Susan's Place Transgender Resources

If you were offered a brain surgery so you could turn cis, would you undergo it? If you undergoes the brain surgery, your mind would be changed, not whats between your legs. Then your mind would match your anatomy/biological sex. That means a trans woman gets a male brain and a trans man gets a female brain. If you're a non-binary, you would stop being it and turn a binary-gender - that one that match your sex.
(Btw, I know it doesn't exist brain surgeries that can change your gender "gender change" - literally. But this is just a mind game just for fun)

(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/d3/ea/08/d3ea08faee2e18175860c0ae553b0ea6.jpg)
(Illustration from pinterest.com)

No.  The essence of me is in my mind.  So what you propose would be no different than suicide.  While I have in fact considered that option in the past, I really do not want to die.

Not to make me cis, but if they could take away my GD, then I'd be the first under the surgeons knife.

Not a chance.  The real me is that voice in the back of my head that I've been ignoring for the past 61 years.  I like that person and I want to be her.  Well, I already am her, but I want to set her free.  I agree with Deborah that getting rid of that voice would be like suicide.  No, it is transition or bust for me.

No.

Doing that, making such a basic change to my mental structure, would mean that whoever wakes from the surgery wouldn't be me.  That person might have access to my memories, but would have a very different personality, behavior, and mannerisms.  I would be dead.

It is really nothing more than a socially acceptable form of suicide, destroying me and replacing me with a socially conforming simulacrum.  I'm sure such a 'cure' would make certain parts of our transphobic culture very happy, certainly happier than sharing a bathroom with one of us.  I'm not sure it would actually be ethical.

Not in a snowball's chance in h***.  Besides the fact that I am quite paranoid of needles, my mind is what I value most.  Sure my outside may not match what I see in my head, but there is no way a person is going to "lobotomize" the only good and valuable aspect I have.

If brain surgery ever becomes that advanced, just think of how advanced and attractive an option surgical and medicated transition would become.

On the back of that alone, no chance.

No way would I ever do that.

Yep; in a heartbeat. I'm quite fem so I'd fit in being female. Plus I'd have the added benefit of lived experience as a trans person; so I'd still be accepting of LGBTQ people. I'd still have the personality I have now. For me it's easiest option; without the hassle of medication or surgeries or fear of transphobia

Nope. No chance in hell. I have totally adapted to being a woman, and without any T, I can gladly say brain surgery would be pointless.

No, because my soul is male and male it will stay. I'm convinced that's better for me to be male and will never feel any differently.

Made this choice once before, Take T or take E

I feel I'm blessed to live two lives in a lifetime. There is nothing wrong with my brain I am the third gender ....and so happy to now accept that.

Not a chance!  I consider being trans a gift I've been given, kind of like Joni Mitchell's, "I've looked at life from both sides now..."  It's not something I want to give away.

I would never undergo that form of "gender change" aka. brain surgery to make my mind match what I was assigned at birth. Being trans is difficult sometimes and sometime I wished I was a cis guy. But I wouldn't change my brain to female, it's change who I'm as a person - like a society accepted suicide. I rather have things like it's today than undergo that.

It's funny that I came in ready to say I would never do that.  As I was reading comments, I completely changed my tune.  I don't plan on getting any surgeries, because If possible, I like to avoid them.  But, if that surgery existed, I think I'd have to do it.  The primary thing keeping me from suicide is worry about my family.  If a similar person, would take my place, I would jump at that opportunity.  I've wanted to check out since I was 12, just having that method to do it would be a big relief.

I say no! Sorry to any trans men reading this but staying in a guy's body, yuk!
I want the surgery like the one in Young Frankenstein. Set one table up with a trans woman and the other up with a trans man and hit "the third switch!" Presto chango, everyone is happy.
Moni

PS "Put the candle back."

No.  I am unique the way that I am.  Why would I give up being unique to be just another guy?

I don't even really dislike the body I have.  It's actually a pretty good one.  It's just not the right one for my mind.

