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I had a MRI scan yesterday and it revealed that I have a uterus, overlies, Fallopian tubes and some vaginal tissue.  My male genitals are malformed and very underdeveloped.  The urologist starting talking about a hysterectomy and I came unglued. I told him in tears there was no way in hell that was ever going to happen.  He tried tried to convince me an I just screamed at him.  My mom had to calm me down.  The urologist left the exam room until I calmed down.  When he came back in he apologized for upsetting me and assured me I didn't have to do anything I was comfortable with and that there are other options.  Then we started talking SRS.  They told me my insurance probably won't pay for most of it but he said he could word it so it would pay for some of it.  My mom said they will pay what the insurance doesn't cover.  Great parents huh?  Anyway it looks like I'm going be getting a sex change thank God and hopefully a normal life. 

Wow, besides the insensitive doctor that is incredible news Tatyana.

I hope it can happen soon for you now you have substantiated medical evidence to support the way you feel.

So happy for you and hope everything can be fast tracked for you.

Jen

That's GREAT news!

Don't do anything in a hurry. Take your time and investigate all the possibilities before you make a decision!!!!

Personally I would want an evaluation by an  endocrinologist next. What are your hormone levels, testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone? Estrogen levels tracked for at least 30 days would be even better. Those tests will tell your endo if your ovaries are pure ovarian tissue or a combination (ova-testes) and if they are trying to function as ovaries. If they are producing estrogen and not much testosterone, they are worth hanging on to and you may even be able to have children (with a little help from medical science). If they are producing too much testosterone you may want to consider having them removed or if they are non-functional, they will have to be watched for cancer (which is a risk with unusual tissues).

If you have "some vaginal tissue" there is a possibility of a vagina being constructed that would connect with what is already there (providing there is a  cervix) but it isn't going  to be "your run of the mill sex change" and needs to be done by a specialist.

You are very lucky to have found all this out now! Forty years ago I was never properly tested and what was removed at SRS was probably ova-testes and I was 60 before I found out I have a uterus. If that was the case today, I MAY have been able to have the children I always wanted albeit by surrogate mother.

Be careful! Don't make any rash decision and don't let  anybody talk you in to anything!

Wow that's awesome news. Can't believe that doctor, but at least you got through to him in the end.

Quote from: Northern Jane on October 16, 2013, 06:37:18 AM
That's GREAT news!

Don't do anything in a hurry. Take your time and investigate all the possibilities before you make a decision!!!!

Personally I would want an evaluation by an  endocrinologist next. What are your hormone levels, testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone? Estrogen levels tracked for at least 30 days would be even better. Those tests will tell your endo if your ovaries are pure ovarian tissue or a combination (ova-testes) and if they are trying to function as ovaries. If they are producing estrogen and not much testosterone, they are worth hanging on to and you may even be able to have children (with a little help from medical science). If they are producing too much testosterone you may want to consider having them removed or if they are non-functional, they will have to be watched for cancer (which is a risk with unusual tissues).

If you have "some vaginal tissue" there is a possibility of a vagina being constructed that would connect with what is already there (providing there is a  cervix) but it isn't going  to be "your run of the mill sex change" and needs to be done by a specialist.

You are very lucky to have found all this out now! Forty years ago I was never properly tested and what was removed at SRS was probably ova-testes and I was 60 before I found out I have a uterus. If that was the case today, I MAY have been able to have the children I always wanted albeit by surrogate mother.

Be careful! Don't make any rash decision and don't let  anybody talk you in to anything!

Thank you and yes the endo is next. my urologist said my overlies appeared normal and where probably functional but that will have to be confirmed by the endo.

That's great news. That doctor was a rude jerk though, wow just wow.

Quote from: Tatyana on October 16, 2013, 07:53:17 AM
Thank you and yes the endo is next. my urologist said my overlies appeared normal and where probably functional but that will have to be confirmed by the endo.

You answered my question.  Every girl here would love to receive such great news.

Congratulations, Tatyana! I can only imagine what you're feeling right now, and the joy that likely lies ahead for you. So I'll settle for this: I'm so very happy for you. Best wishes!

Quote from: ZoeM on October 16, 2013, 09:33:27 AM
Congratulations, Tatyana! I can only imagine what you're feeling right now, and the joy that likely lies ahead for you. So I'll settle for this: I'm so very happy for you. Best wishes!

Thank you so very much all of you.  I feel so much better about myself now that I didn't before.  I think I have a chance at a mostly normal life.  I'm so very excited!

