WHATS A BINDER SKIN
“My arms and hands would feel numb and tingly off and on,” he emailed, “from how tight the material was around that area.” When he removed the binder, he found his skin “severely chafed and raw.” To maximize the compression, he bought a binder one size too small and wore it at night. “It was difficult for me to weigh: Am I doing the right thing? Is it causing irreparable damage? It was very difficult to watch him cause himself physical pain in order to be comfortable in his own skin.” At 18, he had a double mastectomy, or top surgery, and now takes testosterone weekly.Ī 17-year-old in Phoenix who binds daily and asked to be identified only by the initials J.M. “It was like trying to run a marathon in a tight bustier,” Ms. He had trouble in gym class and breathing trouble.
He wore a binder about 12 hours a day for five years. Tami Staas, 51, a schoolteacher who lives in Tempe, Ariz., and is president of the Arizona Trans Youth and Parent Organization, has a 21-year-old son who was assigned female at birth and who started binding at 12. (Common-sense binding guidelines include: Don’t use Ace bandages or duct tape, don’t bind at night, limit a binder to eight to 10 hours a day, don’t shower in it, don’t wear two, and don’t wear one that is too small.) John Steever, assistant professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center in Manhattan, who runs its transgender health program and has evaluated over 500 patients from ages 8 to 23, said that almost 95 percent of the transmasculine teenagers in the program bind.īinders are not classified as medical devices, but some doctors and parents have concerns about their safety.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has estimated that 0.7 percent of 13- to 17-year-olds in the United States, about 150,000, identify as transgender. Made of thick spandex and nylon, binders resemble tight undershirts, creating a masculine profile. For today’s tweens and teens who identify as gender-nonconforming or transgender, shopping for a binder may mean a compression undergarment worn to flatten breasts. It used to be that when a 13-year-old wanted a binder for school, it meant a trip to Staples.
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