New and Looking

[Bionca]

Originally Posted by sesame

What do you mean by physicality? External physical appearence?
By biological differences you must include the internal organs and the hormones secreted or ingested; Because that can radically modify the physiological mechanism of a human being.

BY physicality I'm talking about the differances in the body between men and women. Physical strength, Pain threshold, body hair, body fat distribution. The things that can be measured happening within the body. These differances are easy to see and understand - and sometimes modify by varying hormone levels.

The question being posed by some scientists is if gender identity has a physiological componant. It is hard to determine because we can only express identity in emotional or psychological terms "I FEEL like a woman", "I have never been COMFORTABLE as a man", "I don't RELATE to my body". The words sound subjective because science has not determined if, in fact, men and women are actually fundimentally different mentally and emotionally, or if our ideas of what it is to FEEL like a man/woman are purely artifical and used to prop up gender roles and "appropriate" gendered behaviors.

So far the best evidence is saying that our gender identity can be influenced by hormone levels in the womb, and also by post natal hormone levels. An example (that fits with the theme of this site) would be a Thai Ladyboy who identified as male, but due to economic reasons started to take hormones to make money as a "bar girl". Estrogen will affect us physically and emotionally and over a few years some "male identified" ladyboys will honestly say they "Feel like women" and some even opt for sex reassignment surgery or stay as a ladyboy long after their profitability as a "bar girl" is long past.

Still other (like myself) simply never considered that we were male. I'd tell everyone I was a girl, I'd get in arguements with adults who'd call me a boy. This was happening in very early childhood - before age 5. My mother even wrote my first teacher to warn her that "He sometimes thinks he's a girl". So, simply from my own history, the idea that high levels of estrogen were present as my brain was forming makes sence. Essentailly that Gender Identity as a physical/biological cause.

[sesame]

Ok, I cannot argue with your first hand experience. Whatever I say would only be scientific guesses compared to your real life experiences.
But one thing intrigues me though. Why do you focus so much on Oestrogen? Well, there are other female hormones too. Is it a general term for a cocktail of all major female hormones? Like:
Estrogen= A general term for female steroid sex hormones that are secreted by the ovary and responsible for typical female sexual characteristics.
As you must know, there are four major female hormones:
1)Oestrogen

3 sub-categories= (a)Estrodial from ovaries =main; (b) estrone from adrenal gland; (c)estriol from Lever.

And the rest are:
2)Progesterone
3)Follicle Stimulating Hormone
4)LH

What special import does estrogen have for the T-girls?
Is it because one of oestrogen's many properties is fat distribution on the hips, breasts, abdomen, thighs, buttocks and all such curvy areas that makes an ideal "soft bodied" female?

[Bionca]

Yes, using Estrogen as a generic term. Most people understand Testosterone and Estrogen and that's where it stops. Estrogen is important to T-gals for the very reasons you mentioned with the addition of making the skin softer. This is taken along with anti-Androgens to lessen the production of testosterone. The lessening of testosterone has the effect of stopping male pattern baldness, eventually lessening and stopping the growth of body hair (except facial hair unfortunately) and allows the female hormones to work more effciently to feminize the body.

[Bionca]

Well to lighten the discussion a little, I did find some pics I had from a while ago. I'm not using my computer, so these are photos I sent to my brother.. he's such a sweet sillydork for keeping these.

The B&W one is from a brief try at modeling I did 3 years ago. Yes.. I was blond

The head shot (cropped to protect the innocent) was probably 6 years ago, when I first really started to pass. No surgeries yet.

[Bionca]

hmm maybe with the pics this time...

[belfagar]

Your Pretty Hot.... Wow

[sesame]

OooooooooooooooHoooooooo!! (imagine the voice from Adam's Family cartoons)
A ravishing blonde!
And a kind looking angelic brunette!!
Are both of them you?