Quote from: Deborah on July 28, 2016, 02:06:59 PM
I don't even really dislike the body I have.  It's actually a pretty good one.  It's just not the right one for my mind.

Yup.  My chassis is OK.  I just need to tweak the accessories a bit.  ;)

It's far easier to make a few changes to my body than to rewire a few trillion interconnections in the brain.  Plus, I get to be me, not something fabricated to keep the transphobes happy.

Not a chance. Becoming a conformist drone? not for me.

Reminds me of a lobotomy.

No.

So this is a prose in which would make us not feel the way we do. I would not do this as it wouldn't be me waking up, but someone else waking up from the end result. In theory, it would be a way to "cure" gender dysphoria, but it would only exacerbate an issue of morality and scientific discovery.

Questions in which would stem is would we remember what we once were or would it be memories superimposed by the brain implant? Would it be some intertwining of memories from the old or new from the previous life of whose brain it was? Or even would it be sorta like hitting the reset button and thus bring in line an infancy sort of mindset in which has to grow into the new body.

Kate <3
Always remember to smile your face

No because if my brain was changed to identify as female I think id be a different person and I cant imagine who id be. Its like a jackpot to me

Not in a lifetime. I'm as proud trans woman and I have no issue with it. It's our society that cannot accept who we are, they need brain surgery not us.

-J


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

No. I'd rather be a trans woman than a cis man.

Nope. My head got worked on enough during my childhood and teen years. So....nah.

Quote from: HappyMoni on July 28, 2016, 12:25:47 PM
I say no! Sorry to any trans men reading this but staying in a guy's body, yuk!
I want the surgery like the one in Young Frankenstein. Set one table up with a trans woman and the other up with a trans man and hit "the third switch!" Presto chango, everyone is happy.
Moni

PS "Put the candle back."

This is spot on so i will borrow this :D

So nope would never take that surgery.

Okay, so all it does is take away the dysphoria, and leaves everything else intact? In a heartbeat. My entire personality does NOT revolve around my gender.

Quote from: Katiepie on July 28, 2016, 09:10:25 PM
So this is a prose in which would make us not feel the way we do. I would not do this as it wouldn't be me waking up, but someone else waking up from the end result. In theory, it would be a way to "cure" gender dysphoria, but it would only exacerbate an issue of morality and scientific discovery.

Questions in which would stem is would we remember what we once were or would it be memories superimposed by the brain implant? Would it be some intertwining of memories from the old or new from the previous life of whose brain it was? Or even would it be sorta like hitting the reset button and thus bring in line an infancy sort of mindset in which has to grow into the new body.

Kate <3
Always remember to smile your face

You would still have memories, if the surgery goes right. But you would become a cis man instead of a trans woman. So you wouldn't identify yourself as a woman anymore and you would feel the male body is correct, post-surgery. You might also risk getting a difference thinking pattern. It exist male and female brains, where they thinks difference etc.

Quote from: Rafaela on July 29, 2016, 04:58:46 AM
Okay, so all it does is take away the dysphoria, and leaves everything else intact? In a heartbeat. My entire personality does NOT revolve around my gender.

You would still keep some of the personality. E.g. which hobbies, color, food etc. that's your favorites. But how your thinking pattern is might change with the brain surgery. Because male and female brains are difference etc. Therefor men and women thinks and acts difference. E.g. a trans woman who receive a male structured brain instead might think in a more masculine way and get some male habits/behavior.

No, I'd take dysphoria and not transitioning over being male.

I first read your question as 'be cis in my actual gender' which could have meaning in terms of socialization and not having to unlearn male privilege etc.

Why fix what is not broken. Why change when there is no need. Why conform for others. No i would not change who i am for society. Because being a individual that faces different challenges in life makes me better than someone who will never face or understand what it like to be. Such to help society grow from are experience, rather than conform so society will not have to deal with change. There for society would never progress if we changed who we were, even though were not broken. Were just a little misaligned so we just adjust what we can and try to adapt. It may be a harder life but one with more experience and feelings than just a average person.

