Some Observations

 

by Cathryn Platine

The year just prior to becoming 100% real (it wasn't a test in my case) I was a member of a mixed support group.  Because I chose not to be part of the local gender program, I was mostly cut off from other transsexuals in the area in 3-D and thus, other than one close sister, transitioned without any support.  Since my business fell apart when I transitioned, the only work I was eventually able to get was in stereotypical "female" jobs, first a processor at a local bank and "demo-sample" gal at local stores, then as a nursing assistant.  The friends I socialized with outside of work were all non-trans women.  After I was totally disabled on the job a year and a half ago, I put all my remaining resources together with a couple of others to form a women's housing collective.

Now, I've literally met 100's of transitioned transies over the years and noticed a few things.  There seems to be two distinct types behaviourally.  Those who were socialized transsexual (support groups, most social contacts other transsexuals, stayed in stereotypical "male" jobs) and those who were socialized women.  This is NOT a value judgment, but rather an observation.  The women socialized as women seem to have a much easier time adjusting to their new lives, fewer daily confrontations with the outside world and a greater "acceptance" level among other, non-trans, women.  Others have often mistaken my mis-adventures among activists as my having had problems with transition when just the opposite is true.  I had to learn no new behaviours, make almost no adjustments to my thinking or change much of anything about myself in order to blend almost seamlessly among non-trans women, even many who had "problems" with transsexuals in general.  By seamlessly I mean unread in female only work situations until outted.  (yes, that happened since I stayed in the same area post-transition for several years and occasionally was also "outted" by "sister" trans-activists with an axe to grind on me.)

Recently I got confirmation of something I've long suspected, that I am more than just neurologically intersexed.  This confirmation came during one of the long conversations with a part time member of our family household who is also a DO and a forensic psychiatrist.  The one close TS friend I had in early transition happened to be a retired professor of neurobiological psychology.  We also had literally hundreds of hours of conversation about the neurological makeup of transsexuality.  I must admit an intense personal interest in the largely unexplored field of transsexual causality, not out of a desire to "justify" my life, but merely to understand it.  The number of socialized women trans-women I've met who later discovered they were intersexed (beyond neurologically) is absolutely astonishing!  There are in fact ways of discovering this short of extremely expensive multiple tissue kerotyping.  Some find out during surgery, some get sheepish "confessions" from parents that "something had to be corrected" at birth.  Now I realize I'm treading on dangerous ground here among transies, who tend to think that understanding our "roots" will lead to elitism when that is not at all the case.  Whatever the cause of someone's transsexuality has no bearing on whether or not they ARE transsexual or if they will be happier in the correct social role and body.

Some transsexuals have incredible success with herbals, others don't.

Some transsexuals regrow head hair (without Rogaine) lost to male pattern baldness, some don't.

Some transsexuals have skeletal changes post surgery and post HRT, some don't.

Some transsexuals have abnormal (for males) nipple sensitivity prior to HRT and some don't.

Supposedly, it is impossible for herbals to have a pronounced effect on an XY body.

Supposedly, it is impossible for skeletal changes to take place in XY bone matrix after maturity.

Supposedly, it is highly unlikely to regrow lost head hair lost to male pattern baldness (without treatment) in XY scalp tissue.

Ok, so why does it happen to some transsexuals?  It does you know, I've seen it in many others.

My DO sister/daughter is a late transitioner.  HRT cured her of a neurological disorder that was killing her.  She transitioned in a literally impossible work environment and yet is accepted as completely female by her co-workers.  Being a doctor, she and her own MD ran those horridly expensive series of deep tissue sample kerotypes........almost all her tissue is XX.  She fathered three children. (beautiful, accepting and loving children I now regard as my grandchildren).

I had pronounced supraorbial brow ridges prior to HRT; they are gone, now within normal female facial parameters - theoretically impossible.   My cheekbones are noticably higher than they used to be, theoretically impossible.  Yet again, I'm not the only transsexual women I know this happened to.

I had a pronounced increase in my pelvic girdle, as have several trans-women I know, this is theoretically impossible. (unrelated to overlying fat distribution)

Impossible unless...........the bone matrix is XX and reverted to XX norms once free from testrostrone.  The estrogen receptors are XX so herbals will indeed be more than enough to initate change.

Food for thought.........I suspect a great many more of us than anyone ever suspected are more than just neurologically intersexed.