Big hug! What a development, best wishes to you! Hugs, Devlyn

Quote from: Northern Jane on October 16, 2013, 06:37:18 AM
That's GREAT news!

Don't do anything in a hurry. Take your time and investigate all the possibilities before you make a decision!!!!

Personally I would want an evaluation by an  endocrinologist next. What are your hormone levels, testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone? Estrogen levels tracked for at least 30 days would be even better. Those tests will tell your endo if your ovaries are pure ovarian tissue or a combination (ova-testes) and if they are trying to function as ovaries. If they are producing estrogen and not much testosterone, they are worth hanging on to and you may even be able to have children (with a little help from medical science). If they are producing too much testosterone you may want to consider having them removed or if they are non-functional, they will have to be watched for cancer (which is a risk with unusual tissues).

If you have "some vaginal tissue" there is a possibility of a vagina being constructed that would connect with what is already there (providing there is a  cervix) but it isn't going  to be "your run of the mill sex change" and needs to be done by a specialist.

You are very lucky to have found all this out now! Forty years ago I was never properly tested and what was removed at SRS was probably ova-testes and I was 60 before I found out I have a uterus. If that was the case today, I MAY have been able to have the children I always wanted albeit by surrogate mother.

Be careful! Don't make any rash decision and don't let  anybody talk you in to anything!

I would like to add to what is said above.  If I sound like I'm preaching, please know that I'm offering suggestions in the hope you can learn from my mistakes.  Once you see the endo, ask for a referral for a QUALIFIED gynecologist.   That is going to be hard to find but the endo should be able to find one.  Between the two, they will be able to figure out the tissue composition and possibility for proper functioning of your ovaries.   The hormone levels are one way to do this but a good detailed scan (MRI or even ultrasound) will add to the accuracy.  (They can adjust the MRI scan to look at very fine details and they may not have ran the scan you had to that level of resolution.)

I would be very curious about your poorly formed male organs, particularly about the prostate.  Typically, in cases like yours, the vagina/uterus will can be attached to something and may be attached to the prostate, which can change the nature of any surgery.  It's not a bad thing or a good thing but is needed information.  Your urologist should be able to tell you this information right now. 

Once things get more put together, the gyno you find should be able to find you a qualified surgeon or surgeons.  It may end up being two surgeries: one with a gyno and one with a surgeon who does SRS who could get the nerve system correct so that sexual sensation as a woman would be there. 

Someone may suggest exploratory surgery.  Make it very clear they can look, if absolutely necessary, but they cannot take anything out – nothing.  Then, they can go over the results with you and your parents and other doctors and make a plan.  It's too easy to mess things up during an exploratory surgery.

Lastly, you are intersexed.  By law, they have to cover necessary surgeries to correct this condition.  I'll get additional information on this and post it here.   

Tears of joy for you.

Hugs,

Jen

Quote from: JLT1 on October 16, 2013, 11:19:57 AM
I would like to add to what is said above.  If I sound like I'm preaching, please know that I'm offering suggestions in the hope you can learn from my mistakes.  Once you see the endo, ask for a referral for a QUALIFIED gynecologist.   That is going to be hard to find but the endo should be able to find one.  Between the two, they will be able to figure out the tissue composition and possibility for proper functioning of your ovaries.   The hormone levels are one way to do this but a good detailed scan (MRI or even ultrasound) will add to the accuracy.  (They can adjust the MRI scan to look at very fine details and they may not have ran the scan you had to that level of resolution.)

I would be very curious about your poorly formed male organs, particularly about the prostate.  Typically, in cases like yours, the vagina/uterus will can be attached to something and may be attached to the prostate, which can change the nature of any surgery.  It's not a bad thing or a good thing but is needed information.  Your urologist should be able to tell you this information right now. 

Once things get more put together, the gyno you find should be able to find you a qualified surgeon or surgeons.  It may end up being two surgeries: one with a gyno and one with a surgeon who does SRS who could get the nerve system correct so that sexual sensation as a woman would be there. 

Someone may suggest exploratory surgery.  Make it very clear they can look, if absolutely necessary, but they cannot take anything out – nothing.  Then, they can go over the results with you and your parents and other doctors and make a plan.  It's too easy to mess things up during an exploratory surgery.

Lastly, you are intersexed.  By law, they have to cover necessary surgeries to correct this condition.  I'll get additional information on this and post it here.   

Tears of joy for you.

