Paria Hassouri, MD, talks about her new book sharing her experience of her transgender child - Found in Transition: A Mother's Evolution During Her Child's Gender Change. The bottom line is acceptance and inclusion. This podcast may open your eyes and adjust your thinking regarding transgender people.

Found in Transition begins on May 24, 2017, when Hassouri first learns that her fourteen-year-old,  designated male at birth, is having gender dysphoria and concludes on October 26, 2018, when her now  daughter legally changes her name and gender at the Santa Monica courthouse. During the seventeen  months in-between, Hassouri navigates through anger, denial, and grief before eventually arriving at a  place of acceptance and advocacy. 

Hassouri, a pediatrician and the mother of three, chronicles what  amounts to a dual transition: her child’s transition from male to female and her own  evolution as she overcomes deep-seated insecurities about not fitting in as an Iranian  immigrant, while navigating through anger, denial, and grief about her child’s gender  dysphoria, to eventually arrive at a place of acceptance and advocacy.  

“While I was always accepting of trans people in principle, it seemed that I was not okay with my own child being trans,” writes Hassouri. “Was that all just because I was shocked and didn’t see it was coming because I thought that Ava was doing it out of depression, a desire for attention, and anxiety about her future, or was there also an underlying thread of prejudice against trans people? I want to think it was all the former,  but I can’t be 100 percent certain.”

As her daughter transitions from male to female, Hassouri ultimately discovers her own capacity to evolve, what it truly means to parent; and how to use her voice to raise awareness on behalf of the transgender community.  Gender change is not an easy process for the person going through the change or the family desperately trying to understand the change.

We Talk about

The sexual perversion around LGBTQ and transgender peopleThe importance of joining a support group such as Transforming Families o=in LAHow to get out of your own way to understand transgender peopleHow to seek out a gender change specialist and therapistUnderstand and listening to the person seeking a gender change

Paria Hassouri, MD, is the author of Found in Transition. A pediatrician, mother of three, and transgender rights activist, her essays have been published in The Washington  Post, Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, and Women’s Running Magazine. She lives in  Los Angeles.

Visit her online at www.PariaHassouri.com.