Tuesday, October 14, 2008
A Boy's Life
Since he could speak, Brandon, now 8, has insisted that he was meant to be a girl. This summer, his parents decided to let him grow up as one. His case, and a rising number of others like it, illuminates a heated scientific debate about the nature of gender—and raises troubling questions about whether the limits of child indulgence have stretched too far.
by Hanna Rosin
November 2008
Brandon Simms at age 5 in a Disney princess costume
(Courtesy of the family)
THE LOCAL NEWSPAPERrecorded that Brandon Simms was the first millennium baby born in his tiny southern town, at 12:50 a.m. He weighed eight pounds, two ounces and, as his mother, Tina, later wrote to him in his baby book, “had a darlin’ little face that told me right away you were innocent.” Tina saved the white knit hat with the powder-blue ribbon that hospitals routinely give to new baby boys. But after that, the milestones took an unusual turn. As a toddler, Brandon would scour the house for something to drape over his head—a towel, a doily, a moons-and-stars bandanna he’d snatch from his mother’s drawer. “I figure he wanted something that felt like hair,” his mother later guessed. He spoke his first full sentence at a local Italian restaurant: “I like your high heels,” he told a woman in a fancy red dress. At home, he would rip off his clothes as soon as Tina put them on him, and instead try on something from her closet—a purple undershirt, lingerie, shoes. “He ruined all my heels in the sandbox,” she recalls. . . .Read More
Disparities surface among transgender workers
The Canadian Press
14 October 2008
GENDER INEQUALITY: A recent study has found a new way to examine pay disparities between men and women: Comparing the salaries of transgender employees before and after their gender changes.
The study in The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, an academic journal published by The Berkeley Electronic Press, found that while the average earnings for women who changed their gender slightly increased after the transition, it fell by nearly a third for workers who went from male to female.
The research was based on interviews with 64 individuals employed before and after a gender transition with hormone therapy or surgery.
"I think the gap that we've found has to do with ideas about gender and how masculinity is valued in the workplace," said Kristen Schilt, a sociology professor at University of Chicago who conducted the study with New York University professor Matthew Wiswall. . . .Read More
A phantom penis, and how to remove it
October 13, 2008
Michael Marshall
The Neurotopia blog draws our attention to an intriguing paper in Acta Medica Okayama. Titled "Phantom erectile penis after sex reassignment surgery", it's a report by a group of surgeons atOkayama University in Japan.They describe a twist on "phantom limb" syndrome, in which people who have lost a limb still experience sensation in it. Their patient experienced a phantom erect penis.
Phantom penises were first observed in 1951, and a 1999 review concluded that they were extremely rare. So what happened here?
Well, essentially this is a snapshot of how much sexual reassignment surgery has advanced in recent years. . . .Read More plus Comments
Phantom erectile penis after sex reassignment surgery.
Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama 700-8558, Japan. y-namba@cc.okayama-u.ac.jp
Between January 2001 and December 2007, we performed vaginoplasty as sex reassignment surgery in a total of 14 male-to-female transsexual (MTFTS) patients [1]. Several complications occurred such as partial flap necrosis, rectovaginal fistula formation and hypersensitivity of the neoclitoris. Just after the operation, some patients feel that their penises still exist, but by several weeks postoperatively, this sensation has disappeared. Herein we report a case of MTFTS in whom the sensation of a phantom erectile penis persisted for much longer.
PMID: 18596839 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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