Information and comments about the physical aspects of transition.
Hair removal
Voice
Facial feminization
Hair loss
Reproduction
Hormones
Orchiectomy
Vaginoplasty
Breast implants
Injected silicone
Breast forms
Movement
Tall clothing
Skin care
Makeup
Handwriting
Friday, October 30, 2009
Lynn Conway notes:
This interactive map reveals that the Centre for Addiction and mental Health (CAMH) not only controls the fate of gender transitioners in Ontario, but in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland too. It also reveals that CAMH requires a two-year RLE in all cases, in non-compliance with the WPATH Standards of Care.
Sex reassignment surgery in Canada: what’s covered and where
http://www.xtra.ca/public/Ottawa/Sex_reassignment_surgery_in_Canada_whats_covered_and_where-7706.aspx
Province-by-province breakdown of SRS coverage
http://www.xtra.ca/BinaryContent/stories/77/06/7706/7706-SRS/212_SRS.swf
This is talk, not advice. See Terms of Use for details.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Misuse of fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) is the latest phrenology-like pseudoscience used by “experts” to prove their pet theories about sex and gender minorities. Recently, a scientist scanned the brain of a dead salmon with fMRI while presenting it with stimulus, and guess what? The fMRI said the salmon could perceive humans!
The result is completely nuts — but that’s actually exactly the point. Bennett, who is now a post-doc at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his adviser, George Wolford, wrote up the work as a warning about the dangers of false positives in fMRI data. They wanted to call attention to ways the field could improve its statistical methods.
Researchers get up to 130,000 voxels from each set of scans they do of a brain. They have to comb all that data for signals that indicate something is happening in a particular region of the brain. The fMRI data has a lot of natural noise, though, and with the amounts of data generated in the work, chance can play some tricks. Bennett compared the fMRI data problems to a particularly strange kind of darts game.
“In fMRI, you have 160,000 darts, and so just by random chance, by the noise that’s inherent in the fMRI data, you’re going to have some of those darts hit a bull’s-eye by accident,” he said.
Like a sophisticated version of Photoshopping the contrast on a photograph, neuroscientists can filter the fMRI data to highlight the signal within the noise, but in so doing, rigorous statistical checks have to be maintained.
“We could set our threshold so high that we have no false positives, but we have no legitimate results,” Bennett said. “We could also set it so low that we end up getting voxels in the fish’s brain. It’s the fine line that we walk.”
Watch for this device to be misused by crappy psychologists against LGBT people in the coming decade.
Scanning Dead Salmon in fMRI Machine Highlights Risk of Red Herrings
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/fmrisalmon/
This is talk, not advice. See Terms of Use for details.
Posted by
Andrea James on 09/22 at 01:37 PM
Physical •
Sexuality •
Permalink
Monday, September 21, 2009
Pongphon Sarnsamak notes:
From November 29, the Medical Council of Thailand will strictly
enforce new regulations allowing only those transgendered people aged
over 18 to undergo a sex-change operation, secretary general Dr
Samphan Komrit said yesterday
Transgendered people aged 18 to 20 must have parental consent, while
those over 20 can decide for themselves.
Transgendered people must also consult a psychiatrist, live as a woman
for a year and receive hormone therapy before being allowed to undergo
a sexchange operation.
Surgeons who provide such operations must be registered with the
Medical Council and treat any complications that may occur following
surgery.
Samphan said these regulations would raise the standard of sexchange operations.
He said surgeons violating the regulations would face warnings and
even revocation of their medical licence.
Full article:
http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20090912-167469.html
This is talk, not advice. See Terms of Use for details.
Trustee Bernard Reed of GIRES notes:
The Gender Identity Research and Education Society has just published the latest in the series of booklets that it is developing on trans wellbeing and healthcare: “Lower Surgery for Trans Men”:
http://www.gires.org.uk/medtreatment.php#lower
This is talk, not advice. See Terms of Use for details.
Posted by
Andrea James on 09/21 at 11:24 PM
Physical •
Permalink
Jennifer notes:
I finally have something to contribute which may help someone. Five years after Montreal, I still dilate once a week and I hated it because I knew the pungent smell wasn’t right. I never have had any discharge so I doubt there is a fistula. I always used KY and a diluted vinegar douche afterwards, then tried other douches, nothing helped. I have never had sex, I think the smell problem really hurt my self esteem. Anyway, I read an account of a doctor who suggested active culture yogurt to a female patient as a lubricant to help with her flora. She had yeast problems which I don’t think I had that since the symptoms weren’t the same. I tried adding some plain Dannon yogurt to the lubrication and it has helped a lot, the smell seems to be a lot more natural. The lowfat kind doesn’t work well as a lubricant by itself, but adding some to the lubricant or the douche may help some of your readers to smell nicer. The flavored ones have lots of sugar and should probably be avoided. I do feel a lot better about myself now. I should probably have asked a doctor, but mine are pretty clueless about trans issues and I was too embarrassed to bring it up.
Douching can upset the balance of vaginal flora - do it sparingly. Eating yogurt and using a bit as described can help some people reduce the yeast present in the vagina, which can help reduce smell. Regular dilation schedule or regular sex can also help.
This is talk, not advice. See Terms of Use for details.
Posted by
Andrea James on 09/21 at 11:19 PM
Physical •
Permalink
