# Gynaecologists can't tell transwomen from women?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 26, 2006, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585 "2006-12-26T03:53:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/1 "2006-12-26T03:53:57Z")
I was watching Transamerica and in the begining Bree, a pre-op transexual, claims that once she’s has sex reasignment surgery “Not even a gynaecologist could tell there’s anything out of the ordinary with my body.” Is that true :dubious: ? Just how good _are_ surgeons at fashioning female genitalia from male genitalia?
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### Author:  [@Malienation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malienation)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/2 "2006-12-26T04:36:56Z")
I’ve heard that too, although I dunno if it’s true. I admit to being skeptical as well; I mean, when you’re up to your elbows all day long in pussy, it seems to me you ain’t gonna be fooled easily. Having said that, I certainly could buy the notion that the _average_ guy couldn’t tell the difference.
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### Author:  [@Don26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don26)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/3 "2006-12-26T04:37:26Z")
Bullshit
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### Author:  [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/4 "2006-12-26T04:59:25Z")
Very hard to believe. The pelvises of men and women are quite different and this would be obvious to gynecologists.
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### Author:  [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/5 "2006-12-26T05:01:22Z")
Uhm…do they also give you internal girly bits in operations, like a uterus, etc.? I think their abscence might be noticeable.
Also what the previous poster said about basic bone structure, etc.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/6 "2006-12-26T05:23:10Z")
Anecdotally, I’ve had 4 MTF post-op transexuals, and had to check the crotch of all 4 of them at one time or another due to their symptoms, including one of which needed a pelvic exam with a speculum.
There was NEVER any doubt in my mind that they weren’t MTF post-op trannies on exam. Nuh-uh. No mistaking their genitals for the standard issue genitals of XX chromosome females.
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### Author:  [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/7 "2006-12-26T05:26:18Z")
Total crock.
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/8 "2006-12-26T05:29:30Z")
I’ve seen pictures on the web, I think even linked from here, and the surgeons do a damn fine job but I think that the lack of uterus would give it away to the gyno.
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/9 "2006-12-26T05:34:05Z")
Jennifer Finney Boylan claimed on Larry King that her gynecologist couldn’t tell.
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### Author:  [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/10 "2006-12-26T05:47:55Z")
I think the vestigial prostate gland would show up on the ol’ ultrasound.
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### Author:  [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/11 "2006-12-26T07:08:15Z")
[QUOTE=Qadgop the Mercotan]
No mistaking their genitals for the standard issue genitals of XX chromosome females.
[/QUOTE]
Do you think they would look the same to an untrained eye?
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### Author:  [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/12 "2006-12-26T07:23:39Z")
NO!
That’s the point.
I can’t link the sites I’d like to here…
One in 20 if the surgeon is really good, and lucky at that.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/13 "2006-12-26T07:33:52Z")
What does a trangender vagina look like? How would it be self lubricated? Would the involuted “pouch” tear apart if the sex got rough, and the partner was large? How could such a pouch “squeeze” like a real vagina?
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### Author:  [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/14 "2006-12-26T07:39:16Z")
Don’t make me Google the pics for you, **astro**.
They’re right f’ing there. I guess some look all right from the outset, but, uh… blech.
Some look normal. Some of the “chick” possessing them look really fucking hot too.
Excuse me while I retch my guts outs.
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/15 "2006-12-26T07:49:03Z")
Just a thought, what would a GG\* say if her OB/GYN looked up and said, “This is this the finest SRS work I have ever seen? Who did it?”
\*Genetic Girl
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### Author:  [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/16 "2006-12-26T07:53:11Z")
I don’t know, but if she was under 20, she’d probably be scarred for life.
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/17 "2006-12-26T12:06:59Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi]
Just a thought, what would a GG\* say if her OB/GYN looked up and said, “This is this the finest SRS work I have ever seen? Who did it?”
\*Genetic Girl
[/QUOTE]
This GG would find a new OB/GYN stat.
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### Author:  [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/18 "2006-12-26T14:16:23Z")
Just wondering: perhaps the claim was only intended to mean that even a gynaecologist could not tell _from outward appearance_, rather than a full examination. That in itself would be an achievement.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/19 "2006-12-26T14:21:15Z")
[QUOTE=Eleusis]
Excuse me while I retch my guts outs.
[/QUOTE]
Why did you say that?
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [December 26, 2006, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gynaecologists-cant-tell-transwomen-from-women/385585/20 "2006-12-26T14:35:07Z")
[QUOTE=Eleusis]
Don’t make me Google the pics for you, **astro**.
They’re right f’ing there. I guess some look all right from the outset, but, uh… blech.
Some look normal. Some of the “chick” possessing them look really fucking hot too.
Excuse me while I retch my guts outs.
[/QUOTE]
I took your suggestion and googled “Vaginoplasty: Male to Female Sex Reassignment Surgery”. The (drawn) pictures of them dissecting a penis are pretty stomach tightening but the results don’t look all that horrifying. The main impression I get is that they are not quite as complex as “genetic girl” vaginas which have all these elaborately crafted folds, surfaces, and hoods you can play around with.
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