ИСТИНА

Introduction The study of sexual identity is an important task in determining the “targets” for providing personalized psychological assistance to people with transsexualism. Objectives This study aims to identify the gender characteristics of sexual identity in people with transsexualism. The study involved 18 women and 16 men with transsexualism aged 16 to 24 years. Methods The clinical, psychological and sexological methods were used. Psychological assessment has been conducted using clinical-and-psychological interview, “Draw a man” – Machover Test, Luscher Color Test, Dembo-Rubinstein Method of Self-esteem Measurement, "Coding-test" (Starovich, 1991), "Masculinity and femininity test” (Bessonova, 1994), "Color test of relationships” (Tkachenko, Vvedensky, Dvoryanchikov,1998). Results Women with transsexualism are characterized by: pronounced male gender-role identity (90%); masculine gender-role behavior in dealing with men and mixed-in dealing with women (86%); positive emotional coloring of the self-image (83%); differentiation of sexual preferences by sex (84%); constancy of sexual relations and high satisfaction with sexual life (61%); low social adaptation and fear of being rejected by society (54%). Men with transsexualism are characterized by: female gender-role identity and feminine gender-role behavior with both men and women (93%); positive emotional coloring of the self-image (72%); emotional and cognitive interiorization of the female sexual role (55%); insufficient differentiation of sexual preferences by sex (88%); representation of androgynous traits in the image of the ideal partner (88%), and representation of feminine traits in the image of a real partner (78%); low satisfaction (69%); fear of being rejected by society (69%). Conclusions Identified gender differences allow individualized psychological support to people with transsexualism.