Rabbits, huh? Who'd have thought?

I read an article this morning about the progress in rebuilding penile erectile tissue. The researchers report they are having success in restoring the tissue in rabbits.

One of the best lines in the article is:

"Rabbits with the engineered penises attempted to have sex with females within a minute of the time they met. Rabbits that had not been given the implanted tissue did not attempt copulation, in most cases, and there was no evidence of sperm on any swabs."

Those rabbits are fast.

So, what does this mean? Well, it's definitely something that FTM's should cheer about. It's one of the first steps towards being able to build a penis with erectile tissue so they can have penetrative intercourse without the use of foreign support.

It's also good news for those MTFTM's who transition to female and have SRS, and then realize they want to go back to male for a variety of reasons. Doctors might be able to rebuild some of the penis with this type of technology.

Either way, though, they'll be pushing it to have sex within a minute of meeting their snugglebunny.

DOR next week

The 11th Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, better known as simply DOR, is in 11 days. For those in the Bay Area, I've listed some of the participating locations from http://www.transgenderdor.org/.

Oakland, California
Friday, November 20, 2009
at Preservation Park, Nile Hall
Doors will open at 7PM and the ceremony will start at 7:30 and we will end by 9:30.
Contact: Tiffany Woods at twoods@tri-cityhealth.org

San Jose, California
Friday, November 20, 2009
7:00 PM
Billy DeFrank LGBTQQI Community Center
938 The Alameda, San Jose, CA 95126.

Santa Cruz County, California
Friday, November 20, 2009
6:30PM - 8:30
Watsonville Plaza, 358 Main St, Watsonville, CA
Website: http://diversitycenter.org/programs/transgender-program/2008-transgender-day-of-remembrance/

San Francisco, California
Friday, November 20, 2009
6:00 - 8:00 PM
API Wellness Center
730 Polk Street (corner of Ellis)
For more info: Leeza Edwards, Co-chair of SF TEAM
415. 724.1680 or lavendergoddess@mac.com

San Francisco, California
Transgender Day of Remembrance Shabbat
Friday, November 20, 2009
7:30 PM
Congregation Sha’ar Zahav
290 Dolores Street (corner of 16th Street)
San Francisco, CA 94103
For more info: http://www.shaarzahav.org/node/1852

Transgender Law Center Celebrates #7

Happy Birthday Transgender Law Center!!!!

Actually, this turned out to be a pretty big event tonight. They had both Margaret Cho and Chaz Bono scheduled to attend. I went mainly to see Chaz. Of course, at $100 for the regular ticket and $150 for the VIP spot, I went for the lower of the two.

They honored a number of people and groups, including my friends Cecilia Chung and James Green, both very honorable and deserving people. They also had some decent entertainment and a little food in the back, but, again, I was hoping to meet Chaz.

Fortunately, Chaz hung out in the garden area and was easily accessible, especially with a few of my friends chatting with him. Ally came to my rescue by introducing me. We shook hands and casually conversed.

I usually omit the obvious questions that have been asked a gazillion times or which might be sensitive.

"Fantastic event, huh?

"It's awesome that you were able to attend."

Someone else had asked questions about his transition, so I caught some of his tale and participated in some of the conversations as they went along.

Since it was a bit chilly outside and I was wearing a sleeveless little black dress, I started to shiver. I looked away for a moment, and when I looked back, Chaz was offering me his jacket. He'd noticed I was cold and offered a little something to keep me warm. Awwww...how nice.

I took it, of course. Do you know how much that will go for on Ebay? Just kidding. I gave it back a little bit later, once I was feeling pretty warm and ready to head inside.

I thought he was a really classy guy, though, and a true gentleman! Thanks Chaz!

Still 6 minutes

I ran a 5K a few weeks ago. Since I've had a bit more time to work out lately and get in a few more miles, I thought I would put in a pretty decent time.

Wrong.

I ran the first mile in just over 7 minutes, and the second mile in just over 8 minutes, to finish in a little over 24 minutes. Gah...24 minutes!!!!

Before transition, I was still breaking 18 minutes for a 5K. Granted, that was 8 years ago, but still. When I got to the first mile I thought, "This is only the first mile. Wow! I'm toast!"

There was an article I blogged about a few years ago entitled "A 6 Minute Difference" about a transsexual woman who now runs a 5K six minutes slower than she did before transition. Funny how we see the same results.

One of the problems I see, though, is that it really shouldn't be that slow. Even Janet mentions in the Runner's World article that she trains and trains, and doesn't seem to get any faster. And we are both 2 minutes per mile slower. When I look at the age adjusted times, I was running around the 75% percentile as a man, and as a woman, I've dropped down to the low 60's.

What's the difference? Well, my bet is that is has something to do with the dreaded testosterone. Men of my age have a typical range of around 300-900 ng/dL and women run between 20-75 ng/dL. What is my testerone level? Well, mine comes in under 20 ng/dL...which means I'm not making enough for the test to detect.

