Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I have always had a ridge, or what actually looks like a scar, which runs along the middle my perineum from the anus to the scrotum. Does anyone have an opinion, similar condition, or knowledge of this condition?

That's the perineal raphe.  Everyone's got it, to varying degrees of visibility.

Lia

Thank you Lia. Good to know.
Debbie

Debbie, mine's actually gotten more noticeable on HRT than before. I never noticed it before and now it's dark and easy to see. Strange indeed.

It tends to get darker and more defined with HRT...

Hmm, maybe that's a way of letting the doctors know where to cut down there when the time comes, lol. I know, they don't cut there, just sounded funny to me for some reason!

I've seen transsexual women using this to claim that they were really intersex and had been "sewn up" as infants, and the operation hushed up. Color me skeptical.

Mine is more noticeable too since HRT, much darker and raised... it's almost like it the
same tissue as breast tissue and is affected by hormones... I wonder if it is and our
scrotum would have been part of our labia/clitoris if we had not been so tragically mis-formed.

Amanda

Quote from: Hypatia on April 23, 2008, 09:36:56 AM
I've seen transsexual women using this to claim that they were really intersex and had been "sewn up" as infants, and the operation hushed up. Color me skeptical.

Yes, I hoped that for a lot of years before I heard anyone else even talk about it.  Mine has always been rather pronounced, and sometimes even uncomfortable.  But yes, that would have been too good to be true.

(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fganjataz.com%2F01smileys%2Fimages%2Fsmileys%2FloopyBlonde-blinking.gif&hash=4545ddf8251cf9c32ae6074d56e48bc34a755857)Kristi

I would hope in our community we'd be well informed about genital anatomy. All fetuses are female to begin with; everyone started with the same vaginal and labia tissue when the fetus's organs were first formed. It's only subsequent hormonal switches that cause male anatomy to develop, the fusing of the fetal vagina into that line you saw, and the fusing of the labia to form a scrotum. If this is evidence of intersex, then hell, all males are intersex!

Maybe the estrogen reawakens a faint cellular memory in that line where the fetal vaginal opening used to be, as if it yearns to reopen to its original state.

It's like the doors of Moria in The Lord of the Rings-- at first they were shut so tightly that no crack between them could be seen-- but once the magic word was spoken--

QuoteThen silently a great doorway was outlined, though not a crack or joint had been visible before. Slowly it divided in the middle and swung outwards inch by inch, until both doors lay back against the wall.

Makes quite a metaphor for SRS, eh...

QuoteAll fetuses are female to begin with; everyone started with the same vaginal and labia tissue when the fetus's organs were first formed. It's only subsequent hormonal switches that cause male anatomy to develop, the fusing of the fetal vagina into that line you saw, and the fusing of the labia to form a scrotum.

I thought that might be true... that's pretty awesome really :)

Amanda

Quote from: Kristi on April 23, 2008, 10:13:42 AM

Quote from: Hypatia on April 23, 2008, 09:36:56 AM
I've seen transsexual women using this to claim that they were really intersex and had been "sewn up" as infants, and the operation hushed up. Color me skeptical.

Yes, I hoped that for a lot of years before I heard anyone else even talk about it.  Mine has always been rather pronounced, and sometimes even uncomfortable.  But yes, that would have been too good to be true.

(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fganjataz.com%2F01smileys%2Fimages%2Fsmileys%2FloopyBlonde-blinking.gif&hash=4545ddf8251cf9c32ae6074d56e48bc34a755857)Kristi

Ditto.

I have a fairly pronounced penile raphe as well.  It actually does look like it was a bad sewing job   :-\   For the longest time I thought that it was a sign that I wasn't a boy.

This was something I always wonder about but never dared to ask. Thanks DebbieAnne for asking this question.


Anna


Add this link to this post.
http://www.isna.org/faq/conditions/raphe (http://www.isna.org/faq/conditions/raphe)

Mine is also darker and more raised since HRT.

gina

Quote from: Princess on May 24, 2008, 05:22:52 PM
does it do that because it's trying to represent a vulva?

QuoteMaybe the estrogen reawakens a faint cellular memory in that line where the fetal vaginal opening used to be, as if it yearns to reopen to its original state.

(pardon the anthropomorphizing of tissue)

And I thought I was the only one, mine is very dark almost red but is hidden, my skin folds over it and the part on where my scrotal sac is the same, (my testis never dropped) so if you look under my penis it almost look like inner labia hanging out. It makes a way cool place to tuck myself, something I just recently learned to do :)

I just checked and wow, my line is quite dark, prominent, and sharply defined. Was it the estrogen that did that or had it been that way already? I think the effect was produced by estrogen. Amazing. This is a phenomenon that could only have been discovered via transseuxalism.

Now it is interesting.  Upon further inspection, mine is also.  It would make for an interesting study in to if this is unique to MtF TS, or do bio males have the same thing because of some intervening event.

I never thought of it before.

Janet

Here is something found a while in the wiki.

QuoteThe line that runs down the underside of the penis and down the middle of the scrotum, the peno-scrotal raphe (where the urogenital folds fused early in the womb), will darken.

https://www.susans.org/wiki/Hormone_replacement_therapy_(male-to-female)
Under Urogynecological effects.

My has darken quite a bit since hrt.

Anna

Yeah, same with mine.  Mine isn't just on the perineal area though, it runs all the way up.  I know it's normal though.  I think I did a post on this a while back when I first started noticing it.

Quote from: Hypatia on April 23, 2008, 09:36:56 AM
I've seen transsexual women using this to claim that they were really intersex and had been "sewn up" as infants, and the operation hushed up. Color me skeptical.

Unfortunately though, I've heard that this actually happens.
Ive wanted to see some data on how common such procedures actually were.
But from what I've seen from the medical field, if someone was in any way 'male' it is my understanding that it used to be standard procedure to 'make' them male.
Even if they were 90% female on the inside..
I've been called 'male' by a government doctor for having a 'scrotum'.
No penis or testes, but a 'scrotum'.
"women don't have that'" he said.
Never mind the fact that men don't [usually, FTM's and other's excepted] get periods or have female parts...
"women don't have a scrotum"
Gives you some idea of how sexist and misogynistic the medical profession can be.
They act like being a woman is a bad thing.
Like who on earth would want to be a woman when they could be considered "male".
I think Julia Serano nailed it on the head in her book 'Whipping Girl'.
It's not just fear of GenderQueer people, it's fear of women.
And of being feminine for that matter.

-Sara

i know it happened to me... It was common in the 80s... when the medical profession followed Dr Money's word on the subject... of how nurture surpassed nature...

I belive the practice ended in the early 90s...