A Medical Mystery!
Old-timers and high contributors here sometimes get bored with the same old issues. So, here is a bona fide medical mystery (yes, I solved it with BIG help from the patient). After a little discussion, and if Sera does not solve it, I shall lay it all out.
About two years ago a Swiss woman with a German b/f or husband moved into this god-forgotten corner of the world. She is an avid cyclist and we met almost immediately after she moved in. She seems to enjoy spending time with me to revert to her native German. Although she speaks beautiful English she has difficulty with the Scottish brogue (including mine) and simply likes to get away from it. She is in her early thirties, so a bit more than ten years my junior. She is among very few women who can stay up with me on a bike and we usually finish together on the centuries and other longer rides around the Highlands. These usually end in some public facility, such as a school gymnasium or community recreation center, with rather open shower and locker room facilities so there is really no privacy.
Some things I noted: I stand 5’8” and she is a tad taller. She has rather broad shoulders and a broad back – not too different from mine. Her torso tapers into a narrow waist and she has the same difficulty with strapless bras as I have (we cannot keep them up). Her hips are quite narrow while mine really are not. She has a blond and rather thin bush – attractive. Her legs are obviously those of a cyclist with muscle definition a bit more pronounced than mine. And she has the most magnificent breasts – perfectly proportioned, well balanced and just the right height.
She flies back to Zurich every few months to visit family and, she mentioned, continues to see a doctor there. This is common in Europe where working across national health systems is a bureaucratic nightmare. I took no offense in her not making me her primary care physician. I like friends and we have fun together unencumbered by doctor-patient stuff.
About a year ago, she called me at the surgery and asked if she could stop by for “something for a urinary tract infection.” She made an appointment. My German medical schooling, the plethora of related conditions and our European hesitancy to prescribe antibiotics just would not let me hand her the pills. I handed her a specimen cup and put a few drops of her urine on a slide. The bacteria were so plentiful that a culture was not even necessary. I drew some blood and asked the lab tech for a white blood count.
“Up on the table!” She hesitated, started to say something and then removed her hose and panties and laid back with her feet in the stirrups. I noted very fine scars just outside her pubic hair (many of women have had some sort of labial “adjustments”) and when I spread her lips, there was a very red and angry crevice. Her clitoris, hood and inner lips were inflamed and her vaginal entrance appeared irritated. As nasty a case of urethritis as I had ever seen – clearly she had been uncomfortable for some time. I lubed my glove and she again started to say something but remained silent. I inserted my index finger and curled it upwards. There was lump just behind the pubic bone that was hard as a rock. I had never encountered this with a woman and she said three words that brought things into perspective.
OK, sexperts, what was I dealing with?
Brandye
Replies:
Your friend was born intersexual and chose to have the male, external genitalia removed?
sera300
I know, dying for the answer. Common Brandye, PLEASE!!!
I like this type of stuff, it's a nice change from the same old. It would be really interesting if either you or Doc posted similar threads of cases either have experienced which are not the norm!
sera300
Many of you came very close. She was transgendered - had been born male and in her mid-twenties went through the whole sex change process -very successfully. What I was feeling was a very inflamed and infected proatate. What she said when I began to probe was, "They left it."
I had never before examined , or probably never met, a transgendered woman and without this experience would have remained ignorant. I did not know what the surgeon did about the prostate. That question never occurred to me and we certainly did not study sexually reassignment surgery in med school! I had planned a visual examination of the vagina but I immediately knew that I could not use a speculum. For a woman's urinary tract infection I usually use an antibiotic that would not "get into" the prostate and so was treating a woman with man's drugs. It was a good thing that I did not simply dispense "something for uti."
I immediately contacted the clinic where she had the surgery and they sent me all the stuff they provide to patients and primary care physicians. More importantly, she and I have become much closer because she has no one else to talk to about her continuing transformation to womanhood. I have come to rethink much of female sexuality in reaction to our conversations. She learned orgasm, at 28, the same way I had at 13. She approached her first sex with men at 29, the same way I had at 15. She has a unique view of having been a sexually active man who is now a sexually active woman. It has been a real education.
Brandye
Thank you one of the most interesting posts I have read
Some times we take our sexuality for granted
foxdan
Nice insight, Dan, and good information, sera.
It has been an eye opener for me. She is in her early thirties really learning to be female. Doing a great job but still quite fragile. She went from being a fully functional heterosexual male to a fully functioning heterosexual female. And is very cute to boot.
While we Natural" women have our periods to deal with each month, Brit has maintenance issues every single day. I had no idea what all was involved. We do spend time together for the reasons in the original post and for each of our learning. She enhances her femininity and I am learning stuff I never dreamed of about transgenders.
Brit has talked long about her urges to be female going back as far as either she or her mother can recall. Did all the boy things while dreaming of doing girl things. Became sexually active at fifteen and always envied his partner because she had to do the clean-up (Demon will love that), then put on a bra and freshen her make-up. "I just wiped of my penis and pulled my pants up."
Brandye
Shortly after you posted the answer the news here on Ch4 did a few episodes of transgendered children. I have watched many times before and really find it interesting. The children were identified, as transgendered, from the ages of 3 or so. I have seen other's where parents state it was obvious at the age of 2.
The kids they spoke with were around 5 & 8 and without a doubt, identified with the opposite sex of what they were born. One mom stated her little boy used to take his "onesies" (those little kids/baby clothes which are one piece and are held together w/snaps on the bottom), undo the snaps to wear the clothing as a dress. There is no doubt of their identity was opposite and forcing them to be what they were "born" would be a disservice & cruel.
sera300