Neither condition is amenable to 'change', any more than is homosexuality or left-handedness. At one end of the scale is the occasional cross-dresser who perhaps adopts the clothing of the opposite sex for fetishistic reasons while at the other end of the spectrum is the transsexual who, with thoughtful and carefully directed therapy, usually becomes happier as an individual after the gender affirmation process. Between these two extremes are gradations, with the transvestite functioning somewhere in between. The transvestite who knows that he, or she in rare cases, is not alone and not insane is more able to come to terms with the condition and learn to live with it. Gender possibilities are broad, as are those of sex.
People can exist anywhere along the continuum.
Transvestism tends to be little understood, though work in recent years to change public attitudes means that it is, perhaps, no longer a subject of fear, but is more seen as being harmless. It is a subject commonly treated in the press in a way which exploits it for sensationalism, but women's magazines seem to be more sympathetic. Perhaps it does not feel such a threat to women as it does to men. When one is very close to the person, however, it may well be a different matter. Among families it seems to be very threatening at first.