Since detransitioning, I have often encountered the concept of AGP. Or, more accurately, it has found me. It’s almost always a woman who brings it up: either a TERF, mom, or detransitioned woman. Usually in the form of unsolicited advice, sarcasm, or admonishment (“I know you don’t like AGP, but—”).

And who am I to have opinions about the clinical value of AGP?

I should say I doubt the longterm, healing value of AGP for men. Here are five arguments against AGP based on my own experience and available information.

1. There’s no empirical evidence that AGP is innate or immutable. Brain scans of homosexual transsexuals have revealed “feminine-shifted” brain structures. Brain scans of non-homosexual transsexuals have not. This would seem to support Blanchard’s typology.12 However, the differences between the brains of non-homosexual transsexuals and non-transsexual men remain unexplained. The presence of such differences, observed in snapshots from small samples, does not prove that autogynephilia is an innate and immutable condition. If Blanchard’s concept of erotic location error is simply a matter of misdirected heterosexuality early in the adolescent mind, then the differences noticed may be the result of brain plasticity: with rumination and arousal still at play, shaping the brain. Would the brain of an unhappy young man with a porn addiction look any different? Either way, the brain is resilient.3

   The great snare of the psychologist is the confusion of his own standpoint with that of the mental fact about which he is making his report. I shall hereafter call this the "’psychologist's fallacy’ par excellence."4
   —William James, The Principles of Psychology

2. AGP is a fallacy of ambiguity. Because it is based entirely on subjective self-reporting, the standard for AGP can creep indefinitely. Within five years, it had expanded to cover new “varieties:” Clothed, Nude, and Underwear.5 A more comprehensive update added four new categories of “partial” autogynephilia: transvestic, behavioral, physiologic, and anatomical.6 Like a primordial being straight out of Hesiod, it then birthed itself a mate: gynandromorphophilia (GAMP), which often overlaps with AGP.7 When other factors such as remorse, sexual masochism, competing heterosexuality, and cessation are added, an increasingly disjointed picture appears. And the more it grows to include, the less it explains.

3. AGP is reified by its adherents. Reddit’s AGP support group claims 7.5k members, with 627 weekly contributions.8 That number includes women self-diagnosed with autoandrophilia, as well as self-diagnosed autogynephiles. The men and women on askAGP receive Blanchard’s word like scripture. Many of them admit to porn addiction since a young age or teenage years.9 Despite the changing demographics, the experts deny the possibility that pornography and increased trans visibility are bringing out AGP in young men.10 Instead they insist that the boys were already autogynephilic and found pornography to suit their taste. The value of therapy is dismissed in favor of the numbers. But the numbers provide only a snapshot of people in a given time. And times change, and people change. Yet the users of askAGP have drunk the Kool-Aid, and the overwhelming attitude is one of bitter, fatalistic pessimism11—as unfalsifiable as gender identity.

4. AGP is reductive. The process of explaining the desire underlying my transition was tedious but ultimately fruitful. I often struggled with the fact that there was no single source, but many. Prior to the erotic experience of autogynephilia, I had played dress-up with my big sister and found validation in my ability to pass as a girl. When the adverse experiences began with my dad (they were specifically loaded with masculine shame), I began to imagine the other version of myself, as a girl. You don’t need a Sexologist to tell you that cross-dressing is a fetish. But the danger of AGP, as I see it, is that it stops short of asking the deeper questions and slaps a bandaid over an open wound.

   When I first read [Blanchard’s work] in 1994, I experienced a kind of epiphany. Certainly it spoke to my own experience like nothing I had ever encountered before. It was enlightening and empowering to discover that someone thought feelings of sexual arousal to the idea of having a woman’s body were consistent with genuine transsexualism—and that they provided a logical rationale for seeking sex reassignment12.
   —Anne Lawrence, Men Trapped in Men’s Bodies

5. The value of AGP is conciliatory. In the mid 1990s, Anne Lawrence discovered Blanchard’s typology. She recognized herself in Blanchard’s theory—or did she (considering that “she” is a man)? Anne’s conclusion, that autogynephilia justifies transition, is contrary to my own. But I can concede that if I were to quit testosterone and adopt a transgender identity once again, I would be happier if I accepted myself as a feminized male, and forgave the world for misgendering me. The irony is that the men who could most benefit from the idea of autogynephilia, are the least likely to accept it13. The usefulness of AGP may only be conciliatory, for those who have surgically transitioned and have no desire to return to their natal sex. Even then, I question the longterm benefit of framing one’s identity as a paraphilia. For me the process of detransition included years of therapy and journaling until the habit of “uncoupling” masculine insecurities from perceived femininity became a second nature. The goal should always be total congruence with one’s sex (and reality).