Blurring Gender Boundary Lines

“‘Pregnancy and childbirth were very male experiences for me,’ said a 29-year-old respondent in a study reported Friday in Obstetrics and Gynecology. ‘When I birthed my children, I was born into fatherhood.’”^[1] This introduction to the NPR article “Transgender Men Who become Pregnant Face Social, Health Challenges” reveals the complexities inherent in the 21st century normalization of sex-reassignment procedures. According to the article, “He is one of 41 participants in a study of how it feels to be male and pregnant, a study the authors think may be the first of its kind. … The study came about because a medical student working with Kerns, Alexis Light, found herself fielding questions from transgender male friends about whether they’d be able to conceive and what pregnancy would be like.”^[2]

Our traditional view of biology and its limitations are undergoing a radical transformation. Science is discovering the key to transforming some of nature’s most fundamental truths. According to a Humanity+ article titled “Total Gender Change within a Decade,” medical technology may “be able to change the gender of anyone to the opposite gender, with full reproductive abilities of the new gender” by the end of the decade.^[3] Realistically, this may be overly optimistic; nevertheless, huge strides are being made in realizing this vision.

For some time now, surgeons have been capable of transforming both male and female external sex organs into their counterparts. These are functional: “Among FTM [female-to-male] individuals who have undergone sex reassignment, orgasm is possible and, in fact, ability to reach orgasm often increases. In addition, satisfaction with the surgery tends to be very high (>80%), and frequency of sexual activity usually increases as well.”^[4] Suffice it to say that these procedures are far more advanced and effective than most people might imagine, as these are not merely cosmetic adjustments.

Increasingly, scientists are blurring the boundary lines between genders. Scientific discoveries are granting our society the ability to redesign God’s creation. Indeed, some surprising medical advances have even given hope to the dream of reassigning not only a person’s external sex organs, but also their internal sex organs in the near future.