fifty years.  I am a transhumanist,  I am a huge fan of Ray Kurzweil,  but I have seen little discussed by other transsexuals as to what to expect in the future for us.  Have any of you given any of this any thought, or have links to others that have discussed it.

Within fifty years I believe a true genetic sex change and accompanied induced reproductive organ regeneration will become possible. The process will also be fully reversible and therefore the need for gatekeepers and trial periods will become completely obsolete as anyone regretting the change will be able to revert.

The way I suspect that this technology will work is that a retrovirus will be engineered which can morph the desired chromasome into its counterpart by gene splicing.

In a second treatment relevant genes on other non sex chromasomes will then be epigenetically turned on or off mimicing the process which occurs in the womb during sex differentiation

Finally a third process - as yet unknown - will induce tissue to break down and regenerate so that the gametes reconfigure themselves in the appropriate form for the new gender.

Result, a true reversal of gender, and the ability for the individual to be fertile.

At the moment I will agree that most of this is sci-fi, but I am 100% confident that the technology will, one day, be available. Even now there are a few species in the world who can accomplish this sort of morph naturally, so it really is not impossible. The only thing I have doubts about is timescale. Sadly it may take longer than 50 years, but I live in hope that if make 100 I may yet live to see it happen.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091210125546.htm

Oh yeah. Well, it's not feminisation but still.

Quote from: SilverFang on February 21, 2010, 04:45:57 AM
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091210125546.htm

Oh yeah. Well, it's not feminisation but still.

Actually it is - because if you read the full paper (I have) the effect is also fully reversible - so if you switch the gene back on the morph then happens in reverse.

So testes can become ovaries and ovaries can become testes - exactly what I had in mind when I spoke of epigentic activations and deactivations.

I did, dug it up and then didn't bother to reread it.

Yep, hopefully in the near future. Not having to inject would be cool.

Also just having your own...parts. Functioning parts. I like that thought.

The science to provide complete and reversable transsexing will bring with it an entire new set of transsexuals. People who are cis and extreme hedonists will be switching sex's just for the thrill. With a reversible process you will see such a rise in transsexualism that the religious right will react by passing laws forbiding it. Those places that do not pass such laws will become filled with ->-bleeped-<-s from the religious places.
The religious right will become furious with places that allow it and this issue will drive an even bigger wedge between the left and the right.

I would like to see:

1.  SRS technique improve to virtually insure orgasms and sexual response in transsexuals
2.  SRS technique develop so FtM could have a fully functional penis
3.  Hair removal techniques improve
4.  Hormonal treatments to be developed that reverse the course of the birth hormones, so that in a MtF the hips will widen, the breasts develop and the hair disappear and the voice change within a year's treatment

I don't know if much change will be on bone work. I am not sure if the robotic body is available in 50 years but hope so, not just for look but rather for health. (also transhumanist)

When I look to the future I first ask 'who was right about the place we've got to already?'  And based on that I see the future as a merging of Phillip K. Dick and William Gibson where people exist in a state of corporate serfdom, with ever more people fighting for ever scarcer resources except for a small percentage at the top who will be afforded every luxury.  So for the corporate managerial class the finest naturally produced hormones and no doubt by then grown and harvested organs for transplant.  For the rest of us, back alley, slap-dash '->-bleeped-<- jobs' with hormones of doubtful origin.

And hey, I'm the optimist, most of my friends are much more pessimistic than I am. 

I am quite sure that Mr. Dick had the concept of 'kibble' down pat and that's going to be a huge part of our world.  Dick's saw a world that at the bottom, street-level, ground-level was basically a huge trashheap.  It wasn't a problem of a few places, it was basically the entire ground area, the first few floors of every building.  Though Dick never said why that was to happen, I think I figured it out (saw what he saw) and I'm watching it come true.

The whole biology thing might matter a whole lot less as more or less everything becomes more a replica than an original in terms of most things - not just gender. 

I wouldn't be surprised if they will be able to create uterus in 20-30 years (hopefully less):

http://www.economist.com/science-technology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15543683

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/anthony_atala_growing_organs_engineering_tissue.html