Quote from: Sebby Michelango on July 28, 2016, 07:56:47 AM
If you were offered a brain surgery so you could turn cis, would you undergo it? If you undergoes the brain surgery, your mind would be changed, not whats between your legs. Then your mind would match your anatomy/biological sex. That means a trans woman gets a male brain and a trans man gets a female brain. If you're a non-binary, you would stop being it and turn a binary-gender - that one that match your sex.
(Btw, I know it doesn't exist brain surgeries that can change your gender "gender change" - literally. But this is just a mind game just for fun)

(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/d3/ea/08/d3ea08faee2e18175860c0ae553b0ea6.jpg)
(Illustration from pinterest.com)

Not in this case. my mind is what made me. But if brain surgery means my brain get placed into a cisbody. possible.

No, nope, no. My mind is fine, I'd rather the body be the one that changes completely. And since I don't want anyone else's body but my own, then here is home. I feel if that surgery were even possible, it wouldn't last long. We would always have a deep, untouchable and inherent way of knowing who we were, and that would cause way worse problems. It's like when you fall down some stairs and hit your head. You wake up and you know you have the ability to talk, walk, stand, etc, but you lose that ability to access those skills for a time to even communicate to others you're fine when you're not. Essentially, I'd see changes to my brain as LITERALLY being in prison. My brain has become something else, and who I am, is silently screaming and fighting to be heard, yet I've lost the ability to even bring that into the conscious world subconsiously. I would essentially be a droid of who I was.

Maybe in the past I would have said yes but not anymore. Granted, I self-loathed way too much so I wouldn't have mind being someone else. But in a different mental state, I don't think I would want to be someone else which changing my brain technically would do.

And I presume you are implying the brain surgery is 100% guaranteed to work no problems in this hypothetical situation, because if not definitely would not go for brain surgery!

As a hypothetical question it's sort of the same as "if you could wake up cis tomorrow would you want to". I think more people answered that one with yes than here, maybe the idea of actually tampering with your brain is what puts people off the most. I sure don't like the idea of my brain being tampered with. I know even minute damage to the brain can cause drastic changes to how a person outputs things or perceives things. Someone I know had a small berry aneurysm and the result messed up their sex life because it changed something - although they aren't sure what - in the way their brain felt stimulation. They also became dyslexic.The idea of "surgery" on the brain screams "damage" to it, and rightly so, probably.

Being a cis male is something i dont want so already no, And having some one mess with my brain when its not necessary is a definite no.

The very idea of some medical intervention to take people's transness away -- I don't have words to express just how creepy and horrifying and dystopic that is.  Sure, some of us might wish it (the way some of us might wish for the courage to end our misery by ending our lives), but once we've let the devil out of the bottle, what's to stop the Guardians of Cisnormativity from doing it to the rest of us, all in the oh-so-noble cause of supposedly making us "happier"?  Actually, more convenient for them.  (Anybody remember Brave New World?)

Our transness is nothing but an example of the natural and normal variation you find in any healthy population, but which has been pathologized by the small-minded people who insist that reality has to fit into their narrow little categories.  ("If Reality doesn't fit into my idea of how things are, it's Reality that's wrong, not me.")  It's bad enough that transphobic cis people think that our essential natures need to be eradicated, why do we have to buy into their bigotry?

To quote Jazz Jennings:

Quote from: Jazz Jennings
... for me, being transgender isn't a deep, dark secret.  I don't mind telling people, I think I'm great just the way I am, and so are you.

I'm still struggling with the "I'm great" part for myself (a lifetime of being told you're a queer, a freak, and that there's something really wrong with you will do that to you), but hers is the attitude I aspire to.

As far as the disclosure issue is concerned:Aside from a possible romantic partner or a doctor, it's nobody's business. It's not my responsibility to educate the ignorant dullards out there. If they can't be bothered to educate themselves. That is their problem and not mine.

