As a trans person, I welcome this cis introduction to gender dysphoria.
On a side note, I always thought VR could be a great way to test drive a new gender/body. The surgery is serious business especially if you are young. It would be cool if there a walking simulator type thing that let you customize your gender and looks and walk around. Might help some people decide if it’s for them without having to do something that’s expensive and irreversible.
Honestly, I never thought about using VR for this purpose before. I'm slightly excited to give it a try and see how my brain enjoys/dislikes the effect.
I think trans people are overgeneralizing from their own psyches. They feel like they are in the wrong body, and they assume that everyone else would feel the same if they were body-swapped into the opposite sex. But as far as I can tell, only a tiny fraction of people experience this. Gender dysphoria seems to be about as common as aphantasia or synesthesia.
Personally, I don't think of my body as part of my identity. It's a machine that I ride around in. If I woke up in the body of a woman, I'd be really annoyed but I doubt I'd go through years of hormones and surgery to be perceived as a man again. It would be easier to learn how to use the new body than to try to make it closer to what I'm used to.
Another piece of the puzzle: Pretty much every trans person I've talked to who has used VR has enjoyed choosing an avatar of the opposite sex. Afterwards when they're back in the real world, they tend to miss it.
This maps to my model of reality that says that the vast majority of people cannot experience gender dysphoria. They prefer their current sex mostly out of habit. Other people such as Scott Alexander[1] and Ozy[2] have said the same thing, though they arrived at that conclusion by posing thought experiments to their friends, not using VR.
1. https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/02/18/typical-mind-and-gende...
2. https://thingofthings.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/cis-by-defaul...