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(Above) A stellar photo spread of 14 well-known transwomen published by C*ndy Magazine in 2014

 

I started to develop this website in 1999 when I was trying to decide whether to transition.  It was a summary of the information I collected regarding various aspects of male-to-female transsexualism, now usually referred to as Gender Identity Dysphoria (GID). 

The turn of the millennia was an extraordinary period which was truly transformational for transsexual women.  By 2000 the Internet had hundreds of small websites [admittedly often amateurish] published by transgender women on free hosting platforms such as Geocities, which collectively were a mine of both helpful information and some misinformation.  Fast forward 20+ years and these time-consuming websites are sadly long gone - replaced by thousands of social media accounts showing flattering photos posted on Instagram and Facebook, or easy to make videos on YouTube and TikTok.  The titles of these posts, pictures and videos are heavily focussed on getting lots of views and likes, but the content is often very benign - or get banned!

Decades after its launch this website is now largely historical in nature, but I hope that it still contains some information that may be useful and helpful.  There have been no major changes since my sex-reassignment surgery (SRS), aka gender confirmation surgery (GCS) in 2004, although I occasionally make small updates, corrections, or additions in areas of particular interest to me.  I have also removed some pages and information of a personal nature, and deleted or reworded some text that would now be considered very controversial and potentially get the site suspended.  Views and opinions about sex and gender that were the norm in the 1990's are often no longer considered acceptable and I apologise where offence is still unintentionally caused.

 


The use of Latin terms such as trans and cis is appropriate given the Roman fascination with eunuchs and hermaphrodites, culminating with Sporus 

Terminology

The articles often use words such as transsexual and transwoman, which have largely been replaced by the term transgender.  The prefix trans is a Latin noun meaning 'across', 'beyond' or 'on the opposite side'.  The articles use trans in the context of people making changes to their physical characteristics (hormonal and surgery) and lifestyle to match this to their gender.

A significant development since c.2014 is the use of the prefix cis, e.g., in words such as ciswomen, cisgendered and cissexual.  Cis is actually another Latin term, meaning 'on this side', and is increasingly used in the context of women (usually but not always genetically XX) who were assigned a female gender at birth, and whose bodies and their personal identity have always agreed with this.  It does make sense as an alternative to awkward phrases such as "genetically XY women" that I have resorted to in some articles, and I've been using this when revising text. 

I support the substitution of the term Gender Confirmation Surgery (GCS) for the very inaccurate term Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) that dates to the 1950's, but due to age of the articles some still extensively use the abbreviation SRS.

 

The March of Time

It's impossible exaggerate how much things have changed since 2000.  For example, in 2020 I was watching TV when two of the commercials in a prime-time ad break featured female models whom I knew were MTF transgender.  Twenty years ago, either ad would have resulted in a major newspaper story!  Now alerted, over the next few weeks I spotted advertisements in magazines and newspaper supplements featuring transwomen working as models promoting shampoo, perfume, make-up and even lingerie.

In 2000 there were about 60,000 post-GCS women in the entire world - and most had used a few dozen surgeons whose individual merits were intensely debated within the trans-community.  Fast forward to 2020 and a million post-GCS women might be an under-estimation.  Thailand has overtaken the USA as the 'market leader' due to the low price and generally high quality of the surgical procedures performed there.  Small clinics in Thailand have grown into specialist hospitals which each conduct thousands of gender confirmation procedures annually (over 90% on foreigners), with a surgical 'production line' operating on up to ten patients in a session.  One Thai surgeon, Dr. Kamol, claims to be performing 2,000 MTF operations a year - equating to about half of all operations performed annually, world-wide, at the start of the millennium!

Because of the huge increase in the number of transwomen, they are no longer "freaks" that occasionally appear in an afternoon television show or a tabloid newspaper expose.  Most people (particularly in younger age groups) now personally know someone who is transgender - a family member, classmate, friend, work colleague, etc.  This is changing attitudes to the extent that going deep stealth after transition is no longer the goal of every transwoman who can pass convincingly as a woman. 


In early 2014 the 22-year old top-100 male model Andrej Pejic had gender confirmation surgery.  A year later she reappeared as a female model - Andreja.  The big story is that this made no headlines and she had failed to find a media company interested in making a documentary of her transition and GCS. 

