# Some questions for any transsexual Dopers **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 7, 2003, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480 "2003-12-07T02:26:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/61 "2003-12-09T17:07:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kalhoun \* > \*\*I would think the “friends” thing would be the hardest part for a transsexual. Did you find out anyone’s true colors? \*\* My favorite reaction was my old friend Eric’s. I figured he’d think “gay” or “bisexual.” So I told him, “It’s not the first thing you’d think of and it’s not the second thing you’d think of—it’s the third.” His eyes got very big, and he said, “_animals?!_” _Too_ cute baby, by the way! ---
**Author:** ![Loneraven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c0e974/32.png) [@Loneraven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loneraven)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/62 "2003-12-09T18:22:44Z")
**Eve** , that is too funny. How did he react when he finally figured it out? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/63 "2003-12-09T18:59:05Z")
Well, he was \*relieved. \* ---
**Author:** ![Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krisfer_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/64 "2003-12-09T19:43:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kalhoun \* > \*\*Huh? Who said mean stuff? I thought we were being decidedly UN-mean. Did I doze off??? \*\* My apologies **Kalhoun** I was not refering to you. As usual I am thinking in half phrases and not being clear. I meant the two Dopers that posted the horrid stuff about **Eve.** As far as reality and I go… I’m fine in my own little world.😉 Its whan I have to deal with the “real” one I have problems. Please accept my apologies for not being clear enough in my intent. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/65 "2003-12-09T20:03:55Z")
Gotchya ya, Krisfer. Yeah…dem two suck. That baby is pretty damn cute! She looks like she’ll be a real handful once she gets mobile. I see a sparkle in her eye that spells “high speed”. 😉 Okay, here’s a rather abstract question…Do you now look like how you thought or wanted or felt like you would look had you been born into the right body? If you can understand that, you’re doing better than me… ---
**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/66 "2003-12-09T20:59:19Z")
Other than in dreams, I’ve never envisioned myself in a body different from my own. As such, I don’t think I can answer that question, because I don’t have a concrete image of how I “wanted” to look or “felt like I should have looked”. I can’t really imagine myself in “someone else’s body”; it would feel wrong. Holding up an image of someone else as a vision of what I would prefer to be doesn’t make sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/67 "2003-12-09T21:24:02Z")
Is that the reason you’re vacillating on the surgery? Do you feel that even though “you” on the inside feel that you are a woman, that the outside “you” would feel foreign in an unfamiliar body? ---
**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/68 "2003-12-09T21:30:11Z")
No, I’m vacillating mainly over fears about having general surgery at all, over fears of loss of function, and over whether the pain, risk, and expense are all worth it. Complications could leave me far worse off than I am now (including possibly dead). If the procedure were free, painless, risk-free, and instantaneous, I’d have had it done already. It’ll still be my body, whether or not I have surgery. There is no “woman inside” waiting to be peeled away by the surgeon’s knife. There is no “inside me” and “outside me”; there is only me. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/69 "2003-12-09T21:35:14Z")
Thanks for the insight. By the way, who is at higher risk for loss of function – m-to-f or f-to-m? And by loss of function, do they mean sensation and orgasm or urinary or both? ---
**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/70 "2003-12-09T22:08:52Z")
I don’t have much information on FtM procedures. The risks for the MtF procedure include (in addition to the usual risks of surgery under general anethesia) scarring, infection, blood loss, loss of sensation, loss of sexual function, stenosis of the neovagina, incontience, necrosis, rectal injury or rectovaginal fistula, nerve injury of the legs, blood clots and pulmonary emboli. A patient reportedly died last year in the post-op ward under Dr. Schrang’s care (pulmonary embolus), so this is a very real concern. I have a meaningful sex life without surgery, so I am understandably reluctant to risk loss of sexual function. That said, I am definitely leaning toward surgery (the vacillation is between “maybe” and “yes”, not between “yes” and “no”). The better money is on “yes”. ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/71 "2003-12-09T22:16:24Z")
Well **Kalhoun** , now that you’ve stolen a bunch of my questions… ::beats him over the head:: 😉 And where can these pics of the lovely **Eve** be seen? ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/72 "2003-12-09T22:20:25Z")
Liirogue, sorry. I’m just very curious. After that last list of possible fuck-ups, I don’t think I’d be able to go through with it. Very scary. Oh, and Liirogue, I’m a chicklette. Don’t hit me too hard!!! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/73 "2003-12-10T00:53:47Z")
**Kelly** , the best description I heard was a woman who said that after surgery she felt like “I was finally living in my own house.” That pretty much says it for me. Like **Kelly** , I am me–the same person I was before (well, can a 46-year-old ever be the same person they were at 21?). Oh, as for realistic photos of “the lovely Eve,” do a search for those Woodlawn and Green-Wood cemetery tours in MPSIMS from last fall and spring; there are links to photos of the tours showing me as I look now, for better or worse. (That baby has the biggest eyes I’ve ever seen!) ---
**Author:** ![Isabelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5a626/32.png) [@Isabelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isabelle)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/74 "2003-12-10T01:07:06Z")
This is a very interesting thread. Thank you for sharing I read that Eve is an atheist but I wonder about the others… How do you feel about God in this situation? Do you think he made a mistake and you are making a correction? Or do you just not believe in a “higher power?” How do I get to the pictures of other Dopers? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/75 "2003-12-10T01:26:40Z")
**Isabelle** , I’m an apatheist (it doesn’t matter to me whether god(s) exist or not). If higher powers exist, they don’t seem to manifest themselves in any predictably useful way, so I would be foolish to rely on them to provide guidance or assistance in my life. Nor does blaming them (or anyone else) for the circumstances of my life assist me in dealing with the things I have to deal with. So I don’t blame a higher power for my circumstances, nor do I beseech one for aid or succor. It’s just the way things worked out. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/76 "2003-12-10T01:54:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\* > Oh, as for realistic photos of “the lovely Eve,” do a search for those Woodlawn and Green-Wood cemetery tours in MPSIMS from last fall and spring; there are links to photos of the tours showing me as I look now, for better or worse. > \*\* I have, and I still say that you’ll feel better about your body the minute you meet me! ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/77 "2003-12-10T02:25:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Governor Quinn \* > \*\*I have, and I still say that you’ll feel better about your body the minute you meet me! \*\* Well, _that_ could be taken any number of ways . . . ( **Kelly** , great religious outlook, by the way . . . More sensible than either being religious or atheist!) ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/78 "2003-12-10T04:37:05Z")
Okay, I must really suck at searching, but I just can’t pull up any pics of **Eve** Help? ---
**Author:** ![Already\_in\_Use](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Already\_in\_Use](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Already_in_Use)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/79 "2003-12-10T08:30:10Z")
Another question: how do they change your voice in the surgery? Or do they not? Can a higher/lower voice be brought about by hormone treatments, or is the larynx made smaller for MtF? And if so, how do they make it larger for FtMs? ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2003, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480/80 "2003-12-10T09:20:30Z")
About the hair removal… I’m a biological male who doesn’t mind being a male, but I do hate shaving, and I do hate being hairy. I know this sounds like a very tiny problem compared to yours, but it’s a big annoyance for me. Anyway, I’ve been thinking about permanent hair removal for my face, throat, chest and stomach. Maybe armpits too. **lee** and **KellyM** gave a good rundown, but could you give me some more indepth? What different methods exist? What are we talking about in time, money, and pain? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-for-any-transsexual-dopers/217480.md?page=5)