(no subject)

[just-curious18.livejournal.com]

Me and a friend of mine got to talking about transsexuals and transgenders and she had a question we could not answer. Other than physical traits, what makes someone a man or woman? She does not believe in gender at all. She says sex is the physical traits we posses, but there is nothing in our minds that make us man or woman. She says that even male and female instincts are based on majority so they are not a valid argument. So here is my question to all of you: How do you know you are in the wrong body? What makes you feel like the opposite gender? Is there something other than society that decides how we play our roles and if not, then why is it that you are changing?

I am just going to say quickly that this post was not meant to offend anyone. We would just really love some answers. I figured this was the best place to go. Thank you all for reading.

Oestradiol levels post-op

[jennyemily.livejournal.com]

I've just had my first post-op liver function and hormone level tests. Unfortunately, whilst everything else is normal, the Oestragen levels have taken a nose dive and are now only two-thirds of what they were pre-op. This puts me right down into the female menopausal levels, but I am only 27 and am seven weeks post-op.

I'm still on the levels of HRT set when I was pre-op. Nothing has changed within that regime, so this is a mystery to both me and my Doctor. I would have thought that with the source of Testosterone gone this is the opposite of what I would expect to happen. My Doctor doesn't know what to do with regard to whether she should change my HRT regime, so I'm looking for some sort of advice on this.

My Oestradiol level came off the tests as 122 (no idea of units) where a natal female would be considered menopausel at <200 or so. Previosly I had been up at around the 190 mark on the earlier blood tests. I'm on a normal pre-op HRT dose of three Ovysmen tablets per day, which equates to 1500micrograms of Norethisterone and 105 micrograms of ethinyloestradiol per day.

What I wanted to know is whether this is normal for a post-op transwoman, or whether my medication should be changed? Unfortunately as my Doctor is flummuxed by the whole trans hormone thing and is looking to me for finding answers, because she has no real idea where to ask.

Crossposted to transgender and mtf