I think it's also part of the reason why my libido is so low, and why I can't seem to run much faster...there just isn't any drive. I'm basically running on empty. The other problem is that if I take testosterone to improve my libido and sex drive, will people accuse me of doping for athletic performance? If I did take the testosterone would it improve my athletic performance up to the relative level I had before, or would this give me too much of an advantage?

Unfortunately, I don't know if I can have my cake and eat it, too. It seems like I can only have one or the other, and I'm not giving up my sports.

Post-Halloween

I was watching the status updates of my Facebook friends this afternoon, and I caught what I thought was my little cousin dressed up in a dress. Sure enough, him and two of his college buddies were dressed in a variety of prom dresses. My little cousin was in a sleeveless blue gown, while his buddies wore a strappy purple dress and sexy little black gown.

Doh!

I'm sure it was a harmless little Halloween event and even his girlfriend made a cute little comment. He grew up in California and went to an artsy high school, so he's always been pretty comfortable doing whatever he wants to do. I can just see the headlines now, though:

Kara infects cousin with crossdressing habit!!! Story at 11!!!

There are plenty of guys that dress up in women's clothes around Halloween simply because they can. People can dress up as anything. I mean, how many times do you second guess your friend dressed as a vampire that he or she might actually drink blood in their spare time? Or what about that witch who might like bat wings baked into their favorite dish?

All I'm saying is that I hope people don't read anything into my little cousin's foray into women's clothing.

Dr. Oz and intersex

While searching for a job, I do sometimes have the TV on...especially in the morning. I also happened to catch an advertisement yesterday for a program about intersex people, so I caught today's Dr. Oz show on intersex people, especially intersex babies.

A lot of talk show hosts don't get it, and to be honest, it still seems like Dr. Oz only gets a portion of the intersex condition and what comes along with it. He is totally into the medical science, though, so he understands that it is a medical condition...and not a situation where people should be shunned for being different.

While the intersex condition is different from being a transsexual, the two are related. Some intersex people can be brought up as one sex, and then transition to another when they feel comfortable making that decision. They can also live between sexes, but society creates a much tougher path to travel. There are also some that consider transsexualism to be an intersex condition of the mind...where the person is born with a mind that has ambiguous gender.

I tend to believe that transsexualism and the intersex condition are much more related than people think. One is definitely easer to see than the other, but both situations are outside the typical male/female realm and can leave us pondering the definitions of our binary gender system.

How to tell when you're no longer a tranny

The concept of "tranny-time" has been around for quite a while.

tranny time (ˈtra-nē ˈtīm ) n. The time between when an event starts and when a trangender person shows up, usually due to applying makeup and preparing to go out. "Ashley is usually an hour late since she's always running on tranny time."

I met with a few of the gals from TGSF a few weeks ago, and, while our meeting didn't quite pan out since only three of us had shown up inside the first half hour, we decided to turn it into a dinner meeting. Supposedly, though, a few girls had shown up after we'd left.

Allison was one of the ones that was there when I was there, and she's always great for new material. As we're walking to the sushi shop, we discussed the concept of time. Many of my cisgender friends have never heard of "tranny time", of course, and most of them do not habitually run late for events. In fact, if you asked them, they'd probably say that I am the one usually running behind. Is "tranny time" a mark of our transition or transitional progress?

For me, though, it all depends. If it is a social event, I'll admit it, I usually try to show up fashionably late. I used to show up on time, but I got tired of waiting on everyone else to show up. So, now, I usually run late to social events.

Meetings, dates, interviews, dinners, ball games, practice, and game times are different...I usually try to show up on time, if not a little early.

Of course, there are always reasons for being late. Finding parking in the city is not the easiest thing to do, especially if there are other events going on. Traffic in and out of the city has and will continue to be bogged down with the new S curve on the bay bridge. And surprisingly, considering the current economic situation, there seems to be way more traffic on the roads nowadays.

I have a bit more free time now, so I'm getting pretty good at giving myself plenty of time beforehand. Since I wear minimal makeup (moisturizer, eye liner, and lip balm), my prep time is spent mostly on putting conditioner and gel in my hair.

"Tranny time" is meant as a fun poke at ourselves. Not every transgender person is late, but there are some who run a bit behind on a very consistent basis. When I was first starting out, I know I spent a long time on my wig and makeup...because I still had a lot of facial hair to cover up. Time escapes you in the initial stages, and until one can get the routine down, a lot of people run late to events.

I used to go to a support group that started around 7pm. That usually gave me 2 hours after work to run home, do my makeup, get dressed, and drive to the meeting. I tried to make it on time, but since many people were doing exactly what I was doing, the meeting hardly ever started on time. Since I did make many of those events on time, though, it gave me a chance to be very social before the meeting. Perhaps that's the positive side of "tranny time"...talking with all the other girls who ARE there.