Me/regenderation

The Great Regenderation of January 2000

As early as age 4, I remember thinking that there was something not right about my relationship with gender.

Due to some mistaken ideas I believed unquestioningly for three decades, I thought it was logically impossible for me to "be" a different gender than I appeared to be, and also that there was really nothing useful that could be done as far as converting one's body from one gender to another. I thought sex chromosomes (XX vs. XY) determined everything, now and forever.

In January 2000, I discovered that both of these beliefs were wrong and that despite my physical appearance up to that point, I am in fact a girl.

This understanding came as a tremendous relief, although it also pretty quickly led to a lot of personal upheaval.

(Unfortunately, it took another 16.5 years before I could do anything about fixing what is basically a matter of having the wrong gonads and therefore being shaped by – and having to live with – the wrong sex hormones.)