Promote Farout TG Medical Advances

[LelaK]

It's nice that there are medical procedures, like cosmetic surgery and hormone therapy, that allows some of us, who don't mind the hassles and the expense, to become quasi-female. But I think genetic engineering and other advances will eventually do a much better job, and will even allow us to be truly as female as we desire, down to our chromosomes. Or it will also allow us to choose whichever combination of male and female features we desire. It might even allow us eventually to be shape shifters. We could even then choose some animal features. That's not something I'd care for (having other animal features), but there are undoubtedly a lot of young people these days who'd choose to have things like cat tails and ears and maybe even fur, for example, judging by anime, hentai etc.

Stem cell research seems to be the most promising at the moment, although I think genetic engineering will soon be combined with it to improve it a lot. What I know about stem cell research is that it's now possible to replace some of a person's damaged or missing organs with animal organ "scaffolding" on which the person's own stem cells are grown to make a functional organ that will not be rejected by their immune system. So they won't have to take immune- suppressing drugs, which otherwise can be fatal when the body develops infection.

Is anyone else excited about this field of science? I think it might ultimately be able to solve a lot of societal problems too.

[~Joanne~]

Maybe but it's also scary that we think we have the right to play GOD. I can see the government misusing advances in medical research to do more wrong than good. After all, all these diseases came from some where.

[Barbara Ella]

I believe stem cell research has potential to be a great game changer Genetic research has the greatest potential to be misused tremendously, so i am leery.

Barbara

[Foxglove]

I think I'm probably the result of such research--unless Karren Hutton has it right and I was abducted by aliens. Whatever, I'm not sure I'd recommend this to any of my friends.

Annabelle

[Laura912]

Jean therapy is nice especially with a nice pair of heels, except of course, for Karren. Oh...you meant genes!

[kimdl93]

My guess is that we will achieve singularity with computers long before we have the capacity to dramatically alter human DNA throughout an entire body...maybe by 2050 if predictions prove correct. At that point computer networks will interface with our brains and we may either end up like the Borg on Star Trek Next Generation or tied to umbilicals like in Matrix. Either way, we will largely surrender our individual existence to our digital overlords. But maybe they will entertain us with happy alternate realities...in mine I want to be a lovely young woman!

[sandra-leigh]

I can see the government misusing advances in medical research to do more wrong than good. After all, all these diseases came from some where.

You seem to be suggesting that diseases are entirely (or at least mostly) the result of government research projects. That hypothesis has difficulty explaining why some diseases are mentioned in records from 1500 BC or before. There are diseases described in the Bible, and there are skeletons with Tuberculosis that are dated at 9000 years old, with other records suggesting it may be as much as 500,000 years old.

I worked for more than 20 years in a government medical research establishment. We worked on detecting disease, not on creating diseases.

[~Joanne~]

You seem to be suggesting that diseases are entirely (or at least mostly) the result of government research projects. That hypothesis has difficulty explaining why some diseases are mentioned in records from 1500 BC or before. There are diseases described in the Bible, and there are skeletons with Tuberculosis that are dated at 9000 years old, with other records suggesting it may be as much as 500,000 years old.

I worked for more than 20 years in a government medical research establishment. We worked on detecting disease, not on creating diseases.

No Sandra, I didn't mean to imply all diseases just a few of them that have come along lately, a couple not so lately, that just literally came out of no where. Then you have all these bees, birds, and fish dying by the thousands for no apparent reason and mutated creatures washing up on shores that look like experiments gone wrong.

AT the same time, cancer is every where and almost everything causes it. Things in our food, things we use, the age old smoking which takes all the blame the list goes on and on. Meanwhile there ARE cures they won't let anyone have.

I am not saying they have created all disease but at the same time, they haven't created too many cures either.

[kimdl93]

Infectious Diseases still emerge the same ways they always have, by organisms crossingmfrommothermspecies to humans...by people living in close proximity to animals...think bird and swine flu, or by harvesting bush meat...think HIV and Ebola.

As for that asserting they, whoever they are, withhold effective treatment, please provide valid examples. And yes cigarette smoking does contribute to many forms of cancer

[LelaK]

I actually posted this in the Lounge section initially, because I didn't see the topic as directly relevant to the lifestyle sections. I was hoping that transsexuals would read it there, but, since the thread was moved here, I suppose not many are likely to read it now.

If you all don't mind, I'd prefer to stick to the issue of transgender related medical advances, rather than other medical issues. I'm interested in the other discussion that you've discussed here, but I think it works best if discussions stay more on topic, and for related discussion to go to new threads.

I agree that blending computer hardware and biology may become reality, but it's questionable, I think, if consciousness can exist in hardware. Nonetheless, I'm all for trying to find out. I've heard that modern printers have been adapted to making living tissue that can be used in human bodies. Anyway, biology seems adaptable, and it seems very possible to make great advances in genetics.

Humans, and probably most animals, have a default setting in their DNA or in their "morphic fields", and the default gender setting is female. So, as in the case with AIS, or androgen insensitivity syndrome, in which a male fetus has an insufficiently developed sex hormone producing system, their bodies develop into bodies that have almost completely female features, even though their DNA has the male Y-chromosome. HRT mimics that somewhat, but it doesn't produce a vagina etc. For that, stem cell methods may be able to be used to provide a pelvic structure in which to plant a person's own stem cells and provide a more real vagina. Also, it should be easily possible to make the sex hormone producing system come under the control of the person, so s/he could produce the ration of hormones s/he prefers.