Being trans is nothing more than a medical issue to me. When it comes to that and talking about it. I could say: "Well, take your pick. Which one would you like to talk about?", since I have more than a few things to deal with. But, I don't. Because I don't feel like discussing it with strangers (or my family for that matter).

I would cause being trans sucks...among other things that would be too inappropriate for the members here to even discuss, so I won't even go there. >.>

Quote from: Tristyn on July 31, 2016, 05:14:02 PM
I would cause being trans sucks...among other things that would be too inappropriate for the members here to even discuss, so I won't even go there. >.>

I would respect your opinion. I'm fine with people feels comfortable about the brain surgery thought and that they find being transgender difficult.

Not a chance in hell. My body and my mind are one and the same, I'm fully a man and yes I have this body. I'm not the first one in history, either.

It's a fairly recent thing, some 2000 years in the last 80000 years of the existence of gender that someone said (in a pervasive and culturally bullying way) that there is only two options. Basically the currently widespread model says that there are only two right combos, XX-woman and XY-man. Everything else must be a bad moral choice or if you can't help it then it must be a medical condition. Sorry but this is just a recent and local (very disruptive) cultural view that went aggressively viral with colonisation.

Quote from: Asche on July 31, 2016, 08:18:00 AM
Our transness is nothing but an example of the natural and normal variation you find in any healthy population, but which has been pathologized by the small-minded people who insist that reality has to fit into their narrow little categories.  ("If Reality doesn't fit into my idea of how things are, it's Reality that's wrong, not me.")  It's bad enough that transphobic cis people think that our essential natures need to be eradicated, why do we have to buy into their bigotry?

Exactly.

I would say yes, I'd have the brain surgery. After all, I've had lots of surgery etc... trying to get my body to be more female. If I could have skipped all that and just ditched the dysphoria? Hell yes!
Would have been easier on my family too.

Nope


     Hugs,
- Katie
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No. Partly because I think the way I am lets me see both sides of the gender equation and I value that very much. I can relate to men and women equally. The other reason is everything Asche said. Diversity is good and healthy for a society.

B

I am perfectly fine with taking medication to change some of my brain chemistry, since that is what depression medication is doing. What I'm not okay with is changing the actual brain matter in my head, since that is what makes me who I am. I may be flawed, but I don't want to just erase myself even if my replacement is less flawed than I am.

Hi, I'm Chris from Sweden and joined today. 48YO, 16mts on HRT, 2 Step FFS, pre op for GRA and BA.

When I think about that question I would always have said: "No way folks, I am what I am". I'm passing quite well, but looking back to all the struggle that I had and still have, It's worth to discuss. I sometimes feel like a restless hunter for feminity, fearing that I will always be a 3rd class girl with a quite female face (at least with some make up) but a doorkeeper's back. Endless time at the voice training and still I feel it's so hard to learn all that stuff that natural girls learn from childhood on, the walking, the moving of the hands, the gestures, the style , the choice of fashion, make-up in all variations, making the hair, the way of flattering,  the solidarity among girls, all that stuff.

I don't want to go back to a male's life since this is - in my point of view - so limited. But I'm not proud to be trans, my transition was more some kind of emergency action since I had the choice between making that transition or killing myself. I would prefer a brain surgery that gives me full consciousness about the fact that I always have been a CIS-girl. Life would be so much easier.

Quote from: Chris Gothenburg on August 04, 2016, 02:13:42 PM
Hi, I'm Chris from Sweden and joined today. 48YO, 16mts on HRT, 2 Step FFS, pre op for GRA and BA.

When I think about that question I would always have said: "No way folks, I am what I am". I'm passing quite well, but looking back to all the struggle that I had and still have, It's worth to discuss. I sometimes feel like a restless hunter for feminity, fearing that I will always be a 3rd class girl with a quite female face (at least with some make up) but a doorkeeper's back. Endless time at the voice training and still I feel it's so hard to learn all that stuff that natural girls learn from childhood on, the walking, the moving of the hands, the gestures, the style , the choice of fashion, make-up in all variations, making the hair, the way of flattering,  the solidarity among girls, all that stuff.

