This is your body, your greatest gift
This is your body,
Lahey Clinic article on Transgenderism
There is an interesting artilce on Transgenderism (gender dysphoria) in the Lahey Clinic Fall 2005 Journal. The clinic actually features this article, and you can read it at this link here. I was referred to it from doing some reading at Andrea Jame’s outstanding TS Roadmap.
The article does a good job of outlining the potential sources for our being transgendered as well as the ethical issues in intervening in children who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria. There are other good insights in the article as well, such as the authors opinion that psychological issues (such as depression, fairly common in the trans-community) are really a result of not dealing constructively with a person’s gender dysphoria.
Click here for this excellent article, from this well respected medical institution in New England
4-2-2008 Update
There is a nice Q&A Interview on the author of this Lahey Clinic article, Dr. Norm Spack. It was done in Boston.Com. You can reach the Boston.com Article by clicking here.
Breast cancer self-exams just got easier
A friend of mine has breast cancer. She’s taking it well actually. She figures that she’ll just go in, have the mastectomy and be done with it. I envy her courage though I’m sure her outside calm must in the middle of the night give way to worry and fear. Each year more than 200,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer and of those 40,000 will die according to the American Cancer Society. Doing some simply bath in my brunette head, that comes out to be a 25% mortality rate. The good news is, 97% of women survive breast cancer when it is discovered early.
The ACS recommends a Breast Cancer Self Exam (BSE) monthly and WebMD has insructions you can read at this link here. The Koman Foundation has an outstanding BSE Tool. There are some additional options also for the BSE and for clinical exams that may be worth taking a look at that are reported to make these exams easier:
Mark for Life T-Shirt
This t-shirt shows wearers exactly how to do a BSE; simply follow the arrows. T-shirts are based on bra size and come with instructions and a washproof pen to record suspicious bumps or changes. You can check them out at Mark for Life or ring them up at 877-512-5433.
FaRose and Fenomenole breast self-exam scented oils
This helps your fingers slide over your skin (or your partners 
) for easy exams. You can check the FaRose oil out at ZenMomma, 877-804-4749 or the Fenomenole oil at Bath By Bettijo, 877-528-1584.
The Aware Breast Self-Exam Pad
This FDA approved pad has liquid sealed between two sheets of plastic and, when pressed to the breast, it actually reduces the resistance between the fingers doing the exam and the breast being examined to give a better feel for lumps or changes. You can see them at Aware BSE, 800-854-3002.
MammoPad by BioLucent, Inc (now owned by Hologic)
The FDA approved MammoPad takes some of the discomfort and pain out of a mammogram. Sitting between the breast and the mammography machine it reduces discomfort by half researchers claim. The pads aren’t available in stores, but you can check the MammoPad/Hologic web site or call 866-460-4141 to see which mammography centers use them.
(Source material for this article came from USA Weekend Magazine, p. 13, January 13-15 2006 edition, author Karen J. Bannan)
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Update for 10/3/11: The “Mark for Life” shirts appear to be out of business. Link is dead with no forward
Update for 10/26/09: ZenMomma’s site appears to be out of business; Mammopad now a part of Hologic; added links to instructions on how to do a breast cancer self-exam (BSE)
Find the Love of Your life – Virtually?
Over at C/net I read a very interesting article on finding the love of your life, virtually! That article is here I had to take a step back thinking what does this mean for us as people? It’s a very interesting story for sure, and yes it’s romantic too (after all, where else nowadays can you both slay an Orc AND get married to the elf you have the hots for but in a virtual world).
Virtual worlds have been around for a long time of course, MUDs, IRC worlds and virtual taverns, and today’s Web Based Chat have been around for a while. People do meet each other and fall head over heels in love (or at least imagine they are). But the communication piece that seems to always be missing in those "worlds" are the most important parts of interpersonal communication – the non-verbal kind: touch, facial expression, voice tone, hand movements, body lean. All of these and so many others convey so much to the context of good communication it’s hard to imagine having good communication without them. However, with the worlds the article mentions it appears some of that non-verbal communication (such as a person’s imagination, or how they might react to a given situation – albeit simulated) can be done.
Have a click over the article here to read for yourself.
NDRI: The Transgender Project
If you live in the New York Metro area, you might want to consider being a part of the Transgender Project.
The project, funded by the NIH, is designed to:
describe the economic, social and personal, family and workplace experiences of male to female trans-persons, how these experiences change over the course of our lives, and the impact of these experiences on our mental and physical health.
This sounds like a worthwhile study that will produce some very valuable information on the transgendered community. If you live in the NY Metro area, go have a look, sounds like you could be a part of history if you do!