Hugs,

Jen

Thank you for the advice.  You seem very knowledgeable and I don't mind your advice at all.  I think I remember the urologist saying he didn't see anything that looked like a prostate.   Oh and believe me they are not going to remove anything.  I was absolutely clear with them on that.

Great news Tatyana! I'm excited for you and wish you the best of luck! :)

*HUGS*

Amy

I glad you have some good initial information on what organs you have.  Several here have given you good advice about getting opinions from several drs on details of what you have and how to go about surgery for the best results for you.  You should be the one that decides if anything is to be removed and that you want your female parts to function as normally as possible.  Insurance should cover most if not all of the cost if your case is presented correctly by the drs.  Good luck and keep us informed.

From what it looks like, it seems that you're intersexed. Even my insurance, given to me by my military father and extremely limiting on LGBT healthcare, provides full coverage for GID if you're intersexed. Consult your insurance provider, and see what they can do.
Proud of ya girl and even a little bit jelly!

Quote from: Willow on October 16, 2013, 12:20:16 PM
From what it looks like, it seems that you're intersexed. Even my insurance, given to me by my military father and extremely limiting on LGBT healthcare, provides full coverage for GID if you're intersexed. Consult your insurance provider, and see what they can do.
Proud of ya girl and even a little bit jelly!

+1 My very thoughts too, congratulations to you Tatyana!

Tatyana, I read your post previous to this, a complex situation, but still an amazing revelation. Knowing you are a girl, now you know what is physically driving that. You have excellent advice here. The choice is yours. To be almost as natural woman as possible, Wow! You have to be jumping up and down for joy! Looks like insurance can cover. Your Mom is wonderful! I am giddy Happy for you & going to start jumping after is finish typing this. As someone noted you have what probably most girls here would like, now I have misty eyes.

All the best.
Hugs
Jamie

Quote from: Tatyana on October 16, 2013, 06:07:44 AM
I had a MRI scan yesterday and it revealed that I have a uterus, overlies, Fallopian tubes and some vaginal tissue.  My male genitals are malformed and very underdeveloped.  The urologist starting talking about a hysterectomy and I came unglued. I told him in tears there was no way in hell that was ever going to happen.  He tried tried to convince me an I just screamed at him.  My mom had to calm me down.  The urologist left the exam room until I calmed down.  When he came back in he apologized for upsetting me and assured me I didn't have to do anything I was comfortable with and that there are other options.  Then we started talking SRS.  They told me my insurance probably won't pay for most of it but he said he could word it so it would pay for some of it.  My mom said they will pay what the insurance doesn't cover.  Great parents huh?  Anyway it looks like I'm going be getting a sex change thank God and hopefully a normal life.

I'm afraid that your urologist is a victim of male indoctrination.  He is male, you have a penis.  In his mind I'm sure he was thinking that "of course this person wants to be male, who wouldn't?"  He was probably very surprised and distressed at your reaction, and it probably didn't dawn on him until after he left the room that maybe you were happy with being a woman.

You might be able to avoid this by being up front with every specialist you see from now on.  Letting them know that you have female organs, you *are* a woman, and you are trying to get a birth defect reversed will probably go a long way toward preventing this kind of trauma in the future.

I'm so sorry you had to go through his reaction, but over the moon about your organs!  Congratulations!  Your mind has always been female, and now it turns out you have female organs, too!  Talk about vindication after all those years not knowing.  *hug*

*happy dance for Tatyana!*

Congrats! That's awesome news :)
I love how you handled it, too. The doctor is an idiot - I wonder how many still reccommend surgery on intersex children? It sounds like that old rag to me.

Quote from: Willow on October 16, 2013, 12:20:16 PM
From what it looks like, it seems that you're intersexed. Even my insurance, given to me by my military father and extremely limiting on LGBT healthcare, provides full coverage for GID if you're intersexed. Consult your insurance provider, and see what they can do.
Proud of ya girl and even a little bit jelly!

Yep my mom has been on the phone with my insurance provider BCBS to find out what is covered.  She spoke with the urology department this morning and they are going to classify me as interested so hopefully insurance will cover it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

Quote from: Jamiep on October 16, 2013, 12:56:26 PM
Tatyana, I read your post previous to this, a complex situation, but still an amazing revelation. Knowing you are a girl, now you know what is physically driving that. You have excellent advice here. The choice is yours. To be almost as natural woman as possible, Wow! You have to be jumping up and down for joy! Looks like insurance can cover. Your Mom is wonderful! I am giddy Happy for you & going to start jumping after is finish typing this. As someone noted you have what probably most girls here would like, now I have misty eyes.

