Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Background: Gender transition is thought of as an individual experience, but it often occurs while the person transitioning is in a romantic relationship.Aims: This study aimed to explore the romantic relationships of couples who maintained their relationships following a partner’s gender transition.Method: Twelve couples were interviewed individually and as a dyad.Results: Three key themes emerged in the interviews. First, couples struggled with initial grief and relationship ambiguity. Cisgender partners wondered about what their partner’s transition goal looked like and the transgender partner wondered if there was a transition breaking point in the relationship. Second, cisgender partners realized they had their own process of identity exploration. This process often included reexamining their sexual orientation, as well as considering what public and private intimacy would look like now. Finally, the couples discussed relationship stabilization. This is the point at which they knew the relationship would survive the transition. These experiences are not only common to the couples in the interview but also reflect the author’s clinical experiences as a therapist and her experience as a trans woman who maintained her romantic relationship with her cisgender wife through transition.Conclusions: The results of this study are useful for transgender families, researchers, and clinicians.
Author: Nomi Ostrander
Institution: University of Minnesota, Duluth
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: University of Minnesota
OpenAlex ID: W4407530208