into beautiful women. Their stories told in the documentary were sometimes heart wrenching and at others hard to figure. But in every case there seemed to be an anxiety and insecurity, well deserved in a world that is mostly hostile to sex changes. To show the world is right the winner was from Thailand.

What I wondered when watching is what would life be like for those transgender contestants when they were old and did not have their beauty as a defense for their uncomfortable position in life as humans who were so uncomfortable as males that they felt the need to become women. As an old man I know life is not so easy when one ages. It must be far more difficult for the transgender person. When physical beauty gone, is the transgender person is disarmed somewhat against an often hostile world of non transgender persons?

I think one problem for old transgenders is that the society in which they life often do not provide the kind of old age programs that straight elderly people have. Too, I wonder if there is an understanding about how their body ages differently than non transgender people. I suspect they face discrimination from providers who are available to help them, making them a second in line person for social services for the aged. Do medical insurance companies and government programs exclude transgender services from their coverage? If so, then the transgender will probably not seek treatments for the common old age afflictions that, left untreated, can lead to an earlier death.

Also, what about the isolation effect? In the documentary many of the transgender contestants had boy friends or husbands who were enamored with them. But later in life when the beauty is gone, will there be more separations and divorces than in the straight old age population? Too, will they have family support? Pretty young transgenders are more equipped to handle adversity than old ones. With many family members turning against the transgender family member, there will undoubtedly be more isolation of the transgender from family than occurs in the old age population at large.

The transgender beauty pageant documentary was interesting, but I wonder if an even more interesting one would be the less sexy one on the fate of old aged transgenders. It's a subject that I have not seen addressed in the media.