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me when I hear the phrase "biological male(s)" 😖
(lemmy.blahaj.zone)
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this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2026
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Trans Memes
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A place to post memes relating to the transgender experience.
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I think it's rarely a useful term, as trans women on HRT have so many biological differences to cis men that they're frequently closer to cis women in their needs. In most cases, it's better to just say transfem or people with (trait both cis men and transfems share). Besides, I avoid saying it more because it makes me uncomfortable than because people use it maliciously.
Also, avoid saying the t word here, as people may find it especially triggering
Thank you... I've seen it thrown around here or there, and rationally I get it, reclaiming terms like this can be empowering.
Sadly doesn't change that I feel like shit when I see/hear it currently.
I'm definitely not biologically female, I have a penis and prostate and stuff
And transfem people can be at so many different points in their transition
Maybe "biologically transfem"
Idk, I just don't feel the need to have such shorthand, even when I talk about medical stuff. I usually want to be so specific that such terms are redundant. "Biologically" is such a nebulous term that doesn't really mean anything specific. If it's about penis or prostates, then I'll naturally specify which body part is relevant.
That makes sense. I can be a guy and everything that entails, but just one bio weeder course was enough to teach me that actual life is a billion specific little systems that aren't even slightly trying to appease our notions of order.
Wouldn't it be more helpful for a medical provider/doctor to know what you were born as? As that might contribute to certain health factors of your life? Sometimes it's hard to navigate conversations like this because it does seem like "biologically male/female" is a useful term in a medical setting. Add that on top of the fact that there may be more health complications due to having transitioned, I can't see why that term would be coined "bad" except when used purposefully as an insult, which as somebody said above, is the same situation with the word gay/queer/etc.
It's often not very useful for healthcare professionals to know your agab. In many cases it's used to discriminate against us and misdiagnose us (if you've heard the term "trans broken arm syndrome" then you know what I mean) If I need a prostate exam, the doc can know I'm a woman who has a prostate. But there's no need to use an inaccurate and bigoted term like "biological male".
Okay, so in a situation like this, you wouldn't necessary tell them what you were born as, but what you identify as and what biological parts you have? That makes sense since I guess they wouldn't need to address penis-related issues if you were born a male and surgically transitioned.
I feel like it'd still be useful in certain medical situations to know agab but I'm understanding the nuances a bit more.
If you tell them you're trans, they can infer that you were assigned a different gender than you are now. They can then ask more specific questions depending on your needs.
I was assigned a sex at birth, not born with one. Based on genital appearance alone at birth it would be prudent to assume my chromosomal sex and endocrinological sex might be classified as male as well by a medical provider. However that might not be the case at all. What is sex though really?
That's a version of sex from Bean's Velocci's The history of sex research: Is “sex” a useful category?
It's a dangerously harmful term in medical settings. It's far more likely to lead to incorrect treatment than correct treatment.
Treating trans women as biologically male in medical settings can get us killed. That's how you end up prescribing a trans woman a male-typical dose for a medication, when in fact her body will respond to metabolize the medication along the female model. Calling trans women biological men is how you end up with trans women dying of breast cancer, because the insurance company decided that "biological males" don't qualify for regular mammograms.
I've experienced this myself. Usually I avoid outing myself as trans to doctors whenever possible. I keep it need-to-know. Because even well-meaning doctors can often be extremely ignorant, making assumptions based on "biological sex." For example, at a university I attended, I used the student health clinic for my healthcare. The clinic was extremely pro-trans. They asked people's pronouns and respected them. But they also ask your assigned sex at birth, and that's where things went off the rails. They viewed transness as an "identity," rather than something that meaningfully alters your biological sex.
The one case that sticks out is when I had them order some blood work. And, because some dingbat figured I was "biologically male," they ordered the bloodwork with the male reference ranges. And of course the bloodwork came back with several markers flagged as outside the normal range. Some medical dumbass decided I was biologically male, so therefore my blood should look like a man's. Oh, and I also then have to worry about problems of getting insurance to cover treatment, as this introduces a mismatch between the gender marker on my ID and the lab order.
Thankfully I caught their error, and we were able to correct it. And thankfully it wasn't something that would have affected anything even if they used the male reference ranges. But in another setting? If I was say, unconscious in a hospital? This could really hurt me. This could kill me in the wrong setting. I have an estrogen-dominated endocrine system; my body does not metabolize medications like a man's. If there is some medication where giving a woman a male-typical dose would kill them, giving me that dose would kill me.
That's better. And I want to point out that part of why "biologically male" is a problem is that it leads medical professionals to bad assumptions.
I've been on hormones for over a decade. If I have a heart attack I'm going to have the same symptom odds as a cis woman. In fact most medical situations, hormonal sex is the most important part. And considering I started hormones before my bones finished fusing and I'm post bottom surgery I'm best medically served by doctors thinking "woman without a uterus" rather than "amab who identifies as female" when they don't know anything about trans biology. And most doctors don't know anything about trans biology.
What age did you start hormones if you don't mind me asking?
20, my hips just hadn't fused yet
Is that unusual? I started at 17 but I haven't seen much hip growth yet
My hips were late to fuse, but late end of normal. I remember feeling my hip bones actually shift. That said I had fairly female presenting hips before hormones so my genes seem actively committed to giving me a great ass.
Unfortunately all sex traits are very ymmv. Before hormones my hips were wider than plenty of cis women's. Some cis men will have female heart attack symptoms (and some cis women will have male ones). Some cis people don't pass for cis and some trans people pass before hormones.
But also depending on how long you've been on it may just be taking some time.
I've been on it for 19 months now.... I guess I'm just unlucky and you're lucky
A penis is a phallus similar to a clitoris and the effects of hrt alter the body significantly. Trans women are biologically female. To say otherwise not only harms transfems it also otherises intersex people or anyone who doesn't meet the intersexist , transphobic and white supremacist vision of what it means to be a Real Woman TM.