Other major developments since 2000 include:

  • Laws prohibiting any discrimination based on sex or gender. [A legal case taken by Caroline Cossey in 1989 played a huge role in starting this process] 

  • Transwomen born with a male birth certificate can legally marry as a woman in many countries. Some faiths/orders (e.g. The Church of England) will now perform a religious marriage ceremony as long as the couple identify and marry as a "a man and a woman"

  • The acceptance by the modelling industry of transwomen as female models, e.g. Andrej (now Andreja) Pejic and Lea T

  • A massive increase in the number of teenagers being treated for gender identity disorder

  • A greater willingness by the medical profession to treat transgender children under age 18 - with singer Kim Petras setting a now very famous example

  • A huge shift in the median age of western transgender patients having GCS, this has dramatically moved from the early 40's to the early 20's

  • Medical advances - both surgical and endocrinological.  The announcement of the first MTF transwoman to gestate and give birth to a baby is a case when rather than if.

Another significant change is that in late 20th century, Gender Identity Disorder was a condition that was primarily associated with men.  In 2000 male-to-female (MTF) surgical procedures out-numbered female-to male (FTM) procedures by roughly 3-to-1.  Whilst transwomen still dominate public attention, there has been a quiet but dramatic explosion in the number of FTM operations.  By 2020 many clinics were performing more FTM than MTF gender confirmation operations.  The transition and subsequent surgery of actor Elliot (previously Ellen) Page belatedly woke up the media to the fact that not all transgender people are transwomen.  If current trends continue then by the mid-2020's there will be more post-GCS men than women, although I suspect that very few people would guess that if asked.

 


A print screen from the website of the
Scottish Mirror newspaper on 14 March 2023.  
Going to Far?

At the end of the 2010's the transgender bandwagon was on an immensely successful roll.  For example:

  • It had become essential for government bodies and all but the smallest companies to prove their LGBT and WOKE credentials by employing advisors such as Stonewall at considerable cost

  • The International Olympic Committee and other sporting organisations now allowed transgender athletes to compete as women, without even GCS

  • The UK's National Health Service (NHS) had purged its website and guides of words such as "mother" and "breast feeding", and instead was using terms such as "birthing person" and "chest feeding" 

  • The NHS was also avoiding using the word "woman", e.g. instead suggesting that "some people" are likely to get pregnant, have a miscarriage, have an abortion, or suffer from cervical cancer or have a menopause

  • The UK's General Medical Council had removed the word "mother" from its pregnancy publications

  • Oxfam issuing guidance to its staff telling them to avoid using the words "mother" and "father" as this could offend

  • Always, a manufacturer of sanitary pads, asked a parenting website that it sponsored to remove words such as “women”, “girls” and “females" as these had become controversial.


On 22 December 2022 the Scottish Parliament passed the
Gender Reform Bill Scotland. This allows anyone age 16 or more to self-identify their sex for legal purposes. The UK government is attempting to block the legislation.

Backlash

The huge successes of the pro-trans activists over the last decade has perhaps led to the pendulum swinging too far.  There is an increasing backlash from the c.99% of the world's population who are not transgender at having to conform to the views of a small minority.  For example in the UK against:

  • The misstatement of someone's preferred gender being considered as a hate crime, with potential reporting to the police and a criminal record resulting

  • Having to attend mandatory courses on subjects such as unconscious bias, gender diversity, inclusivity and trans rights

  • Being told to avoid using words such as "he", "she", "woman", "women", "mother", "girl", "fireman", "spokesman" "chairman / chairwoman" - fundamentally changing the English language

  • The elimination of the honorific titles "Miss" and "Mrs", which have been used since the 17th century

  • The unacceptably of calling a mother a woman, and assuming that a mother is a woman

  • Having to use convoluted terms such as "Birthing Person" and "Menstruators" to identify biological women, which are still inaccurate when intersex and post-menopause women are considered

  • Female rape victims being referred to as a ‘person with a vagina’ 

  • Reading leaflets, newspaper and articles that go to ever more extreme lengths to avoid sex specific words such as "women". A ludicrous example is the vaginal opening being referred to by a UK charity as the "bonus hole".  [Perhaps even worse. an Australian professional medical publication used the term "front hole"]

  • The NHS's National Menopause People Policy Framework claiming "It is important to note that not everyone who experiences menopause is a woman."

