I was at a Navy Maintenance Symposium last week and walked into a restroom during one of the breaks.
Suddenly I heard a loud man's voice, and my heart jumped into my throat, beating wildly. Then I realized it was just an announcement over the PA system and that there was a speaker in the ladies room.
It wasn't a thinking thing, it was visceral. 7 years postop, and my body has to know it's female to have reacted so immediately and violently to the possibility of having walked into the wrong restroom. Amazing.
The body knows.
Robyn