gene therapy

[stephaniec]

In the past, I would have easily have gone for it.  I had major issues with being trans and have these feelings.  It would have been much easier  for me to have been a normal straight cis guy; however, that's far from who I am and denying myself is too painful and depressing.  Nowadays, I'm quite happy with everything.  I've come to like that I'm a girl and that I'm straight.  I'm more happy about who I am and excited about the future rather than feeling self hatred/ disgust that I once had.  Athough, I'm still having difficulties with the fact that I'm a transwoman and not just a woman.  The limitations and the social stigma is hard for me to deal with at times.  Maybe this will go away once I move forward and I'm living full time as female.  Perhaps being trans will be more like a small tidbit of background info rather than the major dilemma it is now to me?

I think once you walk out that door you don't even think about it because you just are what you always been I don't know I'm not full time , but I'm always with bra on and my clothes are either way. I really don't put too much thought into being other than female even though I still have a lot of work to do . I think if my face goes totally male fail , the thought of being any thing other than female will be non existent.

[Allyda]

In the past, I would have easily have gone for it.  I had major issues with being trans and have these feelings.  It would have been much easier  for me to have been a normal straight cis guy; however, that's far from who I am and denying myself is too painful and depressing.  Nowadays, I'm quite happy with everything.  I've come to like that I'm a girl and that I'm straight.  I'm more happy about who I am and excited about the future rather than feeling self hatred/ disgust that I once had.  Athough, I'm still having difficulties with the fact that I'm a transwoman and not just a woman.  The limitations and the social stigma is hard for me to deal with at times.  Maybe this will go away once I move forward and I'm living full time as female.  Perhaps being trans will be more like a small tidbit of background info rather than the major dilemma it is now to me?

I agree with Steph. Once you walk through that door and put your past life as male to bed you'll be living as who you've always been. I know for me all that flipping back and forth, and I had to work at it to pass as male even before hrt, is what I think caused most bouts of depression I had to endure. Now that I live full time I don't worry as much about "passing" as I'm more confident in who I am. Even without makeup, lol!

[Ltl89]

I don't know.  I'm at a point where I feel comfortable about my passing potential and no longer worry that I will have issues once I get the courage to go full time (I'm considering just jumping in because part time may not really be possible in my case).  So yeah I probably will be accepted as female without much problem and being trans will be a background sort of thing. Having said that, I do have issues with being trans.  I don't know if my feelings of inadequacy compared to cisgirls will ever fully go away.  It won't really be an issue except in the relationship department and my inability to get pregnant.  It's up to the future and how things go.   

[stephaniec]

Do you mean in place of transitioning and staying as you are and having your gender "corrected" instead?

I'm just saying that you'd have 2 options given the technology. Both would be the same procedure and a life time of either estrogen or the gene modifier, And of coarse with the mtf transition you could still do the GRS. Both would be the same cost with the grs. which way would you treat your dysphoria  Would you stop the dysphoria by reversing the gene sequence and remaining male or stop the dysphoria by changeing to conform  to your female. Or are their other issues involved besides the physical. For me its has a lot to do with how I conceive my world mentally. I would choose the HRT rather then the gene modifier because I more fit the female expression in society. I've lived male and I know its not who I am even if my dysphoria could be taken a way. Even If my identity would completely accept being male through the modifier. I would still choose HRT because prior to the choice regardless of my physical reality I am far more  comfortable In the perspective of me being female.

[Allyda]

I too would still choose hrt because based on my life's experiences I'm more comfortable as who I know I am, female. I never worked well as a guy. I love my long hair too much, my soft femminine features, etc., etc., etc., but the main reason is that I'm not male and I'm way too tired of trying to pretend to be something I'm not. So my hrt and complete transition would still move forward.

[stephaniec]

I too would still choose hrt because based on my life's experiences I'm more comfortable as who I know I am, female. I never worked well as a guy. I love my long hair too much, my soft femminine features, etc., etc., etc., but the main reason is that I'm not male and I'm way too tired of trying to pretend to be something I'm not. So my hrt and complete transition would still move forward.

Yea, the male thing has bothered me all along. at ever stage of my life it was beating on my head. At point in my life I totally over compensated to try to hide.

[Allyda]

Yea, the male thing has bothered me all along. at ever stage of my life it was beating on my head. At point in my life I totally over compensated to try to hide.

