I would NEVER choose to be female...cause obviously I'm male, and would never want to be female. I would choose to zap my body into being fully male and be happy with it, but never zap my brain to be female. I don't like being trans, but it's not a choice, and I'd rather fight to be the man I know I am than live unhappily in a gender that isn't me.

Quote from: Carson on April 15, 2010, 08:59:02 AM
If I could take a pill to make me a bio-male, yes.

If I could take a pill to make me a cisgender female, then no.

THIS

I would much rather change my body than change my personality.

Quote from: Greg on April 15, 2010, 11:20:07 AM
I would much rather change my body than change my personality.

Agreed.

If I could take a magic pill that caused my brain to match my body...  If I would become a comfortable, well-adjusted female with a great female body...

My answer is yes, I would do it.

Here's why. 

As a transguy, my mind doesn't match my body.  I do a lot of thinking about my situation, and I still don't know if it's my mind that is wrong or my body that is wrong.  One of them doesn't match the other, and unfortunately for my body I think with my mind, and my mind has decided that it is right and my body is wrong.  But if I could take a pill that would match my mind to my body, that would fix everything. 

Being trans isn't a part of my personality.  It doesn't matter if I'm a cisgirl, cisguy, transguy, or transgirl.  However I am, I am still me.  The only difference is that as a cisgirl or cisguy I would be satisfied with my body and my mind.

You are all forgetting that even though you don't want to be stuck in the body you were born with, if you were no longer trans you would be happy.  Think about it.  I don't want to be a girl, but if I took that pill and my mind was changed, I wouldn't be an unhappy girl.  Memories of being an unhappy, dysphoric transguy would just be that: memories.  Just like memories of being depressed after breaking up with someone I loved.  I don't feel that way anymore!  I'm happy without him.

I know I'm going to get a lot of ->-bleeped-<- for this, but this is just what makes sense to me.  Being trans is a source of so much pain, so much discrimination, so much conflict.  Transition is treatment for gender dysphoria.  Having your mind and body suddenly magically match up would be a cure.

Quote from: LucienOctopus on April 15, 2010, 01:18:07 PMYou are all forgetting that even though you don't want to be stuck in the body you were born with, if you were no longer trans you would be happy.

I think the main reason a lot of us are saying that we wouldn't change our minds is that then we would no longer be US. Changing your brain changes who you are. Maybe you wouldn't have to deal with the dysphoria or pain that comes with being trans, but you would not be the same person even if you don't define yourself as trans.

I would choose to be cisgender in a heartbeat. But I would never give up being gay.

However, to be happy as a female? Uh, no. I'm male.

Lucien - are you saying you think you would still be you, if you were a girl? Because I wouldn't.

I wouldn't dispute that the person who would now be inhabiting my body might be fairly happy. But she wouldn't be me. I am a guy. That's an inextricable, essential part of my identity. My body is not, being trans is not, but being male is. So is being gay. If you made me a straight woman, you wouldn't just be curing the trans, you'd be curing the gay - and you already know how unpopular that is.

Somehow I initially took this question to be asking something a little different from the standard one.
If it was simply a matter of being comfortable with the frame I was born into, then that's fine. Technically I've already done that; the feminine mind and masculine body that had been fighting for years seem to have signed a peace treaty. Don't ask me how. ^_^

As this question is normally asked, "Would you do this if it changed your mind to fit entirely with your body?" i.e. erasure and replacement of non-cisgender feelings and attitudes, I'd call that suicide. Androgynous though I may be, I don't have enough masculine characteristics in my mind to make a working personality, so "I" would basically cease to exist. I wouldn't have taken that deal even when I was in seemingly perpetual self-conflict.

I can't change my gender or my sexuality with or without a pill.  Both evolve as I grow, but I'm not going to take a pill to be someone else's idea of "normal."

Magic pill to make my mind female? No thank you! Me as I know it would cease to exist. I've always been a slightly androgynous gay male at heart. Nothing could ever make me content with being female without destroying that big part of my personality, of who I am.

...I think I must be in the minority here though, because I wouldn't take a magic pill that would make me a cismale either (though I wouldn't mind being able to have certain... key pieces of equipment ). As much as I identify as male, I also identify as trans. I'm proud to be trans. It's a part of me. And without that, I would be nearly as much 'not me' as I would be if I went the magically female route.

Being FtM is, for me at least, a chance to grow as a person in a way few people get to do. To really force myself to examine who and what I am and who I want to be. And without transition as part of my life, I wouldn't be who I am, much less who I want to be.

...But maybe I'm just odd...

Oh hell no. In fact I damn near freaked out just at the thought of being put on E to cure my body hair - my first thought was "I'm not gonna lose some/most of my technical knowledge, am I?"

