Yet another one of these threads

[Unbeknownst]

So, a brief history before I launch into what prompted this. I was assigned male at birth and realized as a toddler that my gender was incongruent. Growing up, I was always "mistaken" for a female, even after puberty hit. Just after college (age 24), I started medically transitioning. My baseline hormone level check put me around 700 T and 20 E. Since starting, I've been responding fairly well and have gotten to 250 E and 7 T with a regimen of  Spiro and Estradiol.

I hadn't really given much thought of this until recently, though. I've always had a "phantom vagina", much like one might experience in a phantom limb syndrome -- this was something I always chalked up to my identity and what I connected with on a mental level. A couple of months ago though, I felt around where I would have had a vaginal entrance and felt a cavity beneath my skin as if there might have been something there. I never really had a baseline to compare against, but I decided to mention it to an intersex friend of mine who was born with true hermaphroditism as well as my best friend who had seen her fair share of both sets of genitalia. Their first reaction was that my perineal raphe was puffy, rather than just a line. Both said that it looked "surgical." Up until then, I just thought it was normal, given what happens in the womb.

I then launched into a more detailed discussion with my intersex friend today, who started asking me a bunch of questions under the assumption I had klinefelter syndrome. The first thing she mentioned was spine curvature, how it was more typically an "s" shape than a straight line -- which I have. She then asked me to compare lengths of my fingers, specifically my left ring and index to see if the index was longer. It isn't, but my right hand has a ring finger about as long as it's middle, which she seemed to think could fall under the same "abnormal fingers" category. From there, she went on about lactation. We weren't 100% sure about this one, as the only time I had was when I had a vitamin D2 deficiency which caused my E to spike up to 1500 due to a lack of absorption (this hasn't happened since).

Then there's the last bit of weirdness that has us both completely stumped. I was born (at least to my knowledge) with a fully formed penis and no hypospadias. However, my urethral tube goes along the entire length of my raphe and into the cavity I had mentioned before, rather than immediately going upward after reaching the pelvis.

I've called my birth hospital on a long shot, and as suspected, I was told that those sorts of records were disposed of after seven years. I'm not exactly sure where to go from here, so I thought I would see what anyone on this board thought of the situation.

Mod Edit:Dosage

[kittenpower]

It's possible you may have some type of intersex condition, but the only way to know for sure is through imaging, or to have a blood test done to check for chromosome anomalies. You could also let your parents know about your concerns, if you haven't already done so. Best wishes, and I hope you have some answers soon.

[Dena]

Welcome to Susan's Place. As kittenpower suggested, a full medical workup and any history that your family may know will provide you with an answer. Intersex is complex and and there isn't a set of physical signs that will answer your question. The next step would be to talk to your GP  or Endo for a full medical workup.

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[Unbeknownst]

I've voiced my concerns to my family, both of whom can't seem to recall much of anything. The only specifics I've been able to get out of them is that there weren't any tests done at the time of by birth for anything whatsoever.

I'm a little weary about getting tests done after calling my insurance to check if anything like that would be covered. The representative said they couldn't find anything, but defaulted to the line of "if your doctor decides it's medically necessary, it will be covered." I suppose it won't hurt to ask, but I'm coincidentally about to have my name/gender marker change hearing this week. If that goes through, it may be fun trying to convince the insurance agency to go through with it for someone who is legally female. Given that I'm still intending to go through with SRS, could it fall under medical necessity for the sake of making sure there won't be related complications when I get it done? (Note: SRS is also not covered by my current policy.)



Thanks for the welcome. The attached links currently return 404s, but I'll poke through the site to find them.

[Devlyn]

Is Dena breaking the links again? 

[Serenation]

Hi which measurement were you using for the blood results, a normal blood test (T, dht, free t) can give you enough of an idea to see if a karyotype test is worth doing.

[Unbeknownst]

I don't have a report on hand, but I'm fairly certain those numbers were from Estradiol and Total Testosterone measurements. I know for certain that it wouldn't have been Free Testosterone, else the 700 would have raised a ton of red flags.

[kittenpower]

I've voiced my concerns to my family, both of whom can't seem to recall much of anything. The only specifics I've been able to get out of them is that there weren't any tests done at the time of by birth for anything whatsoever.

I'm a little weary about getting tests done after calling my insurance to check if anything like that would be covered. The representative said they couldn't find anything, but defaulted to the line of "if your doctor decides it's medically necessary, it will be covered." I suppose it won't hurt to ask, but I'm coincidentally about to have my name/gender marker change hearing this week. If that goes through, it may be fun trying to convince the insurance agency to go through with it for someone who is legally female. Given that I'm still intending to go through with SRS, could it fall under medical necessity for the sake of making sure there won't be related complications when I get it done? (Note: SRS is also not covered by my current policy.)



