Feel a bit like a phoney when women talk to me about their periods...

[Jean24]

Yes that is correct based on my experience. I've been treated by two fertility clinics and I believe the technology and medicine to allow XY women including trans women to have female reproductive function is already here and just needs to be implemented. However I think it is more like a 50 year plan. In any case the promise of it happening sometime in the future is enough for me to keep hope that we will be truly equal in every way someday.

I think we will be see development sooner than that. I agree that the technology is there now, we just need the demand from trans folks and a few people in the biomedical world willing to push the agenda. That's actually my goal in life now - it bothers me that much to know that much tech is there but not be allowed to use and experiment with it. It actually caused me to change my degree and start over at a community college. Now I'm putting everything I have into a career in genetics. I know that I don't speak for everyone but I truly want to be able to drop the trans label and be an XX, reproductive functional woman and I think anyone who wants to do it should be allowed the choice.

[Zoetrope]

Why on earth would somebody *want* to have periods - or pretend to have them?

That is truly bizarre to me.

[Ms Grace]

Each to their own, Zoe. Periods seem like fairly miserable experiences to me, I don't think I've ever met a single genetic cis woman who has spoken in glowing terms about menstruation - but but since that's the way the biology works, for those women who do want to have children they acknowledge the necessity of them. Personally I would have loved to be a mother, I'm not but I'm also pretty glad I never had to suffer through PMS, menstruation, etc.

[Zoetrope]

I just think it's a bit of a crazy way to validate one's sense of gender.

We should take validation from real things - our interactions, etc. That is constructive. To seek validation from false things, is taking a step back.

[stephaniec]

interesting , but pain is pretty far down my list of things I want to experience. I have enough problems with leg cramps.

[Ms Grace]

People get validation from lots of things I can't understand, but if it makes them happy, gives them peace of mind and it's hurting no one else... let 'em have it, I say.

[Lady_Oracle]

I get pms, since I'm on weekly injections and sometimes due to stuff happening I cant always stay on a perfect schedule so I go extra days without my shot and it's hell emotionally. I feel drained, moody, I bloat, it's not fun and I do get discharge (endo said its from the P) so yeah I just don't bleed but the hormonal ups and downs are there. Mondays I always get pms. This past monday however, I completely forgot that it was the day before my shot and suddenly remembered ohhh that's why duh lol. P does help with the pms but I don't take it during the day due to its sedative side effect.

I second what Ms Grace said, I wish I could have my own kids like that. I'm definitely going to adopt but still it's always going to hurt knowing that I can't get pregnant.

[Newgirl Dani]

I love having my cake and eating it too  .  When women and I talk and the period thing comes up, I say "well, I'm just glad I am getting boobs, curves, etc., and I'm NOT having a period.  They look at me and say "we hate you"  , it's all in fun, they are just joking, and we move on.   Dani

[Northern Jane]

Why on earth would somebody *want* to have periods - or pretend to have them?

To have periods would have meant being fertile and in my younger years  I would have given just about anything to have children. Being infertile was TERRIBLY painful.

I never felt the need to pretend to have periods but it wasn't something I cared to discuss except with my closest female friends.

[PhoenixGurl2016]

I would do anything to have a period.

[23 Skidoo]

I don't understand why anyone would pretend to have a period(how would that even work?), but knowing I'll never have one depresses me because it reminds me of the fact that I can not create life and makes me feel disconnected from most women. For all the talk about how many women don't have periods because of birth control, or hysterectomy, ect, it ignores the fact very few women have not menstruated at some point in their life(and those few non trans women that there are probably feel a bit different because of it too). Menstruation is kind of a big deal for cis women, and its an almost ubituously shared experience for cis women around the planet. And its a shared experience that we are left out of from not only experieimncing but from even truly understanding or emphasizing with.

[noeleena]

Hi,

A bit different for some of us in as much we are female just were not born with some organs wether I have xx or xy or what ever combo over 15 different types  makes little difference to me , im still female , so I cant have my periods or my child and there are many women who cant and don't and from birth ,  just because we are female does not mean we have every thing in our bodys just right from birth , though we do find out and not allways surgerys help .

Don't wish for what your body is not able to have , you may find other complictions you did not bargain for,.

...noeleena...

[iKate]

Why on earth would somebody *want* to have periods - or pretend to have them?

That is truly bizarre to me.

Why would anyone want sexism, discrimination, sexual harassment, etc? Why even transition since life as a guy is devoid of these things eh?

[iKate]

I think we will be see development sooner than that. I agree that the technology is there now, we just need the demand from trans folks and a few people in the biomedical world willing to push the agenda. That's actually my goal in life now - it bothers me that much to know that much tech is there but not be allowed to use and experiment with it. It actually caused me to change my degree and start over at a community college. Now I'm putting everything I have into a career in genetics. I know that I don't speak for everyone but I truly want to be able to drop the trans label and be an XX, reproductive functional woman and I think anyone who wants to do it should be allowed the choice.

Being XX doesn't matter unless someone tests your blood. One of the Xs is randomly disabled in genetic females anyway. Put another way, we have the same number of active X chromosomes as a cis woman.

[Dee Marshall]

I was going through PMS monthly long before I even realized that I'm trans. Possibly because my testosterone levels were way below male levels and I synced with my wife. Several women I worked with or around pointed it out to me. Never had a period, but if it meant I could have a child I would, gladly. Without the chance to bear a child, no thank you.

[Zoetrope]

Why would anyone want sexism, discrimination, sexual harassment, etc? Why even transition since life as a guy is devoid of these things eh?

I don't get what you're driving at. Social attitudes are another matter altogether.

I maintain that we should not be seeking validation from society - nor should we pretend things to fit in with social perceptions.

Validation is a psychological matter. If we base validation on real things, that is good for us. If we seek validation from make-believe, that is dangerous and potentially destructive to one's sense of well being.

It is also destructive to want what one can't have. And this isn't even trans specific. It's very important for anyone's well being, to embrace reality.

We transition to be our real selves. Not to start putting up decoys all over again.