Well, today was another milestone in my journey into womanhood. I got my first breast pictures, apparently known as Ma'am O'Grams.
I was a bit nervous on the way there, but decided when I got alone with the tech, I would tell them the whole story in case it had any bearing on the test. I checked in and got called back ("Stephanie" this time!). Judy is a cute petite older lady (though still younger than me by a lot). We got back to the room and we talked a little bit (about airplanes of course), and after she closed the door I told her that I needed to fill her in on something.
"If it's not obvious, I'm transgender, and this is my first mammogram."
She stopped and looked and said, "No! It's not at all obvious!" Another pause and look, and, "You look great!"
I joked about how when I'd called, they'd asked if it had been more than a year since I'd had a mammogram, and also how my intake nurse at my last primary doctor appointment had asked when I'd had my last menstrual period.
And it just got better from there. She had a million questions, and I answered them all honestly. I educated her on the importance of pronouns when she referred to a MTF trans friend of her son's as "he." At one point when she said that long ago in a different office she had met someone who was transitioning, and said something about how he (I corrected her on the pronoun later) had decided he wanted to be a woman. I told her that that wasn't correct. Someone dealing with this doesn't "decide to be a woman." They know they
are a woman, but are wearing the wrong suit. The decision they make is whether or when to do something about it.
The atmosphere was extremely friendly and smiley, and she absorbed all the information thoughtfully and thankfully. She clamped what little I've got into the vise and took the pictures, then showed me everything while explaining what I was seeing. Cool stuff.
We bantered a little more, and I got a big hug and was made to promise to go back to see her next year. I'm looking forward to it.
Stephanie