Many of the younger girls on here probably have a puzzled time understanding why we waited so long to transition. In the era I grew up in predudice still ran rampant and then there were the family problems we all have to deal with. My adopted Mother is a Baptist and my adopted father was catholic. My being a rather shy person didn't help matters either. However my main reason was that it's hard to just sever all contact with the only people you have in your life you can halfway trust and you want them so much to support you so you keep putting it off, little by little hoping that a little more time will bring their acceptance. That is, until you wake up one morning and your 50 years old and they still haven't totally accepted you as who you really are, and realizing the best years of your life are gone. Had I been 30 years younger and was 20 years old now I'm quite confident I would be in my final stages of transition. However acceptance from the general populace when I was 20 years old wasn't what it is now. Yes I whish I would have transitioned long ago. I always knew if I were ever to be happy and live as me that's what it would take. However times were different back then. Now that I finnally am transitioning I'll just make the best of the years I have left to be as happy as I can living as the real me. And maybe my experiences will help someone younger not to make the mistakes I made. Well, I hope so anyway, lol!

[Sephirah]

If a sequence of genes is responsible for 99.5% of my internal and perceptual self-identity, and changing them this way will affect not only how I view myself but also how I relate to, and interact with the rest of the world... that's a very scary thought. I have always believed that who I am is a more holistic experience. Not based solely on myself, but on the complex interrelations I have with the environment around me - perception, assimilation and insight. A dynamic growth that leads to a synergy. A whole greater than the sum of its parts.

If something like this was hypothetically possible, it would feel to me like trying to re-arrange a jigsaw by replacing only one piece of it.

I'd much rather them locate and rectify the gene responsible for me not liking chocolate, because I hear it's really rather good.

[Rina]

If I've understood correctly, genes aren't to "blame" for gender dysphoria anyways, since it's probably caused by hormonal exposure during pregnancy - it's neurobiological, but not genetic.

That said, a "cure" that would give me a male personality and identity, and hence remove the need to transition, is something I probably would have wanted a few years ago (except I wouldn't have admitted "needing it" back then). But since then, I've realized that such a "cure" would not only be far more invasive than even a lobotomy; it would constitute murder of personality. I would be someone completely else, probably someone nobody would recognize. If such a treatment is discovered, I think it would soon be outlawed, when people realize the ramifications.

I guess it could be compared to a "cure for autism", as commonly debated on forums for Asperger's and other ASDs. That, too, would more or less kill a person. I would sure want treatment for my sensory oversensitivity and crappy executive function, but the syndrome as such? Of course I have days where I wish I was "normal", but people wouldn't recognize me. So there are serious ethical problems with such treatments.

If researchers ever find a way to alter my sex chromosomes and/or grow new organs (or change the existing ones, if they're still there when/if the breakthrough comes), however, I'd go for it without second thought. I'd probably do it even if there was a significant risk of being killed by the treatment. Too bad it probably won't be an option anytime soon.

[LordKAT]

My only response is, my genes don't need therapy and I have too many to afford all them therapists. I sort of like my crazy genes. Now the sane ones on the other hand.......

[TinaMadisonWhite]

Yes, it would be interesting to see what the world would look like after the dust had settled from that development.

Read Dr. Suess' The Sneetches!  It is one of my favorite books for this very reason.  Here is an excerpt:

All the rest of the day on those wild screaming beaches,
the Fix-it-up-Chappie was fixing up Sneetches.
Off again, on again, in again, out again,
through the machine and back round about again,
still paying money, still running through,
changing their stars every minute or two,
until neither the Plain- nor the Star-bellies knew
whether this one was that one or that one was this one
or which one was what one or what one was who!

It is tempting, but I'm not sure that I would want to become a part of the cis world.  Yes, my life has been fraught with pain.  But it is that pain that has given me my humanity.  And I feel that I have a richness of perspective that cis-people would envy if they could only comprehend it.

So is it hypocrisy to pursue SRS?   Perhaps.    But I don't mind surgeries because that feels like something I am doing to myself.  "I" am in control and "I" remain.  Changing my genes feels like changing "me".  And I just spent a lifetime learning to love me. 

Good question!

[txwnl]

I would love if this was available...

However, knowing the science behind it, i'm a bit skeptical (I'm a geneticist working in Nanohealth). It would probably be a case of modifying not your DNA itself, but altering the expression of the gene (the cell's 'epigenome'). However the mice in those studies would have been bred with a faulty version of the gene (or a switch for the gene), so delivering it in vivo to a person would be difficult, and keeping it like that - otherwise it would just change back as cells regenerate. There has been some success in the US where they genetically modified immune cells to target cancerous cells and given back to patients.

Also the treatment is likely to be extremely expensive (that cancer treatment was in the $100,000+ range) and unfortunately as well it can take years to bring a drug to the market, especially with all the clinical trials and testing needed.

[Joanna Dark]

NO. NO. And NO. The whole premise behind this question is being trans is something that needs to be cured. I don't even know what people mean by dysphoric moments. I hve never had a moment. My whole life hs been one non stop bout of it. But I like who I am and resent this whole cure aspect. Isn't this a support site, not a philosophical site on curing transness. I don't need a cure.