'Cause like it or not, being able to mess about with technology (for me it's computers) is more of a male thing (every tech course I've been on, I was the only "girl" there). That's a gift that I've been blessed with. To take that pill would mean losing that ability? I'd rather die. Seriously.

That's not the only reason of course, but it's part of who I am. I like who I am. It's my body with the problem, not me.

It depends on what the pill would do exactly. Would it leave me as I am, but take away all dysphoria? Or would it totally change me into a girl? Naturally, I'd reject that second option entirely, but the first? Hmm...
I think it would be wonderful to not have to deal with the days and nights when it's constantly, just, THERE. I would be able to concentrate better, be more outgoing, etc. etc. Then again I would be a lot less introspective. This has forced me to think more deeply about myself and what I really want out of life than anything else ever has. It has also opened me up to new ways of thinking about things that I could have lived my life totally oblivious to. Plus all the lovely people at Susans. So, would I do it? I'd (still) be odd as anything, don't get me wrong, but actually, if I could (but retaining my memories up to now!), I... actually might? :S
This may be because I'm androgyne and don't get such gendered behaviour like most of you do. I can understand that it wouldn't work for a lot of binary people.

Quote from: Minkle on April 15, 2010, 06:13:44 AM
No.

My body is just a shell, my mind makes me who i am.
I wouldn't change my mind to fit my body because then i just wouldn't be me anymore.

Well said, I agree with this.

"Absolutely Not".  In other words I'm not going to change my personality, me or my brain.  So in other words I will never take a pill to change my mind.

In fact the thought of being a male, even thinking about what I once used to have makes me feel extremely nauseous.  I will never ever regret what I have done.

However, I do not "desire to be women" why?  Because, I am a woman, in addition if genetic engineering becomes available that allows one to change their chromosomes from XY to XX safely.  I would do it within a heartbeat and with no hesitation whatsoever. In other words I would take this magic pill that will allow me to do this.

If future medical technology were available that would allow me to have the normal reproductive organs of a female.  I would again do so within a heartbeat and with no hesitation provided that it was safe to do so.  In other words I would take this magic pill that will allow me to do this.

Does one get the drift that I am a female and that I would never ever change that?

Kindest regards
Sarah B

Quote from: Sarah B on April 15, 2010, 11:41:15 PMIn fact the thought of being a male, even thinking about what I once used to have makes me feel extremely nauseous.  I will never ever regret what I have done.

Yes, that. The thought of being a female makes me nauseous. Of doing what a female does and really, thought of my body as it is makes me nauseous presently.

I don't think I can imagine being 100% female and okay with it. Because it doesn't happen.

I see other girls have posted so I will as well. Not that's ever stopped me


It's one of those Catch-22 questions, what changes the body or the brain? What is normal? I think as a community we have problems with that word or concept. Yes I would love to be a complete normal female. I can't see myself ever being a complete normal male. Maybe it is the brain rather than the body, and destroying my gender identity in my brain destroys everything I am. I am me because of what I have been through. I would just be a brainwashed person. Would I like to be 'normal'? I am.
I think also that is why we try so hard to change or physical identity. We try to match our bodies to our brain-identity. None of us seem happy to say- I'm a girl who looks like a guy, or I'm a guy who looks like a girl. So the magic pill would have to affect our thought process, and I'm not into that at all.

Nice topic BTW and not in the least offensive.

JMO
Cindy

nah.

I think people would rather not being trans by being born into the right gender, rather than accepting them being the other gender.

How can you expect someone who hates their body to say they wish they would like it? they would say they wish they would change it o_o

Quote from: Carson on April 15, 2010, 08:59:02 AM
If I could take a pill to make me a bio-male, yes.

If I could take a pill to make me a cisgender female, then no.

This. The thought of being female freaks me out.

This is a difficult one to answer, because it depends.

If this were something I could have done when I was 4 years old, knowing it would save me from a few decades of confusion, misery and pain? Then, yes, I think I would.

But if it were something I could do now? NO. Absolutely not. And that is because I have already gone through those decades of confusion, misery and pain, and to suddenly change the wiring of my brain to be "female" would spit in the face of what I've gone through. It would be disrespectful of that struggle.

Ideally, my body would be changed to male, to fit the mind that currently resides within it. But since I'm on the path to do that, at least within the parameters of what medical science can provide, I'm happy.

I should note, that if I were answering this question about sexual orientation, being gay--no, under no circumstances would I change that at any age. The only reason I even entertained the idea for being trans is due what I recall; coping with it fairly well until puberty, when my life was ruined by gaining a body that could never pass as "male" again. Decades of feeling hopeless, pushing everyone away, just waiting to die, until I finally learned the truth that there was hope even for me. I would never wish that on another person.