56.

to give "credit where credit is due", it is quite misleading.)))

In some cases the exaggerated desire "to be a woman" may lead to such para-delusional phenomena as the claims of having "menstruation". The patient of Krafft-Ebing claimed to have "vicarious menstrual bleeding" from his gums, nose and rectum. One of Hirschfeld's patients wrote in his autobiography, " am called 'Ottilie', every month I have "my menstruation"...intestinal bleeding which lasts up to 8 days (53)... The wife of our patient "A" re- ported "a regular menstrual bleeding from his penis".

Some male transvestites go still further in their female identification, desiring to be able to bear child- ren. As an example, our patient "A" admitted in his auto- biography, "when the children were coming I envied my wife the fact that she could bear them. I would willing- ly have done so if possible". One of Hirschfeld's pat- ients sighs, "I would gladly have borne children, nursed them myself and brought them up."

(((ED NOTE: I wonder if this feeling is really so ab- normal" except statistically since most men would not feel so or would not admit it if they did. But I wonder what other satisfactions in this life can com- pare with that of a mother holding the product of her own body in her arms and nourishing it by food she herself makes and gives at the breatst, while at the same time visualizing the child as it will be many years hence---strong, handsome and capable--- and saying to herself, "I made this creature, myself." Is it so surprizing that some more sensitive and un- derstanding men should envy her this satisfaction?)))

Such morbid desires often lead not only to diffi- culties in social adjustment, but also to feelings of frustration, resentment and unhappiness. A patient of Glaus remarked, "My youth was wasted; shall all my life be a mere Golgotha?" Such complaints convinced Hamburger that a transvestite is subjected to "a continual mental stress that may lead ...to suicidal attempts". However,