u/Simply_Sailor

I acknowledge that I have privilege over NGU boys in the fact that my face isn't androgenised, making me look relatively youthful, but the lucky thing about being an NGU girl is looking "age ambiguous".

There's such a stark difference between a young boy, a teenage boy and a young man, it's like night and day. But, for girls and young women, it's a gradient. Usually, I'm perceived as a 16 year-old girl, but other times I'm perceived as a 20-something. Never younger than 16, sadly.

I was volunteering today at a secondhand shop and I was holding some fake flowers near my core because I was looking for a place to put them and an older lady asked me if I was getting married because of the placement of the flowers. It was a joke, but clearly she perceived me as being an adult because adults don't generally ask teens questions like that. Day ruined.

The only way I could ever truly pass as a 14 year-old girl 99.99% of the time is if I was shorter than 1.65 m (5'5") and had a narrow ribcage/shoulders. I'll never be a 14 year-old girl; my upper body will always give me away.

Maybe growing my hair out will hide my shoulders. I already have a head that's wider than my neck, but you can fit two of my heads inside my ribcage. 😔

Stop saying that trans men are "female" and trans women are "male".

Trans men are male and trans women are female internally, first and foremost, which is how one can be trans before transitioning.

After years of hormone therapy, trans men physically become infertile males and trans women become infertile females. Okay, actually, infertility is more likely to occur in trans women than trans men. Long-term estrogen with low testosterone often damages the cells that make sperm after 5-10 years. This doesn't always guarantee infertility in trans women, but it's more likely.

And, while high testosterone usually stops ovulation and menstruation while it's being taken, the ovaries often retain many viable eggs. Sorry trans men for the nightmare fuel. 😞

Remember to still use condoms, though!

Gonadectomies remove the gonads entirely, making trans men physiologically sterile males and trans women physiologically into sterile females.

Bioidentical sex hormones, in healthy male and female ranges, turn off the genes for ovulating and menstruation (like, I said before, you still retain eggs) and sperm production after 5-10 years, while turning on the genes for male or female secondary sex characteristics, like breasts, beards, deep voices, etc. It's very complex, though.

These are biological changes outside of sex chromosomes.

We all start wth undifferentiated gonads (not yet ovaries or testes) and sex chromosomes are responsible for those undifferentiated gonads becoming female reproductive organs, like the uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes.

The Sex-determining Region-Y gene or SRY gene, often located on the Y chromosome, prevents those female reproductive genes from turning on and instead, turns on the genes for male reproductive organs, like the prostate, testes, spermatic cords and vas deferens.

After birth, sex chromosomes don't do squat. Heck, they don't even have any bearing on what genitals we're born with or what puberty we go through, that's all sex hormones.

Also, when you say stuff like "sex is immutable" or call trans men "female men" and "male women", you're putting trans people in danger.

Because if trans men are "female men", then it's okay to deny them testosterone because "they don't really need it anyways". And, if trans women are "male women" then it's okay for cis men to beat them because "they're strong enough to fight back".

Please, do better, friends. 🏳️‍⚧️

Edit: Thank you to all of my trans peeps for correcting my misinformation! I appreciate it! I'm not surprised there's some info I missed, as we live in a cissexist society that barely even studies the biology of cis women.

This is a genuine question, btw. I need different perspectives on this because my perspective is very negative.