Guest Speaker

The Greatest Gift

By Grace Bock Posted on Mar 28, 2022

The Greatest Gift
By Grace Bock

It's hard to choose what may have been the single most wonderful event in my life. There have been so many good times! Perhaps it was the day I was married. Maybe it was the day I received my high school equivalency diploma or college acceptance letter in the mail. Or, maybe it was the first time someone referred to me as ma'am, stubble and all, as I made my way to an electrolysis appointment. These were all pivotal moments in my life; more specifically in my life as a trans-woman. However, I am truly unable to pick the one that stands out the most in my mind. But when it comes to the event that instilled in me the greatest level of fear and anxiety there is no contest. Disclosing to my family tha...
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Act as a Woman, Safely

By Kelly Stevens Posted on Mar 28, 2022

Act as a Woman, Safely
by Kelly Stevens

smcbride@whc.net

June 22, 2001

Updated August 13, 2011

For the genetic male who is transitioning to the female gender role, especially one who has lived strongly as a man for any length of time, one's personal conduct and situational awareness must undergo a significant re-evaluation. Many women are raised with this awareness while boys aren't even made aware of the differences in training. Yet many women are still subjected to assault, battery and worse every year because they were raised in different environments from which they are living in toda...
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Dilation: A Critical Follow-up to Surgery

By Alessa Adamo Posted on Mar 28, 2022

Dilation: A Critical Follow-up Procedure to Successful
Genital Reassignment Surgery
By Alessa Adamo
July 22, 2003

Male to female sexual reassignment surgery is often viewed by the transsexual as the end goal of a long and hard journey toward becoming a fully functioning female. It is true enough that the sexual reassignment surgery will endow you with a nearly perfect vagina and all its associated parts. But the real work of obtaining a healthy and functional vagina and urethra comes after the operation: the procedure of dilating.

Dilation is the process of inserting a series of vaginal stints into the vaginal cavity in order to prevent it from closing up. More importantly, dilation also performs the necessary functions...
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Living With A Rectovaginal Fistula

By Sarah Posted on Apr 3, 2022

Notes on Gender Transition
Living With A Rectovaginal Fistula

By Sarah

Editor's Note: February 12, 2004

I am happy to report that Sarah returned to psychotherapy and eventually was able to get beyond her fears of trying reparative surgery. Her primary concern was the possibility of reopening the fistula. In January 2000 after consulting with several other surgeons, she returned to her original surgeon for the surgery. Her vagina was successfully reopened and lined using a skin graft. The healing process was similar to ordinary sex reassignment surgery. You can read her follow up story, TEN YEARS AFTER at http://www.avitale.com/Sarahtenyearslater.htm

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Sarah, Ten Years Later

By Sarah #2 Posted on Mar 28, 2022

Ten Years After: An update on Living with a Rectovaginal Fistula
February 12, 2004
 
It dawned on me the other day that it had been over a decade since my gender reassignment surgery.  I was somewhat surprised that I had let the date go by, but when I first started my transition, I thought I would always mark the anniversaries of the day I went full time and the day I had surgery.  The reality is, though, that I always forget, sometimes for years.  When I finally realized that it had been over ten years since GRS, I figured that maybe it was time to take stock of my life and evaluate how things have gone.
 

If you have read my first article, about the fistula, you no doubt realize that things were quite difficult for me the first couple of years after surgery.  Only one suicide attempt wa...
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