Omni magazine had an article back in the 80s I guess about men being able to have babies using the blood supply to the intestines to grow babies and then, when they reach full term, they'd be C-sectioned out. But with vaginal and uterine-like construction, they could even give vaginal deliveries.

When I was about 20 I had the idea that with genetic engineering it would ultimately be possible to transform biology in almost limitless ways. The first organism I thought it would be nice to engineer is very tall trees that would have internal room shaped spaces with windows and with plumbing etc where people could dwell. The second thing I thought of is a large clam-like creature that could hold humans and could be used as vehicles and maneuvered in bodies of water, or in air, or even in space.

I realize that with the conventional profit motive, which has turned into a greed and prejudice motive at the highest levels in the world of business and probably government, the genetic engineering at this time is used largely by Monsanto and other beasts to seek monopoly ownership and control over all plants and animals on Earth, but, if those beasts of greed and hate ever die, great advances will be possible, so that humans will be able to have whatever bodies and features they desire. Maybe God would not want that to happen, but, if so, I think we'll find out simply by experimenting to try out such things.

[Sandra1746]

Some of the possibilities seem so "far out" just now but not all that long ago common treatments seemed equally remote. Stem cells are truly an interesting field for research but I doubt if I'll live long enough to fully benefit from them.

Off topic; On the subject of cancer, and related medical research, I recommend the book "The emperor of All Maladies" by S. Mukherjee. Not directly relevant however if one dies at an untimely early age from cancer then that certainly impacts their ability to cross dress or explore transgender topics. We have to live to explore life.

My $0.02,
Sandra1746

[Beverley Sims]

I think I will stick with "Jean Therapy" and being "Abducted by aliens".
These two items of research come from "respected members" of our community and I will have to sit on the fence at least until next week.
Scientific research is going ahead in leaps and bounds and if you look at medical procedures now as compared to 1950 you wonder how people survived even then. The local barber did teeth extractions in the 1800s.

[LelaK]

Does anyone look into cutting edge advances relevant to sex-changing? I do to some extent, since I follow health news in general.

Some of the advances I've heard of are:
- usable organs made with laser or ink jet printer technology;
- organs made from animal organs, stripped of live animal cells, leaving only the organ structure, on which one's own stem cells are seeded, thus being identified by the immune system as self instead of foreign, so the immune system doesn't try to reject such organs;
- genetic engineering;
- human and computer interfacing;
- nanotechnology.
Do you know of others that would help sex-changing?

Some of those seem pretty creepy as presented in some sci-fi stories, but may have less creepy applications in real life.

If a large team of scientists and entrepreneurs were assembled devoted to sex-changing advances, I believe it will become possible for anyone to transform their bodies however they like, both safely and cheaply, meaning that we could have whatever male and or female features we like, even the ability to reproduce.

An article in Omni magazine probably in the late 80s explained way back then that males are possibly capable of being implanted with fetuses that could grow from the blood supply around the small intestines. By incorporating some of the above advances and others, it should soon be possible for males (MtF's) also to have working wombs and vaginas and to deliver babies vaginally. It seems likely that genetic engineering will also help make it possible for males (MtF's) to develop female chromosomes in appropriate organs that would then make it possible to conceive children.

- How many of you MtF's would like to conceive children or would like to be implanted with a fetus or fertilized egg and be able to deliver it?
- How many would like to do so if gestation were much shorter than 9 months and if childbirth were relatively painless? (I would.)
- How many would just like to have a realistic (and affordable) vagina? (I don't know how good they make vaginas these days, but I'm pretty sure it's not cheap. Right?)
- By the way, would anyone like to be able to have animal parts, like cat ears, cat tails, or fur, etc, as in anime?
- Oh, and would anyone like to be a hermaphrodite?

[noeleena]

Hi,

So to reproduce, body wise sounds good till you hit the wire then what. the sex organ is the brain. the body is only the carryer

& youd have to change more than just the wireing in the brain to do it & i need more than just my womb.

your last word does not do it its not that try intersexed, then you will see the difference, then you may undersand.... us....

A male can not give birth through a non canal. its not big enough the bone struture for delivery is too small.

surgery costs about $ 8.000 to 10.000 U S in Thailand.

A male can have womens chromosones & a female can have male chromosones & theres many more combos in regard to xx & xy .s

...noeleena...

[Stephenie S]

Well EVERY single time I see or have the opportunity to hold a baby I WANT ONE!!

But then reality rears her ugly head and I realize how old I really am. Been there, done that. I have NO desire to be the parent of teenagers again. Now I am glad to have grandchildren. You can give them back at the end of the day.

Stephie

[Jenniferathome]

You are painting some semblance of scientific plausibility around a magic pill.

The things you mention are so far from reality that it will not even be possible in several lifetimes. Moreover, the experimentation on human beings will never happen. Genetic manipulation will happen and will benefit those with known genetic abnormalities such that they can live normal lives, such as MS, chrones, or even ALS. Never, will there be a day when the medical profession says, "let's give a genetic male natural breasts." Here's why: its not worth the effort! There is no problem being solved.