I'm pro health

My political views and ideas on what makes sense politically boils down to looking to treat ALL people with a certain baseline respect for bodily autonomy as a means to promote health of individuals and bigger picture health at the societal level and into the future.

So I want to make hormones readily available to anyone capable of coming up with the means to continue eating and capable of reading and putting brain in gear and eating in a more informed way. And I think that opens a lot of doors with minimal risk of harm.

You need to eat ANYWAY. If you eat in an unthinking, uninformed fashion and have a serious medical condition -- such as some kind of sex hormone syndrome -- you can be doing yourself a lot of harm. If you have medical stuff going on, it's better to eat intelligently.

Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS): 

NOT my department.

That's partly because I'm fairly squeamish, actually. Needles, surgeries, etc. not my thing.

And I don't really want to hear crap about it because me being a sissy who screams like a girl is WHY I know what I know medically, so like get over it.

But I've also read posts where someone got the hormones they needed and then suddenly became very "Meh, I don't KNOW if I REALLY want surgery now." And I wrote a piece already called Modern Womanhood that is my thoughts about someone on Reddit saying that they were having doubts.

And I read some article posted to Hacker News by a staunch trans ally who went to bat for trans people big time and worked in a clinic serving adolescent trans individuals and they were initially "Rah rah rah! You have a RIGHT..."

And then had to deal with some teens changing their minds and going "I want my boobs back that you cut off!" And they wrote this article to say "I've completely reversed my position on a lot of things. OMG."

They are not coming back. Functional breasts that can produce milk and nourish a baby cannot really be replaced after you remove them.

I was molested as a child and I spent a lot of time sorting my baggage. And I know firsthand that young people with trauma and feeling judged and rejected by society and etc. tend to be very gung ho, you are FOR me or AGAINST me and if you have ANY reservations or criticisms in the SLIGHTEST, YOU are part of the problem and MY ENEMY.

I'm not arguing against SRS. I'm not working to pass laws to prevent you from getting it if you want it. I'm not trying to talk you out of it.

I'm just trying to remove the gatekeeping and reduce the danger involved in getting hormones which is relatively reversible.

I mean if you grow breasts, they don't go away overnight if you stop taking estrogen. But I'm a woman and I stopped counting after nine bra sizes and mine are more travel sized than they were at one time and I have not had breast reduction surgery, no. So that's not necessarily carved in stone the way surgical intervention is.

And surgery also comes with scar tissue that can maim you for life. I've touched on that elsewhere in a piece called The Price of Beauty and talking about cosmetic surgery.

I'm a former homemaker and I am educated and I have a serious medical condition. And I'm ME, so without trying to explain or justify it, I feel super comfortable saying:

1. You have to EAT anyway. If you have health stuff, I encourage you to eat in an informed manner.

2. If you believe you need to tweak your hormone profile, you should be allowed to read up on that and adjust your diet without jumping through hoops to get a doctor's permission to do so because your body produces hormones from food all day everyday. So why should you legally require a prescription from a medical professional gatekeeping that?

And I believe for young people, being empowered to tweak hormones during adolescence for a condition that promotes suicide meets a standard of "First, do no harm." And I am hesitant to get into the ethics of surgery at that age.

And it's simply NOT my department because you aren't going to DIY that.

And contrary to how your typical fifteen year old FEELS, getting a partial solution can and somewhat frequently does organically make people feel like "Eh, I'm in no hurry to do this WHOLE HOG. My real crisis is over and I have breathing room and I'm going to THINK about stuff like whether or not I REALLY want surgery."

If you get the hormones you need and the result is "YES! I'm TOTES a woman! I'm talking to a doctor about SRS! Woot!" Cool. Have at it. NOT my department.

And if you get the hormones you need and suddenly are confused at your lack of enthusiasm about a process that looks like it amounts to crawling naked across broken glass in public while people spit on you, welp, you can delay that decision.

And if failing to decide ends up deciding for you and you never get around to it, I'm perfectly FINE with that, personally.