So after reading that the Super model Hanne Gaby Odiele is intersex and her family and doctor made her have "corrective" surgeries well after when I thought the practice had been stopped.  I am curious about a surgery I had when I was very young, couple with some of the descriptions of what happens with hormone treatment and ejaculation.

I have always ejaculated very lightly, never producing much at all, and fitting the description that people have put on here.  Anyway, the surgery was, according to my parents, for a hernia when I was about 2-3 years old.  The scar went all the way across my abdomen, the scar has now been completely obscured by excess weight.  I would really like to have some assistance in finding a way to get those records and find out for sure.  They would be 40 years old at this point, so I am assuming those records have been destroyed.

It just made me a bit curious about whether or not I am intersex.

Quote from: Artesia on January 23, 2017, 01:31:37 PM
So after reading that the Super model Hanne Gaby Odiele is intersex and her family and doctor made her have "corrective" surgeries well after when I thought the practice had been stopped.  I am curious about a surgery I had when I was very young, couple with some of the descriptions of what happens with hormone treatment and ejaculation.

I have always ejaculated very lightly, never producing much at all, and fitting the description that people have put on here.  Anyway, the surgery was, according to my parents, for a hernia when I was about 2-3 years old.  The scar went all the way across my abdomen, the scar has now been completely obscured by excess weight.  I would really like to have some assistance in finding a way to get those records and find out for sure.  They would be 40 years old at this point, so I am assuming those records have been destroyed.

It just made me a bit curious about whether or not I am intersex.

Hi Artesia,

I am XX intersex, and my parents had me 'assigned' as male, and forced an unwelcome FTM transition on me as an infant and child. My scars were explained away as hernia operations. My ejaculate was always clear and not especially copious.

The practice at the time was to do the surgeries, destroy the evidence, and pretend everything was hunky-dory. You may be able to get your birth records from the hospital where you were born, but you will have to call them, since most hospitals have transferred their records to digital records keeping facilities run by third parties. You may also find information with your pediatrician's office, or the offices of your mother's general practitioner and/or ob/gyn..

Good luck with your quest!

Missy

The hospital that I was born in has been demolished for a decade, though it moved to a new/bigger facility before being knocked down.  My pediatrician is long deceased, and his practice has been gone for a long time, he ran it till he passed, it is now a "pain management" practice.  We did change Doctors several times too.  Thanks for a starting point though, I will make calls starting tomorrow.

Quote from: Artesia on January 23, 2017, 01:31:37 PM
So after reading that the Super model Hanne Gaby Odiele is intersex and her family and doctor made her have "corrective" surgeries well after when I thought the practice had been stopped.  I am curious about a surgery I had when I was very young, couple with some of the descriptions of what happens with hormone treatment and ejaculation.

I have always ejaculated very lightly, never producing much at all, and fitting the description that people have put on here.  Anyway, the surgery was, according to my parents, for a hernia when I was about 2-3 years old.  The scar went all the way across my abdomen, the scar has now been completely obscured by excess weight.  I would really like to have some assistance in finding a way to get those records and find out for sure.  They would be 40 years old at this point, so I am assuming those records have been destroyed.

It just made me a bit curious about whether or not I am intersex.

Good luck on your search.  Unfortunately for a lot of hard copy records its really hit or miss.  If the health care facility it was done at is still around, maybe they converted all notes in a patient's chart to their online records when they went to an electronic medical record.

You will not know what's available until you try but one of the solutions you might come up against is many records were converted to microfilm in order to conserve space. This would be more common in a place like a hospital than a small practice because of the cost of converting that many records.

Well, finally went through all the, possible, involved parties.  No records exist for me from that time.  Where to go from here?  How do I find out for sure?  Not even the birth records.  All I have is my birth certificate. 

Well - how much does it matter? I doubt anyone keeps records for 40 years. I have not even bothered to try. I am now 42, so its been pretty much 40 years since they gave me some surgery that left two scars that run now parallel to my GRS scars. My mom tells me it was a hernia surgery and I think that she would have told me if she would know any different at any point since I came out to her as "trans" about 20 years ago. So if it was something fishy, it was probably hidden from my parents as well. But in the end - I guess it does not really matter anymore. I am who I am now - so...

