Things are looking all set for my surgery, which is exciting. The psych assessment was pretty weird, as you would imagine, but I seem to have ‘passed’. It’s so weird that thinking about my gender, and how I do it, and how I’ve changed over the years, and most of the time being really confused about it, and then trying to present something coherent to a guy who’s only ever going to know me for that 30 minute appointment. Who’s sole purpose is to assess me.
I see a lot of criticisms of trans people talking about how we’re perpetuating stereotypes about gender, and upholding the gender binary and patriarchy. Sure, some trans people are really binary gendered, and there’s also heaps of us who aren’t (just like cis people, omfg). But, also, for those of us who are a bit more fluid, or doing gender a bit differently (hello toxic masculinity, I don’t wanna be your friend), we have to pretend a lot of the time with medical professionals because they’re not geared up to handle our gender awesomeness. It’s so frustrating.
Anyway, I have male pattern baldness and it’s now in my official health records. -_-
Welcome to the baldy club. According to my surgeon for bottom surgery, most of the guys he’s seen have had early on set male pattern baldness.* So… you’re in good company at least. I shave my head by now, it looks neater.
* Which makes me wonder if it’s a genetic thing (I vaguely remember something form school biology that the primary cause for male pattern baldness is connected to the X chromosome so if a trans guy has two X maybe this heightens the chance?) or if there’s something about testosterone dosage that does it.
Congratulations, I am very happy for you 🙂
And I know the problem. In one of my assesements needed for the legal change, I purposely had to lie about my gender expression, I was afraid I would not get the progress I needed if I came while wearing nail polish and so on. Forced binary is oppressive. To this day I use different first names to distinguish the situations where I can show myself as my own awesome mixture, or where I pretend to be binary male to avoid trouble.
Thank you for giving those thoughts a voice.
It’s the binary stereotypes that terrify me if I were to get assessed for any gender confirming surgery. Getting testosterone was enough of a mission!
Hey Sam, long time reader first time commenter… I just wanted to say I think you’re awesome and thank you for all the good stuff you do. I recently saw a neat video of how to sign various lgbtq terms in British Sign Language, and I thought “I wonder if anyone has done that for NZSL?”… Had a wee google, and oh yes, Sam Orchard has! I love that you admit you’re no expert but you give it your best shot – good on ya! Love your work.
Ohhh thanks Hazel! haha yeh I did a few basic courses for NZSL but I really need to go back and get learning again!
Congrats!
I got my referral for orchi recently. Been on spiro for almost two years and E for almost one, but my T levels stubbornly remain within normal male range, so surgery it is. After all that time on HRT, I’m still passing myself off as a man day-to-day because it’s easy and doesn’t bother me. Hasn’t made the medical process as difficult as you might expect (not saying it’s been as easy as it would have been if I were typically binary, though). Let’s see what’s in my letter:
“employed”… “family is supportive”… “established a longstanding and strong identity as non-binary”… “been on hormones less than one year”… “need… orchiectomy… to lower testosterone to therapeutic levels”… “history of Autism Spectrum Disorder”… “judgment appears sound and good”… “fertility has been discussed”…
Pretty boring stuff. The only mention of my presentation is “recently receiving laser treatment”.
From my high school biology class 20 years ago, I recall that male pattern baldness is genetically a sex-influenced trait. It’s dominant in men, but recessive in women. This was highschool and a long time ago, so we didn’t get into specifics of what was going on with that or what those terms mean in this context. The actual mechanism is that one form of testosterone tends to cause it, so when we get our jabs, our bodies transform some of the T into the kind that makes our hair fall out.
In other news minoxidil (an ingredient in expensive anti-baldness shampoo) causes hair regrowth in 75% of users.
Welcome to the club!!! (Male pattern baldness that is.)
Speaking of which, I should really update my gravatar.