Tonight's Bike made me start thinking in concrete terms about Uterus, ovary, Vaginal transplantation. I have read about it being done magically, and I wrote a tale about it in 2001, and doubtlessly there have been many others before mine.
Recently, a Mother gave her reproductive system to her daughter, but I do not know later developments in that case. The next big hurdle would be to really have her mense, and later a real natural pregnancy. Of course, carrying a baby to term involves huge stresses on the female body; some women adapting better than others. We have all heard of women going into the loo to pop one out; completely surprised, not having even known they were preggers, while other women wind up in bed during the last months of their pregnancy.
So, more relevant to our own lives, when will trans women be getting implantations of the baby factory. There is of course the lack of a proper pelvic birthing canal, so at least at first, it is likely that a C section would be obligatory. As this develops, I suppose surgeons could stretch the pelvis to create that, but I can't even begin to comprehend to pain involved.
Of course, perhaps if a child were identified before puberty, that could be helped along more naturally.
As much as I resent the fact, a woman is not created simply by giving a guy a bunch of Estrogen. There is a lot more going on in a natural Woman's body than that.
I wonder where this is all going? Perhaps T folk can be identified in the womb and blood chemistry can be modified such that a male fetus with T tendencies can be made into a female fetus?
Comments
I would not hold your breath
Based on how TG people are perceived, it may be ten to twenty years before they get to doing reproductive system transplants in TG people. Even then, the price will be astronomical. Can they NOW do blood work to find if someone is TG let alone prenatal testing? One thing is for sure- the US will only have it for the wealthy while everyone else has to take what is currently available
belive it has been tried
belive the transwoman christine jorgenson recived those kinds of implants but had to be removed due to complications belive was blood clots cant rember if they tried it more then once atm and i cant rember where i read about that part of her history know was on net just not what site or not just spent an hr looking before finishing the post but i do belive it was tried but the organs had to be removed due one complication or another
Recent developments.
In the last year, German Doctors transfered the reproductive system of a mother to her daughter. How much had to be done, I do not know but I do know that there are women born without Uterous, but still have a Vagina. I have not heard if the proceedure actually produced a baby yet.
Uterus for TS
with fallopian tubes, etc.. and penis with testes, and such, for the other 'half'.. Be careful what you wish for :)
My guess is your best bet is on stem cell research, were one will ultimately be able to 'grow' the organs from your own cell material, tailored to meet the desired function(s) and reduce or prevent the risk of tissue rejection. One hurdle might be the difference in cell genome being XX or XY contrary to the desired function of the new organ. E.g. a womb with XY genome type might not be feasable..
Also as I have come to understand the following, that while contrary to general knowledge from the past, it seems possible to encourage the forming of new follicles in the ovaries, making it possible to prolong/induce folliculogenesis, which in turns results in a menstrual cycle. The gist meaning that it isn't entirely true that a woman's reproductive 'lifetime' is limited to the number of available proto-eggs in the ovaries.
I read that a number of weeks ago, which led to theorizing about this process where a TS with 'regrown' organs bearing the genome XY having a menstrual cycle with having eggs ready for fertilization, also with this XY.. In theory it should be possible for a sperm and an egg to melt together where either both Y's would be shed, resulting in XX bearing zygote. Or one of the Y's, resulting in XY. The result of melting into an YY combination would not realy be viable I guess.
And of course MtF and FtM both with 'tailored' physiques would result in the original combination. *heh*
In regards to the birth channel to be not wide enough.. Hmm. I've read years ago of a Russian technique where for people who thought themselves cursed with short legs, it was remedied with breaking the legs of the subject, and while letting the natural process of healing have its' course, gradually increase the induced 'gap' between the broken parts with some sort of traction device, while otherwise holding the rest of the legs immobilized. A rather painful and brusque process, and maybe better stored under the moniker of 'Ripley's Believe It or Not!'. But.. *shrugs*
Anyway.. Food for thought. Or some wild futuresque story not to far away?
Jo-Anne
It's nothing to do with legs
It's about pelvic width and tilt, to alter that you'd need to do some radical surgey or start oestrogen before puberty - neither is a good idea. The only other solution would be to go for an ectopic pregnancy, and that is dangerous for both mother and baby.
