Autogynephilia and why it's a dead topic in the 2000's

 

This is the general 64,000 foot view of what it is ...  "Autogynephilia, a concept proposed by Ray Blanchard, describes a male's sexual arousal from the thought or image of themselves as a woman, linking it to some male-to-female (MtF) transgender identities, suggesting they are "turned on" by the idea of being female, contrasting with the view that trans identities are solely about gender identity. While influential in some circles, this paraphilic model is highly controversial, rejected by many trans people and clinicians as pathologizing, stigmatizing, and an inaccurate explanation for trans experiences, with critiques arguing it conflates gender identity with sexual orientation and misrepresents trans motivation."

So what this is, is a theory, "theory" from a single person, sexologist "Ray Blanchard" in 1989.
Without getting in to the weeds, with the exception of very FEW fringe trans-gender individuals that may exhibit this diagnosis, it has by and large been totally debunked over the decades and is no longer a mainstream talking point.  The fact you are seeing it is simply because it's just another shock-n-awe anti-trans talking point.
The main take away when you read through various historical academic journals is that Blanchard himself was only using a small set of test subjects from his own practice and his theory was only initially circulated around some 200 other sexologists as a simple reference paper and not to dismiss the validity of general trans-gender transitioning.  Yes – the entire reference paper by Blanchard got misused and blown out of all proportions, then got pushed out this year (2025) as some new fact to attack trans-gender individuals. 

Another person who is involved in this and gets pushed around social media as a 'proving point' for  Autogynephilia is Anne Lawrence.  She is a transwoman and fellow sexologist who self-diagnosed as an Autogynephilic, she was one of Blanchards researchers during the creation of his theories.  Her main work revolves around reference material related to about 300 mixed test subjects of whom were trans-women and cisgender males, of which the percentage isn't known.  She herself stated that Blanchard's work simply fitted her experience, and everyone's experiences are unique.  Her research information and books are from the late 1990's and early 2000's, some two decades ago.

Some of her research material for her basis of their being around 86% of trans-women with Autogynephilia is then based upon her 300 person study that may also include around 200 trans-women who had gender reassignment surgery by a Dr Toby Meltzer during the mid 1990s.  How exactly the interviews of patients occured and what form of questions were provided to form conclusions are unknown and therefore may not follow industry standards.  However, given that sexology and trans-gender are not generally related, the concept of Autogynephilia remains a limited theory based on a limited set of test subjects given there are about 240,000 trans-women just in the US that have had gender reasignment surgery.  This is why it's generally not considered useful is any trans-gender diagnosis by the modern professional base of therapists and psychologists.

One last thing, is it even physically possible ?  Mostly no.  Trans-women are by their very nature cranked up on estrogen and their testosterone is in the toilet.  Estrogen makes their genitals mostly non-functional and shrink in size.  So physically doing anything with it, is a long shot, specially if we delve in to the realm of sexual assaults, this I am not going into here, but it doesn't take a genius to figure that it's just not really happening either.

The big question then, are trans-people “turned-on” by their new physical body ?  No more than their cis-gender counterparts.