Quote from: anjaq on February 20, 2017, 05:37:26 PM
Well - how much does it matter? I doubt anyone keeps records for 40 years. I have not even bothered to try. I am now 42, so its been pretty much 40 years since they gave me some surgery that left two scars that run now parallel to my GRS scars. My mom tells me it was a hernia surgery and I think that she would have told me if she would know any different at any point since I came out to her as "trans" about 20 years ago. So if it was something fishy, it was probably hidden from my parents as well. But in the end - I guess it does not really matter anymore. I am who I am now - so...

I am going on 44 this year.  As to how much it matters.....good question.  I just really would like to know what they really did, I Guess.  It would explain a lot of my younger awkwardness, maybe even give my family a place to start in comprehending what I am doing.  In the end, it probably doesn't matter, sometimes I just want to know, you know?

Sure. I think I would like to know as well - it would give some explanation. But then - things would not change, really. Except maybe one thing - if I ever manage to find a partner, I could possibly honestly say I was born intersexed, which carries still much less stigma than having to say one is trans-something. Sad, but this is what apparently still is in the heads of many.

Had an Endo appointment today, and she doesn't think anything about my story would mean intersex, in her opinion.

Is there a reason why you can't get tested to confirm it?

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

VA doesn't want to spend the money on the test is my guess.  My insurance isn't going to do that test either.  They refuse any transgender operations/procedures.  My biggest problem is my facial hair, if I could get rid of that I would feel a lot better.  At least I don't have to shave twice a day anymore, if I could turn it into once a month like my wife I would probably be okay with it.

Quote from: Artesia on March 01, 2017, 05:12:04 PM
Had an Endo appointment today, and she doesn't think anything about my story would mean intersex, in her opinion.

Yeah - its not really anything concrete - maybe a 5% chance or less that there is "something" and even then its another question what exactly - having something like "MAIS" or even some mosaic sydrome does not change a whole lot. The more severe intersex conditions would all show more clearly with ambiguous genitalia or strong hormonal abnormalities or pain as reaction to hormones and/or 28-day-cycles

Got to read my Endos note about our discussion.  She apparently didn't understand that I was talking about preHRT and was saying the loss of semen was normal and not to worry about it.  I'll ask my regular doctor when I see her next.

I tried to obtain my medical records but they did not keep them from that far back so i could not get any information about me. I have to rely on my fathers memory.

Records do have a habit of going away, or displaying false information, often to protect the reputations of the parents. I tried to find out about my records, and came across several problems. The first, being that my name had been changed a couple times, starting with my adoption after my father tried to kill me at 3 months old. Even after I provided proof of whom I was at birth, they told me that everything was ordinary. I knew that was wrong, because even my baby pictures show me looking like a girl.

I hope you have better luck than I did.

Talking with my Therapist about it, she said that, even in the 70's, a hernia operation shouldn't have left a scar all the way across my abdomen.  That was the only bit of insight she could give me.  She suggested talking to my doctor or family about it.

Yes that sounds strange that it is all across the abdomen. Mine are about 8 cm each on both sides of the abdomen, but do not join in the middle. So I guess that is still very well possible that it is what they say it is. But I was told even in regular hernia surgeries, it can be that they take out some more - like misplaced crippled organs that happen to be in those areas where the testes sit before they descend. Who knows - I guess it does not matter anymore, really. When I transitioned almost 2 decades ago, I was looking for such things more, in order to validate my feelings and to a degree to distance myself from the transgender group in which I met so many people that I saw as weird and perceived as quite masculine in appearance and behaviours and I felt different from many of them, so I was looking for a reason for that. But I just think now that - physical intersex issues or not - there are just different kinds of people with gender issues and I do not have to accept being put into one basket with those that stick out uncomfortably - its their own thing and i am myself.

Talked to my mom about the surgery.  Now it is no longer a Hernia Surgery, now it is a Hydrocele Surgery.  The research I've done on that is an incision below the scrotum, my scar was near where they go for doing a C-section.  Now I'm even more confused about what was going on.

Quote from: Artesia on March 29, 2017, 04:59:03 PM
Talked to my mom about the surgery.  Now it is no longer a Hernia Surgery, now it is a Hydrocele Surgery.  The research I've done on that is an incision below the scrotum, my scar was near where they go for doing a C-section.  Now I'm even more confused about what was going on.

I had a bilateral hydocele repair done when I was about 12. The incisions are just up from and slightly to each side of my genitals, on the pubis. Any further up the body and you are way too far away  An ex partner who had only one repaired had his scar in almost exactly the same place as mine.