Angharad
DUH!!
It's about bone 'restructuring'. In short: Break the pelvic bones, and regrow them slightly stretching the parts apart.
Not recommendable, and no guarantee for success. But so is carving up a perfectly healthy human body for some reconstructive surgery. Also highly frowned upon by health professionals. But since it's deemed the only viable option until we can find another way to reconstruct the body to fit the mind.
The other way around has been tried time and again, and didn't work as well, without losing the individual along the way. So between a rock and a hard place...
edit: I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. But it's some sort of a story meme, while thinking about some of the strangest stories out there, this would fit right in.
Jo-Anne
Well...
Well, there are documented cases of 46,XY women who are fertile... I've even read one documented case where a 46,XY woman gave birth to a 46,XY daughter... And when the daughter grew up, she also was fertile and gave birth.
So XY chromosomes do NOT preclude one from being a fertile female... It just makes it more difficult for most. (The cases referenced all developed and lived as female... It was only later on testing that they discovered the unusual DNA. (Perhaps they had more difficulty conceiving, etc. I don't know those details.)
But as others have noted, even if they find a way to give us all the functioning parts... The "birth" bit is most likely c-section and actually carrying the fetus will be more difficult for most of us. (Our pelvises are not built for it...)
Annette
"Our pelvises"
Actually quite a number of genetic XX fertile women have an "android" pelvis. That's the male pelvis shape. Most of these women are still able to have live birth without resorting to c-section.
In healthy individuals the pelvis structure is actually not as rigid as people think. It's able to stretch and take quite a bit of pressure without breaking. It of course goes back to normal a little while after giving birth.
There's actually quite a surprising number of genetic XY fertile men who have a gynecoid pelvis as well in the first place.
There's actually four major human pelvic shapes and ALL of them are capable of bearing a birth canal.
There may still be cases where c-section would be unavoidable, but I don't think it'd be anywhere near a majority if it ever truly became possible for us to grow our own.
There's also something called chimerism. Your body will not generally consider a simple swap of XY for XX to be alien material if the rest of the DNA is exactly identical... So it IS possible to be XX in the "girl bits" and XY everywhere else... I don't know if that'd be "necessary" but it would certainly make you capable of having more viable embryo's (the "YY" problem would be evaded).
In fact most people have some chimerism in their cells, it's just that usually it's never to any noticeable degree.
Women actually develop very pronounced chimerism in their brain tissue the more boys they give birth to.
Personally... I say give it 20 years or so and we'll probably have the ability to create a retro-virus that can just solve the entire problem completely. You wanna be XX? Inject this virus and blammo. You wanna be XY? Inject THIS virus and blammo. The virus would just deactivate and wash from the system after doing its job. We can then use nanotech and stem cells to restructure the body without using a single scalpel...
It'll be possible some day. Perhaps not 20 years, but I think so, maybe even less.
Though I imagine the initial reason for the research that'll lead to this becoming possible will be to cure things like Klinefelters and such... But it'll end up with someone getting the bright idea of using it on TS.
Abigail Drew.
xy females, XX Males ...
It used to be thought that XX and XY were the only complications. Now according to a genetic researcher that I know, there are literally thousands of combinations between. I recently found out that while I am XY, androgen insensitivity really caused some strange things in my body. It is imposible to document positively, but according to the family, I had some rather extensive surgery at birth, and combined with some other factors, I strongly believe that the doctor took out a complete set of female reproductive organs. Admittedly, it is all circumstantial evidence and there is no way to prove it.
I do know that the lower abdominal cavity in a female can be blown up like a balloon, and using a scope, one can see individual ovaries, fallopian tubes, Uterus and vagina from the outside. One of my girl friends showed me the pictures the docs had given her when they removed one of her Ovaries because of Endometriosis.
So, with this added perspective, it seems less ludicrous that reproductive systems could be grown for XY females, and T folk.
Gwendolyn
Gren, that has been
the subject of a few stories like A Different Plane Of Existence and others as well.
May Your Light Forever Shine