Christodorescu (1971) presented the case of an adopted, adolescent female transsexual (age 18) whose adoptive mother was described as a psychopath (who had been separated from her mother from ages 1 to 10). The patient had a turbulent early childhood and a history of tomboyism (with cross-dressing beginning actively at age 11). She was reportedly raped at age 13 by an older male (recalling the penetration with disgust). The patient was described as sentimental, faithful in her love affairs, having impulsive hysteroid reactions to frustrations, and being easily discouraged by setbacks. She had consolidated a masculine identification. Psychotherapy was viewed as having been of little success in orienting her back to a female role and identity. Christodorescu was the first clinician, however, to state that "a patient's claim for a sex conversion operation is not a sufficient criterion for a diagnosis of transsexualism."

Ihlenfeld (1972), a co worker of Benjamin's, was responsible for extending the idea that female transsexuals d moving into the opposite sex role much less of a social problem than does the male." The female transsexual was also viewed as less demanding, fulfilling her obligations, and posing few management problems. Ihlenfeld's equation between passing well in the male role and being viewed as better adjusted psychologically has subsequently led some clinicians to think of the female transsexual as being without psychological distress and as "normal." As I will show, this view has compromised the psychological treatment programs of many self diagnosed female transsexuals.

By 1972, Stoller, who had all but neglected female transsexuals in his 1968 publication Sex and Gender, reported on ten female transsexuals. In that study Stoller reported that the mothers of these patients were generally removed from the family (usually by depression). The fathers, who were viewed as substantial people, refused to support their wives in their suffering. They did, however, send in their daughter as a substitute or "surrogate" husband. Stoller noted that even as girls these women were unfeminine, their masculine behavior encouraged by both parents "until the islands of masculine qualities coalesce into a cohesive identity." Stoller's views corroborated earlier investigators who noted that the female child had a need to rescue an endangered, motherly woman by enacting a surrogate husband role. Stoller also noted that while the patients' attractions to other women began in early childhood, all of them disavowed being homosexual. They viewed their sexual orientation as heterosexual and were attracted to heterosexual, feminine women who were maternal and enjoyed male bodies. Stoller believed that the fathers' pleasurable reactions to their daughters' emerging masculinity fostered that masculinity. In this sense Stoller stressed the importance of family and psychodynamics in the etiology of female tanssexualism.

However, in contrast to male tanssexualism, which Stoller saw as growing "from a nonconflictual learning process on the order of imprinting, conditioning, shaping, and identification," female transsexualism was seen as growing out of conflict, cumulative trauma, and defensive psychological processes. (see FEMALE TRANSSEXUALISM PART IV)