Thanks for the welcome. The attached links currently return 404s, but I'll poke through the site to find them.

I had the Karyotype test done in 1999; my insurance denied the claim, and my out of pocket cost was ~$700.00.

[Serenation]

I don't have a report on hand, but I'm fairly certain those numbers were from Estradiol and Total Testosterone measurements. I know for certain that it wouldn't have been Free Testosterone, else the 700 would have raised a ton of red flags.

normal range for testosterone is 270-1100 ng/dl so 700 doesn't seem odd, the klinefelter results I looked at were 120-150

[cheryl reeves]

I wonder how many intersex people have scoliosis? Or nerve damage in the legs? I was born exactly 1 month early and they had to use forceps to deliver me,I was a strange baby for I looked like a baby girl with a penis,people thought I was a girl til I was 3yrs and my dad put a halt to that,even looking boyish people tended to ask question or look at me strange. I was allowed to play anyway I wanted and used to fantasize about having the power to switch from full male to full female and vice versa never fully realizing this was because I was both male and female sharing one body and making the best of it. This is why I'm cool crossdressing for I crossdress and somewhat pass both ways. Kinda weird when you think about it.

[veritatemfurto]

It seems that we all have some interesting differences from our cisgender friends... I know the feeling you have sooo well. The wondering never really goes away even after testing, especially if those tests come back as indeterminate. The genetics testing is really the only way to tell for most of us, but it really sucks that insurance doesn't allow for it to be covered... I found it's easier to get the grs covered than it is to take a test that can point out everything from allergies to cancer risk... with that, it doesn't make sense from a preventative medicine POV to not have everyone get tested when they are born... But the military will test genetics, as I had one of my besties make it halfway through basic until they DQ'd her for having klinefelter's (pre trans).

Everything physical about me was just as suggestive about being intersex as your situation- especially the cavity and being on the small and sparse side of things down there. made it a bugger on normal tucking methods so i had to find my own ways of doing stuff. the gynecomastia was helpful with passing before any hrt  even in high school.  My pre HRT levels were also similar to yours, and not much in the way of voice changes either. Everything seemed like being female just clicked. first time dressing was an OMG moment. Nevermind that at 12 I started having "UTI's" and some seasonal cramps ever since then.  But even just 15 years ago in the midwest, I had a hard enough time finding a way to transition in my teens let alone someone that wouldn't think i was nuts thinking i was more than just trans, I was really female. I have even had several CT scans and was read as a normal anatomical female before grs, because of my inversion tuck method. Unfortunately, Bowers didn't find anything besides lots of room and excellent blood flow in there, but I can dismiss that as not really looking for stuff as my surgery started 2 hours behind schedule...

I never was able to verify what everything i knew about anatomy was telling me was right. Even after GRS I still wonder about it. Twice I've been shafted out of the results of testing. First time from a jerk that was using me as a guinea pig running up my bill before i started HRT, and again during grs when the gonads were supposed to be dissected for abnormalities. I have a feeling that I'll have pay up or do like my bestie to find out.

We can take all the tests in the world, but they really don't matter as much as knowing what your heart tells you is the answer. We are female, and that's what really matters. <:')

[Unbeknownst]

We can take all the tests in the world, but they really don't matter as much as knowing what your heart tells you is the answer. We are female, and that's what really matters. <:')

Aye, it is. <3

It's good to know that the cavity won't cause issues for the surgery, but the positioning of the urethral tube still worries me as far as complications during the procedure goes. Obviously if I don't get any imaging or whatnot done, I can tell the surgeon, but they'll probably want to do it on site anyway.

[veritatemfurto]

It's good to know that the cavity won't cause issues for the surgery, but the positioning of the urethral tube still worries me as far as complications during the procedure goes. Obviously if I don't get any imaging or whatnot done, I can tell the surgeon, but they'll probably want to do it on site anyway.

I really don't think yours goes all the way down along the scrotal crease, as that would more likely be something unrelated to intersex. As far as GRS goes, they don't need much length to reroute your plumbing where it should be. On average, a male's urethral canal is twice as long as a female's, as you can see in the difference in size of catheters. A lot of it used to be just cut and thrown away, but now more surgeons are recycling almost all of the donor area by  using the unnecessary section as the lining of the inner part of the labia minora from above the clitoral hood down to the entrance of the vulva. its been touched on in this thread: https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,185480.msg1659460.html#msg1659460

[Unbeknownst]

I really don't think yours goes all the way down along the scrotal crease, as that would more likely be something unrelated to intersex. As far as GRS goes, they don't need much length to reroute your plumbing where it should be.

I figured it would be unrelated, but I know that's what it is as I can hold it to block my flow. lol And yeah, I figured they wouldn't need much length. It's not so much the damaging of potential material I'm worried about as them finding out it's there at the last minute and trying to work around it without prior imaging.