[stephaniec]

NO. NO. And NO. The whole premise behind this question is being trans is something that needs to be cured. I don't even know what people mean by dysphoric moments. I hve never had a moment. My whole life hs been one non stop bout of it. But I like who I am and resent this whole cure aspect. Isn't this a support site, not a philosophical site on curing transness. I don't need a cure.

the intention of the question was not a cure j , but just an option like HRT is an option not a mandated cure

[Jenna Stannis]

NO. NO. And NO. The whole premise behind this question is being trans is something that needs to be cured. I don't even know what people mean by dysphoric moments. I hve never had a moment. My whole life hs been one non stop bout of it. But I like who I am and resent this whole cure aspect. Isn't this a support site, not a philosophical site on curing transness. I don't need a cure.

I think your use of the phrase needs to be cured is constructing and attacking a strawman argument (apologies for the philo jargon). Likewise, suggesting that the OP is turning the site into a place that is bent on "curing transness" is even more OTT and inflammatory.

I really doubt that the OP was suggesting that being trans* needs to be cured, but rather whether people would take that option should it ever arise, which I think is a valid and uncontentious question. This is especially so given the fact that not everybody who is living with crippling dysphoria wants to transition. In short, I think it's a bit blinkered and elitist to pretend that such people don't exist and preclude their voices from support sites like this one. Then again, this is a private site, I'm not Susan and my views, as such, may be shot down in flames as a result of these factors.

I must say, I really don't understand why there's so much hostility toward an analytical approach to being trans*, as some people find that approach to be useful and supportive regarding their own situation. From what I've seen, this and other threads like it do not set out to be intentionally malicious, but are rather coming from a place of support, love and understandable curiosity.

As has been said many times, there is no single trans* narrative. What, then, does this mean when we attempt to limit the number of ways in which members can be supportive of one another?

[Joanna Dark]

DELETED.

I'm out. Pretty soon all the new members will have no one who has been in transition longer then a month to talk to. Good luck with that. UGH

[vlmitchell]

Ooookay, so now that that happened... I've been in transition for three years, don't see this topic as offensive in the least, and will be here for a long while to come (though not horribly frequently as it *is* a bit taxing emotionally.)

[Jenna Stannis]

I would love if this was available... i'm a bit skeptical (I'm a geneticist working in Nanohealth). It would probably be a case of modifying not your DNA itself but altering the expression of the gene (the cell's 'epigenome')

Is that what they mean when they say animals "...with silenced versions of DMRT1 will grow up as females even if they are genetically male"?

Despite the potential cost and possible ethical concerns, it does look as though they're on their way to having a hand in the manipulation of sex determination. Is it possible at this stage to speculate on what kind of sex characteristics could be transformed using the genetic approach to gender reassignment – on a young adult, for example?

[Misato]

I think if that day comes it will be a sad one. I wouldn't do it now, but 14 years ago? Maybe then I would have jumped on it. I think that would have been a tragedy.

HRT brings me inline. This gene therapy would force me to stay out of line by making me, not me.

[vlmitchell]

My brain is my brain, regardless of what my gene expression tells my gonads to do. I'm pretty fine with the idea that I could one day tell my DNA to do what *I* tell it to and not what it *thinks* it wants to do.

Would it have changed my life and where I'm at today? Yeah. Would I have had the same set of circumstances and results that I had leading up to today? No. Would I have been happier? Yeah, probably. The world is better off for me being myself as I am but I think that, personally, I'd have probably been able to focus more on what was important to my dreams and goals without the overhead of GID/Transition/Dysphoria involved.

That said, I *do* see GD as a disease in the same sense that I would if I had Multiple-Sclerosis, Parkinsons, or some other weird-o malady of the DNA. I can't have kids. My body is weird and developed wrongly (also, huge and heavy as hell). No manner or amount of monkeying with surgery, hormones, self-acceptance, or anything else will tell my brain that the body that it inhabits is the correct one as that's neurologically impossible.

I'm happy with my life but being able to feel at home in my body would be a blessing that I would give near anything to achieve. As it's medically impossible, I'll make do with what I have and be happy with it but if there were a better option, I'd have and would still take it in a heartbeat.

(P.S. - Just to be clear, I'm 100% against the idea that I'd want to ever go from Female to Male brained. That's a horrible, terrible idea and I don't think that it's even possible using the furthest extrapolations of the science of neuroplasticity. Curing GD by trying to change the brain is an awful plan and would almost certainly do nothing good for the patient.)

(P.P.S. - I'm also pretty sure that the OP is of the same mindset and was talking about gene therapy to fix the body, not the brain... for those of you freaking out about that.)