Exhausted, But Okay

Today was my appointment at the UMCG. I actually managed to eat something before Pieter and I left towards Groningen (1.5 hour by car). We arrived in time and proceeded to register me and obtain an ID card for the hospital.

De girl doing the registration was confused for a moment after I handed her my ID and insurance card, even asking whether the person to register was me or Pieter. I told her about my situation, and she quickly caught on, telling me that she had seen transsexuals before, but you could always tell what they were and thus weren't too confused when handed an ID card which initially didn't seem to match up. She thought I was a pretty looking girl :) My hospital ID card now lists 'Maya Posch' and gender as 'female', which I'm pretty happy with.

After waiting for a bit at the gynaecology department I met professor Weijmar Schultz and psychologist Jiawan. They initially asked me to describe the issue. What was interesting was how they began to discuss the matter among each other, suggesting possible tests and approaches and before I knew it I was scheduled for a genetics (mosaic/chimera) test (basic one first) and endocrinological testing. At the lab they initially only drew one ampul of blood due to a communication error. After a call from Weijmar Schultz this was corrected and during my second visit another 6 ampuls of blood were drawn from me, making for a new record of 7 compared to the previous one of 4 or 5 :)

We also visited the radiology department were a radiologist showed me what he thought was on my MRI images. He said that he couldn't see evidence of the presence of a vagina, but could see a prostate. When I asked him how he could explain that he saw a (quite significant) prostate while the AMC hospital had indicated that the prostate was miniscule. He couldn't answer that question. They will however contact the two German clinics and discuss their difference in interpretations. I'd be majorly pissed if it turns out that the German clinics have made me waste a lot of time and money pursuing a lie.

So no clarity on the MRI scans yet. An X-ray was made, however, of my pelvis, for a comparison between my pelvis and those of males. As it turns out my pelvis is definitely more feminine than masculine, with the nice oval curving shape in the center. In essence this confirms that my skeleton is that of a female, and that this would be very unusual with only XY genes.

I just sent some more information to Weijmar Schultz, including contact info on the two German clinics and my therapists. I'll hear from him when he knows more.

In general I'm happy with how things went. Weijmar Schultz and Jiawan are nice people and I was kind of surprised I got rushed through 2.5 hours of tests and such. It's still somewhat disappointing that I still don't know what I am exactly. Worse is what Weijmar Schultz told me about having my name and official gender changed. In essence the law here in the Netherlands only allows this for people who have undergone a sex change, and thus only for transsexuals. There is apparently no way for intersexuals to get their name or gender changed, including for me. This is one thing I intend to address during the magazine interview next week, and Pieter will contact some people he knows in Dutch politics to see whether they might be interested in addressing and changing this law.

I need to go lie down now, I'm just absolutely exhausted.


Maya