I don't want to go back to a male's life since this is - in my point of view - so limited. But I'm not proud to be trans, my transition was more some kind of emergency action since I had the choice between making that transition or killing myself. I would prefer a brain surgery that gives me full consciousness about the fact that I always have been a CIS-girl. Life would be so much easier.

Hej Chris! Welcome to the forum, in fact "Hej hej hemskt mycket hej!"
I can really connect with some of what you say:

"I sometimes feel like a restless hunter for feminity, fearing that I will always be a 3rd class girl with a quite female face (at least with some make up) but a doorkeeper's back. Endless time at the voice training and still I feel it's so hard to learn all that stuff that natural girls learn from childhood on, the walking, the moving of the hands, the gestures, the style , the choice of fashion, make-up in all variations, making the hair, the way of flattering,  the solidarity among girls, all that stuff. I had the choice between making that transition or killing myself."

I could have written that about myself! I guess many of us have similar journeys and struggles.

I agree with Tristyn up there, being Trans sucks. I'm constantly nothing but miserable, I hate my life almost every minute, and I'm always so sure I'll never be able to come out and be stuck feeling this way my whole life.

But even so I would never want this part of me taken away. It's so ridiculous as my life has become so hard since realizing I was trans, but I would never change that fact even for a second. I may hate myself a good amount of the time as I said, but at the same time I love the thought and image of who I'm really meant to be, like a warm fire in the center of my body when I'm really thinking on it. I never want that to go away. I never want to lost the possibility of feeling that every minute of every day.

No, because we are more than just the product of our physical parts. My life experiences, my accumulated knowledge, my emotional and spiritual depth is not something I'm willing to part with, especially not in exchange for being cis in a body that I currently despise. My GD is part of my identity, and my path is to learn how to overcome it and become my true self. It's not just about the goal, it's about the journey.

I'd have said yes until relatively recently, but not anymore. No way. I don't even know why, since I've not socially transitioned and I'm not entirely happy with it all, but there's something about being trans that I've come to appreciate. I can't figure it out.

No I wouldn't want to. My mum has asked me this same question before and prayed for me to change my mind (she is Christian) but to change this would basically be completely changing who I am as a person. Which feels like it would just be killing me off and putting a new person in my body.

No way in hell. If I did that, I wouldn't be myself anymore.

Quote from: Reyes on August 04, 2016, 05:13:31 PM
I agree with Tristyn up there, being Trans sucks. I'm constantly nothing but miserable, I hate my life almost every minute, and I'm always so sure I'll never be able to come out and be stuck feeling this way my whole life.

But even so I would never want this part of me taken away. It's so ridiculous as my life has become so hard since realizing I was trans, but I would never change that fact even for a second. I may hate myself a good amount of the time as I said, but at the same time I love the thought and image of who I'm really meant to be, like a warm fire in the center of my body when I'm really thinking on it. I never want that to go away. I never want to lost the possibility of feeling that every minute of every day.

I hated myself worse before I could put a name on being transgender, before that I just thought that I was a "strange woman" with bad social skills and problems relating to other women. Then I came back to the realization I had before my early teens that I wanted to grow up to be a man.

Quote from: Laura_Squirrel on July 31, 2016, 04:05:47 PM
As far as the disclosure issue is concerned:Aside from a possible romantic partner or a doctor, it's nobody's business. It's not my responsibility to educate the ignorant dullards out there. If they can't be bothered to educate themselves. That is their problem and not mine.

Being trans is nothing more than a medical issue to me. When it comes to that and talking about it. I could say: "Well, take your pick. Which one would you like to talk about?", since I have more than a few things to deal with. But, I don't. Because I don't feel like discussing it with strangers (or my family for that matter).

This is good, but for me it also feels like a spiritual transformation and when asked to explain to people who have no information I just tell them it's an inborn medical problem and I was born with the brain of a male, and that this feels like a spiritual transition to me as much as a medical one.