I ventured out to dinner last night with a couple of friends. Had a great time. And introduced one friend to the wonder that is crab legs. King and snow.
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Respected Elder
6 FebToday, someone I’ve known for maybe a dozen years, who recently came to modern Paganism, referred to me, unironically, as a “respected elder”. I truly never believed I’d hear anything like that again.
Continue readingHRT and Epilepsy
1 FebTIL. Well, okay, yesterday I learned. No, not from the doctor. I just had begun to notice that my breasts seem to be growing again. As it happens, I’ve got an appointment with an endo who specializes in transgender HRT on next Monday. So I decided to search hormones and epilepsy. This might be about to get interesting, in the “May you live in interesting times” curse definition of interesting.
Continue readingThe WPATH Standards of Care
29 AprThe most recently published version of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) standards of care document is version 7. It was published in 2011, and in many ways, was truly revolutionary. It is available in PDF form in 18 different languages at the link below. Continue reading
Am I Trans Enough?
15 AprHave you asked yourself “Am I trans enough?” This is a particularly significant question for transgender people who waited until later in life to transition, or are only just now exploring their gender as adults. The standard narrative of “I knew since I was a child” and “I transitioned young” certainly is a feel good narrative. However, the alternative that turns out to be true for many, many people is that we knew something was wrong, but couldn’t understand what that something was. We went many years thinking that we were somehow wrong, and begrudgingly accepting that we were broken.
Am I Transgender?
13 AprI am a transgender woman. I am not a professional counselor. I have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. I am romantically attracted to women, which makes me a lesbian. There is a common misconception among cisgender people that trans people, by definition, experience a particular sexual orientation. To be specific, that trans women are really just effeminate gay men, and that trans men are just masculine lesbians. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Carnations for Mother’s Day
6 MayI was out running a few errands today. Stopped in my local grocery to get a few items for tonight’s dinner. At checkout, the bagger handed me and my roommate each a yellow carnation, and wished us a Happy Mother’s Day. That felt so good.
Unfortunately, it came at the end of two hours of errands. As I’ve noted before, driving for any significant period of time tends to trigger my MPS (myofascial pain syndrome). Yeah, it’s flaring. Back pain is not fun.
Aside
Ma’am
23 MarSalesman just came to door trying to sell carpet cleaning. Even though I almost certainly have 5 o’clock shadow, he opens with “How are you doing ma’am?” 😀 So I guess this day is not totally fired.
BTW: All wood floors here.
Another first
1 MaySo I got propositioned tonight. Homeless drunk wanted to sleep with me. Oh, he built up to it, but he went there. That’s another first for me.
Biologic Basis for Transsexuality, and Fibromyalgia
26 AprYes, I realize that’s an odd juxtaposition. Give me a chance, and I’ll make the connection.
Thanks to a couple of relatively disparate conversations that happened to come into juxtaposition time wise, I have been thinking about some medical issues recently.
A good while back, (June 2013) I shared (to my Google + account) an interesting news bit about the impending transition of a news helicopter reporter named Bob Tur. A friend reshared that post to a private transgender community on G+, where another friend stumbled upon it last night.
In this interview, Bob / Zoey (she asked to intersperse her names) mentioned biological bases for transsexuality, but did not elaborate. When my friend Jane saw that, she asked if there were any studies to support it. In short, yes there are, but they are very small studies in terms of persons included. One of the most interesting of these studies is
“A sex difference in the human brain and its relation to transsexuality” http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v378/n6552/abs/378068a0.html
Wikipedia links to other studies as well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_transsexualism
I’ve been convinced pretty much since I learned of the existence of transsexuality that it must have a biologic basis. Of course, we want to believe that, so I acknowledge confirmation bias in myself. That said, having this come up in my notifications after all this time was a trigger to another thought process I’ve been dealing with for some time.
Many of you know that I suffer from fibromyalgia, which is a generalized pain disorder, thought to be rooted in an abnormality of the nervous system. Here’s where that gets interesting with regards to me. The disorder in question is rare in men. It’s prevalence is 3.4% female, 0.5% male. Now, that’s where it gets interesting to me. Men seldom ever have fibro, women much more often.
I’m MTF transsexual, which per the study mentioned earlier, may have a basis in neurologic differences. Fibro is seven times more common in women, is believed to be neurologically based as well. Hmmm… My fibro is, in my mind, another data point indicating toward the biologic basis for transsexuality.
So, let’s discuss. 🙂
An Aging Trans Woman 