As you should know, although a Christian and a conservative, I am very supportive of DGO (Diverse Genders and Orientations), and I even thought I might be transgender for a while. (You can see me explaining my ultimate determination in the My Gender chapter of Random (Funny) Stuff. Basically, I have no problem with my gender necessarily, but I do think that vaginas are disgusting, and I want a penis, for various reasons.)

(Btw, I'm not going to say "gender-reaffirming" or whatnot because that just doesn't make sense. You're not reaffirming anything. Maybe forcing the body to match gender identity, or however you want to put that [I'm pretty sure there's a single word for it, but I can't think of it rn], but not reaffirming. You were born whatever gender you were born, and you feel however you feel, and you have to deal with both of those, even if they clash. Changing one so that they match is not "reaffirming" or even "affirming" your gender. People should be more careful about their words, ghoul darn it; it drives me nuts.)

However, I fully argue that gender surgery should only be done AFTER one's prefrontal cortex is developed - basically, around age 25. You're figuring out who you are your whole life, but high school and college age is a critical time for that. Thus, high school and college is where you're really going to question your gender and go back and forth, so you shouldn't have a surgery like that done when your sense of self isn't mature.

Also, for trans men, there are things called "packers." These are basically penises (with balls attached!) that you stuff in your underwear, or you can strap 'em with special underwear. (Depending on the packer,) You can pee through them, be stimulated through them – use it just like a real penis, basically!
I would totally recommend trying this out before going through gender surgery. It's surely cheaper, and completely reversible.
(A trans man commenting on my story recommended the Peecock, if you're interested in this.)

My Abnormal Psych professor (very liberal) also mentioned that you can prevent puberty, and once you stop the medicine blocking puberty, you go through puberty like normal.

I'm a little skeptical; I'd like objective research on this, and I can't be sure that my professor got her information from objective research, so I would take this with a grain of salt without looking further into it yourself, but if that's the case, then why would we do gender surgery before they're 25??? We probably need a lot more research on this, but I would think hormone blockers or whatever are a lot better than a whole surgery.

(Of course, there's also the question of whether those affect mental development. I wouldn't think they'd affect the prefrontal cortex, which is really what you need to make a sound decision about the surgery, but...)

And I know DGO-supporters probably don't want to hear this, but I'm curious about the effects of the family on gender identity and the like. THIS IS NOT DISCREDITING PEOPLE WHO ARE OR ARE NOT DGO. I just really think that the family is an important factor in one's sexuality, romantic orientation, and gender identity, and I'm curious how fixing family issues might affect someone's identity.

For example, for a transgender female-to-male who hated his mother and was attracted to men, if that individual's mother issues were resolved, would he still feel as strongly about his gender, or would there be a change in his gender identity?

Or if a homosexual man that lacked a father figure got a father figure, would there be any change in his sexuality? I'm curious.

Obviously, it would depend on the person, and I'm not saying that he would suddenly feel like a heterosexual cisgender, but I am curious if his gender identity might change, even if it's just him feeling a little less strongly about being male. The same goes with his sexuality.

Again, this isn't saying that his sense of self was wrong or anything, just that it might have been affected by his environment. A single factor.

Another factor I'm curious about in regards to DGO is the attitude about gender in general.

In the My Gender chapter, I explained my journey of figuring out my own identity, and part of that was that I completely matched the first criterion of gender dysphoria as a child -- but I never felt distressed over it. I was PROUD of it!

If people got out of the idea that females are usually like this, and males are usually like that, I wonder how that would affect their identity.

My father, a very devout Christian and intense conservative, said himself that he has absolutely no problem with tomboys (which I most certainly am) or even feminine men (although he does not like them, for sure, I guess he doesn't have any problem with it).

Again, wanting to consider these factors is not to discredit anyone. Rather, I want the research on them so that people can better figure out what they TRULY are and WHY.

You feel what you feel, but there's a reason why there's literally a "questioning" identity in DGO. Because it's not always quite as simple as "I feel like a man" or "I like girls."

Just look at My Gender! I would never want sexual intimacy with a woman, but I still have some sense of homosexual attraction! (That's probably not in the My Gender chapter, but I'm sure it's somewhere on Wattpad.)

Thus, it takes a lot of time and thought to figure it all out.

Hence why we need to WAIT to get gender surgery. Because according to what I've heard, it's really hard to change back if you realize you made a mistake.