  • The proliferation of "gender neutral' toilets", to the horror of most women

  • Discovering that the in-print edition of books by JR Rowling, Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton, Ian Flemming - amongst others - have been quietly re-written to remove sexual stereotyping that may be potentially offensive to a very small minority

  • Family films such as Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music being re-certified as requiring parental guidance, with warnings added about their supposed sexual stereotyping and discriminatory language

    When Adam Graham was convicted of raping two women in 2023, the Scottish Prison Service sent him to a women-only prison as he now self-identified as a woman, calling himself Isla Bryson.  He was not receiving any medical treatment and had a fully functional penis. 

  • Allowing transwomen who have not had GCS or even hormone treatment but "identify as a woman" to use women-only spaces such as toilets, changing rooms, hospital wards, even women's prisons

  • Pre-everything transwomen and teenage transgirls being able to compete in women's sports when they are clearly larger, heavier, and more muscular than their competitors

  • Transwomen (some of whom have had no medical treatment) being employed as advisors and councillors in areas such as menstruation, abortion, domestic abuse, menopause, violence against women, rape and sexual assault, and the sex trade

  • Violent male rapists and child abusers avoiding jail by applying for and receiving a Gender Recognition Certificate as a woman.


It's cheaper to provide one 'Gender neutral' mixed toilet than separate Men's and Women's toilets, so establishments can advertise their WOKE credentials whilst saving money.  Stand up urinals usually far outnumber cubicles with toilets usable by women.
I agree with many of these complaints.  For example, I had a horrible experience queuing in a gender neutral toilet to use the only cubicle, whilst a steady stream of men used (with varying degrees of embarrassment) the urinals. 

I'm also concerned by the increasing backlash against transwomen because a few men (I can't find an alternative word) have abused the legal rights that it took decades for us to win.  In another example, I occasionally swim at a local pool during a women-only session as the time is ideal for me, but I now must sign for entry a form whose small print says that "people who are not having menstrual periods can be excluded".

 

Finally ...

I'm always delighted to hear from readers, contrast experiences, and perhaps attempt to answer any questions.  I can no longer provide a convenient link due to the bombardment of my inbox by spammers, but my email address is shown at the bottom of the page.

Important Notes:
1.
I'm not a qualified medical professional and the contents of this website are merely based upon my experience and research.  It does NOT in any way constitute Medical Advice.
2. Please contact me if you are featured on this website and wish to be removed.  Whilst I will usually do this, in a few cases I have declined to act when the information or image is clearly in the public domain and relevant to an article. 

3. Most of the images on this website were collected before 2005 when copyright was rarely considered, and accepted usage rules now apply.  Please don't request high quality versions with permission to re-use as I almost certainly can't grant this, even I have the image.
 

Treatment of Young Male-to-Female Transsexuals Female Hormone Treatment
Breast Development in Transsexual Women Breast Augmentation for Transsexual Women Sex Reassigment Surgery Options for the Transsexual Woman
Orchidectomy for the Transsexual Woman Stealth and the Transsexual Woman The transwoman and transition
The Transsexual Woman and Work The sexual orientation of transsexual women Marriage and the MTF Transsexual
Transsexual Preganancy Lactation in the Transsexual Woman The Transsexual Woman and Motherhood
Average Body Size Differences in the Male and Female Skeleton What is Female Physical Beauty?
 
Copyright:  All the articles are written by myself and I claim copyright. I grant permission to reproduce for non-commercial purposes if "Annie Richards" is acknowledged as being the source. 

Note that I'm not the copyright holder of most of the photos and graphics.  Some were supplied to me by the owner for use on this site, others I have taken from publicly available magazines, newspapers, websites, blogs, etc.  Fair use for non-commercial purposes applies in these instances. 

Finally, I can't supply "Hi-Res" copies of photos, if only because many date to around 2000 when a 640x480 image was considered "Hi-Res" and a 1MP digital camera cost $500!


Last updated: 15 September, 2022

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