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!
Eve, that is too funny. How did he react when he finally figured it out?
Well, he was *relieved. *
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.
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…
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.
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?
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.
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?
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”.
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?
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!!!
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!)
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
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.
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!)
Okay, I must really suck at searching, but I just can’t pull up any pics of Eve
Help?
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?
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?