As I have expressed before, I see the current methods of transexualisation as extremely expensive and inefficient. They can turn a man into a sterile woman, with no guarantees whatsoever... You might just not look that feminine, even after facial feminization surgery... You might lose the capability to have orgasms, or even lose your voice forever if you try vocal cord surgery. Not to mention that you will have to take hormones for the rest of your life. It has its risks, its disadvantages, and high costs.
Nevertheless, since age 5, I always wanted to be a girl... And over the years, I have been trying to imagine how to make it possible. Being somewhat of a scientist myself, I didn't fantasizes on alien performing some more advanced SRS on me. Instead, I dreamt of something that could make it happen in this world. Something that could turn a guy, not into a transexual, but into a girl. A real girl. A genetic girl.
As you all know, normal humans possess 23 pairs of chromosomes. The chromosomes of these pairs come from mommy and daddy. 22 of these pairs are "identical" chromosomes. In the sense that they contain the same genes. One of these pairs, however, is not always identical. This pair is the pair of sexual chromosomes, known as gonosomes. In the case of a woman, this is an "identical" pair of two X chromosomes. In the case of men, however, the pair contains an X chromosome and a Y chromosome (which do not contain the same genes).
It is believed the Y chromosome acts as a trigger in order to make a potentially female individual into a male. So, where am I getting? Males and females have different sets of gonosomes, yes. However, there is an interesting fact. This fact is while females have two X chromosomes and no Y, men have the Y, but they also have the X. Hence, in a sense, men possess all the genetic code to build a female individual. In fact, in theory, if you could take any man's genetic code, replace the Y gonosome by an X gonosome taken in another cell, and take insert this modified genetic code in an empty ovula, you could produce a female clone of that man. Of course, that clone would not have the same memory as the man, etc... But it would be a nearly identical clone, except female... Much like a female identical twin sister. Now, this seems pretty pointless. We could basically recreate a clone of you "as a female", and see how that person grows up to be, but it wouldn't really affect you... But there are some other interesting genetic facts.
There exists a category of virus (of which the AIDS virus is part of), that can modify the DNA of human cells in order to insert its own code into them. Of course, the AIDS virus is not a very fun thing... But imagine if we could engineer our own retrovirus for our own purposes. A retrovirus with the special purpose of editing a specific person's DNA in each of their cells. Where am I getting, again. Well, I'm suggesting the use of a retrovirus to change a male's DNA into female DNA. That would make you a genetic girl.
This is not enough, however. As an adult person, all of your cells are specialized. For this reason, they cannot change function, or create new physical attributes, like stem cells (as found in embryos) can. Hence, if we modified your DNA, you would not physically change, apart from traits that only depend on the generation of proteins. We could basically change your eye/hair/skin color, and a few other things, but just like a person who has had esthetic surgery does not regress to their "natural" physical appearance, you would not physically become female. In fact, it is possible that your male attributes would keep functioning perfectly normally and even produce viable semen (that would only be able to produce female children, however, as you could no longer transmit a Y chromosome).
So, again, we are not yet at the goal. But, there are more interesting facts of nature. Some lizards have the capability of not just regenerating wounds, but also regenerating entire lost limbs through stem cells that can recreate them. And as a matter of fact, there are ways to make specialized cells (your cells) regress to the state of stem cells. So, if we could not only change your genetic code, but also find a way to create stem cells, or embryonic cells in your system that would trigger the formation of female attributes, we could make you a genetic (and physical) girl. All this without surgery, using only the injection of a retrovirus and possibly stem cells.
Of course, its not as easy as I make it sounds, but its not that far from reality either. And not only that, but if something like this were possible, it would have many more applications, like curing genetic diseases, regrowing lost limbs and curing diseases. Even more interesting, if we could regenerate you, we could make you become young again... And hence make it possible to extend human life expectancy by many orders of magnitude. Of course, if this ever becomes possible, it won't happen instantly, but most likely over the course of a few years. And obviously, it could apply to FTM transexuals just as well, although we would have to obtain a foreign Y chromosome to insert.
So, if this was a reality, would you want it?
Personally, if something reliable like this existed, with the guarantee of turning me into a real genetic girl (even if it took a few years), and without totally ruining me on the financial aspect... I certainly would. I would take this, and turn myself into a girl of physical age about 7 (if possible), and live my childhood and teenage years over, but as a female, so I could experience everything girls go through. I would only do it if I had the guarantee that my memories remain unaffected, however.
Originally Posted by Nyx
Puberty
