GENDER IDENTITY AND PHANTOM GENITALIA

[Hazumu]

Sandra Blakeslee

Saturday, April 12, 2008

This got Ramachandran wondering whether the phantoms applied to transsexuality. To find out, he surveyed 20 male-to-female transsexual women and 29 female-to-male transsexual men.

The first finding was intriguing. Only 6 out of 20, or 30 percent, of the transsexual women who had had their penises removed reported feeling a phantom phallus. But 58 percent of "normal" men have such sensations after the surgery.

[Christo]

Yep its there
We got a topic 'bout it on f2m transsexual

https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,14827.0.html

[Sandy]

Prior to my SRS I too was wondering if I would feel phantom sensations from my resected penis.

No I did not.  I did not experience any sensation of a phantom penis.  Though I did go through a short period of time where I would feel certain sensations I normally associated with my penis but they originated on or near a skin graft site.  This I feel is more of sensory confusion than a phantom sensation because once I would see the new location of the sensation the penile feeling disappeared.

Like Karen mentioned on the other topic, tucking felt so right.  And my initial feelings following my SRS was that I was tucked.

Prior to my SRS, I did feel like I had a vagina and I knew exactly where it was.  I would press on it and have a very slight feeling of penetration that I longed to have fulfilled.

Perhaps the researcher was asking the wrong question from the trans women...

-Sandy

[gothique11]

Gender Identity and phantom genitalia

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/12/IN5S103FLF.DTL[url]

"A girl sees that she has no phallus, yet she feels deeply, unambiguously male. A boy is equipped with a penis, yet he feels fundamentally, unarguably female.
Such discord often gets chalked up to the physical - prenatal hormone exposures, abnormal brain structures, gay genes. Or to the psychological - repressed homosexuality, absent dads, overbearing moms, parents who wanted a baby of the opposite sex.
But there is a new explanation: Some transgender men claim to possess phantom penises. From the time they were little girls, they say they had vivid sensations of a penis between their legs. Others develop such a phantom when they begin taking testosterone therapy.
Similarly, transgender women who are born male and later undergo sex reassignment surgery generally do not report having a phantom. They say that their penis was never part of their body image."

I thought that this was an interesting article about a study done by V.S. Ramachandran, a neurologist and psychologist at UC San Diego, and the connection between the brain and body parts, even if the body parts don't match what the brain says should be there.


--natalie

[Hypatia]

Well I sure have a phantom vagina! Won't quit until it's real!

[Dennis]

I had a bit of phantom boob after chest surgery. I'd get these sensations like someone was squeezing my nipples really hard, but it was not where my nipples were.

Not gonna comment on phantom dick. That's my secret. But sometimes, there's definitely a shwang there when I walk.

Dennis

[Sandy]

Not gonna comment on phantom dick. That's my secret. But sometimes, there's definitely a shwang there when I walk.
Dennis

Does that me that sometimes you walk around with a certain shwagger??

-Sandy(couldn't resist )

Posted on: April 23, 2008, 12:58:41 PMNow I am experience phantom pain...

The tissue that became my clitoris has started to regain sensation.  I am feeling "zaps".  But interestingly I feel those from a location that is above my body.  It is a strange feeling.

The zaps I feel from my vaginal skin graft are all internal and I have no confusion about where they come from.

-Sandy(for those inquiring minds wanting to know...)