Articles (interesting articles found on the subject of the transexual spectrum)

read any good or interesting articles, that you think may be of interest to others?
post them here!
S

 

what follows is an article about male to Female Transexuals in Bizarre magazine, with Bizarre magazine you get what it says really, a no hold bar look at things that are strange and unusual.
while I wouldn't regard this subject matter to be strange and unusual, it would probably be seen as such in the eyes of main stream culture.
the article is actually very good (forgive some of the slang!) and is a guide to what a person would expect if they are following the male to female pathway in the UK

FROM HE TO SHE

here's more to a sex change operation than simply snipping off your John Thomas. Joe Gardiner follows the long route from gender awareness to post-operative lifestyle.
Transexuals don't actually have a choice. It's the way they're born. Something goes wrong when they're developing in the womb that ultimately leads to them feeling that they are a woman stuck in a man's body, or less commonly, a man trapped in a woman's body. The feeling isn't a learned auto-erotic arousal like transvestitism - a male transsexual actually has a woman's brain.

For one in 10,000 of the population, a hormonal imbalance in the uterus about six to nine weeks after conception is where it all starts. A study from the Netherlands examined the brains of straight and gay men, women and male-to-female transsexuals. They looked at part of the hypothalmus, an area of the brain that is affected by sex hormones during its development, and discovered that while the brains of straight and gay men were the same, the transsexual-to-female brains were almost identical to the brains of women.

However, knowing that the way you feel is due to a quirk of nature doesn't make life any easier, especially when puberty kicks in and your body starts to head off down a route that is diametrically opposed to the way you want to go.

"I have people turning up who are on the point of suicide," says Fran Springfield,specialist gender identity counsellor, "and self mutilation is not uncommon." But, in a strange way, these are the lucky ones - they've recognised their situation and have taken the first step. Others are not so lucky. "Many transsexuals go through periods when they attempt to suppress or deny their condition. Some choose hobbies or jobs that are hyper-masculine in order to try to prove that they are not transsexual."

Transsexuals can be found in all walks of life: Springfield has even had former SAS members come to her for help. Some transsexual-to-females who visit are in the 40s or 50s, have married and have children. Having made the initial contact the patient is now ready to embark on the journey from transsexual-to-female.

STEP ONE: Counselling

"Clients undergo many hours of counselling to determine that they are really transsexual and to rule out other psychiatric problems," says Springfield. The only specialist nurse gender counsellor in the country, she has worked in the gender field for ten years, and is a member of the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, an organisation which governs the treatment of transsexuals. The client is then referred to a psychiatrist for further evaluation.

STEP TWO: Hormone Treatment

Transsexual-to-females are given oestrogen which prompts them to develop breasts and a smaller waist. They will see more fat on their hips and smoother skin along with a reduction of body hair and loss of libido. Hormones do not usually stop beard growth which has to be removed by electrolysis. It can take up to 1,000 hours of electrolysis at £35 per hour to remove a full beard. Hormones do not alter voice pitch either, although speech therapy can help in that respect.

STEP THREE : Changing gender role

Patients will have to live in their new gender role for at least 12 months before an operation can be performed. During this time, all documents relating to the client are changed - driving license, National Insurance, everything except birth certificate. The patient must also come out at work - following the case of P vs Cornwall Council in the European Court in April 1996, transsexuals are now protected against discrimination in the workplace. A Home Office working party is expected to report in 2000/2001 on changing the birth certificates of post-operative transsexuals to reflect their new gender identity.

"The real life experience is important," says Springfield. The 12-month period is a duration laid down by Harry Benjamin, who actually coined the term transsexual and, on a quite unrelated point, lived to be 102 years old. During this time transsexuals are checked up on to make sure that they are not cheating.

STEP FOUR : Counselling and Referral.

Psychiatric examination follows more counselling to rule out delusion in the patient. After all, there will be no going back after the operation.

STEP FIVE : surgery

It's not only the end results that are good, there are also very few complications following the 4-5 hour operation. The patient is out of hospital in ten days and can be back at work in three months. The risk of prolapse is small and usually only occurs if patients have sex too soon after surgery or if the surgery is poor. Satisfaction rates with good surgery are 100 per cent. "The patient has got they body they always wanted," says Springfield. "To see patients going from desperation to complete satisfaction makes the job very rewarding."

Following surgery cases, 40 per cent of transsexual-to-females live as heterosexual women, 40 per cent are lesbian and 20 per cent pursue a bisexual lifestyle.

"Transsexuals are ordinary people who've gone through an extraordinary experience," says Springfield. "Many live their lives without anyone knowing their background. You have probably met some without even knowing."

You can contact Fran Springfield http://members.aol.com/gics

 

hehe. that's nice.
http://www.nydailynews.com/10-24-2006/news/story/464637p-390955c.html

 

Well things are slowly getting better!

 

if i were the guy pictured, i definitely prefer the ladies room. you never know when some random whack job homophobe type is gonna decide to beat some ass. odds are good the ass beater is gonna be bigger if he's a man.

 

Great article, I think the 'guy' pictured would probably state that she wants to be refered to as female though.
does anyone think that any straight men would go to the lengh of dressing up as women just to spy on them, as one person suggests??
S

 

hardly. especially not in new york.

 

well, now, wait a sec, i HAVE known a couple guys who would have, but they weren't quite right in the head.

 

I thought the person pictured said that he felt like a woman and had changed his name to a female one, am i getting confused?
S

 

no, just habit to refer to her as a guy, considering the conversation relating to her usage of female restrooms, since the controversy is over how the other females in said restrooms would be looking at her, which to the less understanding, it would be to view her as a man in woman's clothing. but i was saying that i did know a couple voyeurs before who WOULD go to any lengths to peep on women in whatever situation. but those guys were mentally ill, unlike this transgendered who is trying to be more herself.

 

You would have to be an especially weird perv to spy on women in the subway bathroom....I have never even peered into one of those

 

yeah, they are especially sick. totally driven just to see what they're not supposed to see, to see something, anything, that's private. it's a compulsion. it's ALMOST sad, but not really, since a violation of my privacy is an espeically heinous crime in my opinion.

but the person in question in this article would definitely be safer using the ladies room and maintaining her privacy and personal safety.

 

absolutly, I would expect she may get funny looks in the ladies, but not so much of a risk of having a fist in ones face.

btw welcome Gary i think thats the first time you've posted here!
S

 

well, and you know she'd be in the men's room with men trying to figure out how she goes, what she does to go and all that. i imagine it would be very embarassing.

 

its amazing how quickly you can get to a cubicle as a woman, but I'm not addinf anything more to that
S

 

well, now, that's hardly true. there's always lines in the ladies room, and none in the mens...usually. i've used the men's room a couple times when the ladies was jsut way too full.

 

now isn't that interesting, in the UK it tends to be the other way round, I always thought it was because in mens toilets they have urinals so its quicker for men to pop in if they just want a quick pee!
S

 

yeah. women will rarely ever use the stall for anything but peeing. however, this can lead to a lot of trouble when there's a lot of women who just have to pee. sometimes those bitches can take forever in there just peeing. like it's some major production. but the men's room, if a man's in the stall, typically it's because he's gotta shit. so that takes longer.

 

this threads just lovely!!
S

 

i have very little ability to filter what i should or shouldn't say. you really shouldn't take advantage of me this way.