All the best.
Hugs
Jamie

Thank you and yes I have never been so happy.  The best news I could have hoped for.  I feel very blessed and I'm so exited about the real possibility of being a normal girl or at least very close.

Quote from: Joules on October 16, 2013, 02:04:51 PM
Tatyana,

I'm curious, maybe you've answered this elsewhere, and I hope it's not too personal.  If so, just ignore me.

Have you ever had a karyotype done?  I'd love to know what it is.  a karyotype describes your DNA.  Of greatest interest are the gender chromosomes.

Hugs

No I've never had one of those.  In fact I had never heard of that until I started reading in these forums.  But that is definately in my future as I have an appointment with a geneticist as a part of all this.  But it's several weeks off.

your doctor really should have been a little kinder to you and should not have made assumptions about you. But irrespect of that, with a complete investigation of you, they should prove yoru intersex, and genital surgery should be covered by insurance. You were right about your natural inclination that your not male. Would you ever have guessed about your results. I am surprised that they did not notice this in childhood. My pediatrician almost always did an exam every other time to check the genitals.

Quote from: izzy on October 17, 2013, 06:47:04 PM
your doctor really should have been a little kinder to you and should not have made assumptions about you. But irrespect of that, with a complete investigation of you, they should prove yoru intersex, and genital surgery should be covered by insurance. You were right about your natural inclination that your not male. Would you ever have guessed about your results. I am surprised that they did not notice this in childhood. My pediatrician almost always did an exam every other time to check the genitals.

Yes it's official I am now classified as intersexed and it's now in my medical record.  My mom has been talking to my insurance and it looks like I'm covered but for exactly what we don't know yet.  It's kind of a grey area.  My parents did notice that I was different but they are really laid back people so they just accepted it and didn't worry about it.  They are really sweet but perhaps a little irresponsible.

Quote from: Tatyana on October 18, 2013, 05:42:05 AM
Yes it's official I am now classified as intersexed and it's now in my medical record.  My mom has been talking to my insurance and it looks like I'm covered but for exactly what we don't know yet.  It's kind of a grey area.  My parents did notice that I was different but they are really laid back people so they just accepted it and didn't worry about it.  They are really sweet but perhaps a little irresponsible.

Consider yourself very fortunate! I had a friend who tried to pass herself off as a post-op MtF up until we went hot tubbing together. She claimed that Toby Meltzer had done her SRS. I called her on it and she broke down in tears, because her genitalia was definitely neither male nor was it anything like Toby Meltzer or anybody else's work. She was from a broken home and had been on her own since childhood, there was no-one to help her and she suffered indignities from every quarter. Finally she was able to get SRS as a corrective surgery and move on with her life.

Your parents may have just glossed over it not wishing to create any unnecessary angst for you, be thankful for loving parents though, I would hate to see anyone suffer like that poor girl did.

Quote from: Shantel on October 18, 2013, 09:27:56 AM
Consider yourself very fortunate! I had a friend who tried to pass herself off as a post-op MtF up until we went hot tubbing together. She claimed that Toby Meltzer had done her SRS. I called her on it and she broke down in tears, because her genitalia was definitely neither male nor was it anything like Toby Meltzer or anybody else's work. She was from a broken home and had been on her own since childhood, there was no-one to help her and she suffered indignities from every quarter. Finally she was able to get SRS as a corrective surgery and move on with her life.

Your parents may have just glossed over it not wishing to create any unnecessary angst for you, be thankful for loving parents though, I would hate to see anyone suffer like that poor girl did.

There is nothing more important than your loving, supportive parents!!! Cherish them and be happy you know who you are and that they're more than OK with who you are! ♥♥

Quote from: Shantel on October 18, 2013, 09:27:56 AM
Consider yourself very fortunate! I had a friend who tried to pass herself off as a post-op MtF up until we went hot tubbing together. She claimed that Toby Meltzer had done her SRS. I called her on it and she broke down in tears, because her genitalia was definitely neither male nor was it anything like Toby Meltzer or anybody else's work. She was from a broken home and had been on her own since childhood, there was no-one to help her and she suffered indignities from every quarter. Finally she was able to get SRS as a corrective surgery and move on with her life.

Your parents may have just glossed over it not wishing to create any unnecessary angst for you, be thankful for loving parents though, I would hate to see anyone suffer like that poor girl did.

I agree.  I'm very fortunate to have my parents.  They are the best parents I could have hoped for.