LSU Women's Center

Margaret Hamilton, lead software designer for the Apollo space mission flight software (the code for which can be seen in the picture on the right) was recently awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Hamilton was the first person to coin the term “software engineer,” and was a luminary in the field.

During the same ceremony, President Obama also awarded a medal to the late Grace Hopper, Navy software genius who invented the compiler. Hopper died in 1992.

“Did you really think I was going to just sit there and look pretty? Definitely not. I have a title, a platform and a voice to make change and bring awareness to First Nations issues here in Canada.”

Once she found out that she was unable to bear children, “Saalumarada” Thimmakka turned to planting trees and looking after them as her children. She’s planted close to 300 of them.

From the article:

1. Progesterone: not for everyone, but for many people it may increase sex drive and WILL make your boobs bigger. Also effects mood in ways that many find positive (but some find negative). Most doctors won’t prescribe this to you unless you ask. Most trans girls I know swear by it.

2. Injectible estrogen: is more effective than pill or patch form. Get on it if you can bear needles bc you will see more effects more quickly.

3. Estradiol Cypionate: There is currently a shortage of injectible estradiol valerate. There is no shortage of estradiol cypionate. Functionally they do the same shit.

The concerns surrounding venous thromboembolic events as a side-effect of hormone replacement therapy can mostly be traced back to one particular study known as the Women’s Health Initiative. This study was an enormous undertaking which, unfortunately, demonstrated significant adverse effects of the hormone therapies studied. As a result of this the use of hormone replacement therapy in postmenopausal cis women was dramatically reduced as the medical community began to question whether or not the therapy caused more harm than good.

Naturally, trans women have been suffering from this fall-out ever since.

What physicians seem to fail to recognize is that the study examined a very specific hormone regimen which was, arguably, outmoded at the time the study was conducted: It examined the use of conjugated equine estrogen (Premarin) with or without the use of medroxyprogesterone acetate. Neither of these drugs is regularly used for the treatment of transgender women.

The estrogen most commonly used to treat transgender women nowadays is 17β-estradiol either in pill form or in the form of a sticky patch that you apply to your skin. Esters of estrogen (e.g. estradiol valerate) are also sometimes used either in a pill form or as an intramuscular injection.

Transdermal estradiol patches are the gold standard when it comes to treating women who are at high risk of a venous thromboembolic event. It simply does not increase the risk of developing a venous thromboembolism. The only thing you should keep in mind is that patches are not always well tolerated because of the lifestyle changes required to keep them from falling off and the fact that they tend to irritate the skin.

Fortunately, oral 17β-estradiol appears to be safe, regardless of the increased risk. At least one large study has shown that the use of oral estradiol in trans women is not associated with venous thromboembolic events. An individual woman’s risk would need to be substantial in order to contraindicate the use of oral estradiol.

For those who have significant risk of venous thromboembolism because they have had a previous thromboembolic event, because they are paralyzed, or because of some other factor it is good to know the relative risk between oral and transdermal estrogen. The latest research indicates that the use of transdermal estrogen lowers your risk of a thromboembolism to 80% of what your risk would be using oral estrogens.

It’s difficult to find hard numbers regarding the relative risk of venous thromboembolic events with regards to hypertension. The best I could find after an hour or so of searching was this study regarding VTE in lung cancer patients. Hypertension increased the risk by a factor of 1.8.

However, to put that into perspective being of African descent increases your relative risk for deep vein thrombosis by a factor of 1.3 when compared to Europeans. Europeans are, themselves, at increased risk when compared to Asians and Pacific Islanders by a considerable margin: a four-fold increase.

I should point out that being ‘male’ is also a risk factor for developing a thromboembolism and hormones are likely to be a contributing factor. Also, menopause is another serious risk factor. Given this information it is likely that the use of transdermal estradiol will lower your risk of thromboembolic events significantly.

As far as the anti-androgen is concerned: The primary use for spironolactone for cisgender people is as an antihypertensive.

Even if the risk of thromboembolism was truly significant with modern hormone replacement therapy it wouldn’t justify what your doctor is doing to you. The fact is that mortality in the transgender community from suicide–caused in part due to the lack of access to hormone therapy–is substantial. The quality of life lost when a trans woman is denied hormone therapy is substantial. The fact that your doctor does not appear to be taking this into consideration when they weigh the risk of thromboembolism against not receiving necessary medical care is deeply concerning.

I strongly recommend that you seek a doctor who is more sensitive to your medical needs as a transgender woman.

Married at 14, Selvi escaped from an abusive marriage and went on to become South India’s first female taxi driver.

Selvi is now advocating for other girls in similar situations, to the extent where she threatened to call the cops on her brother if he tried to marry off his young daughter.

Watch: F*CK DV. Here’s what you can do to fight domestic violence in your own community.

Watch: Amber Rose just had the most revealing take on what’s really going on when men like Donald Trump harass women

Amber Rose doesn’t have any patience for Donald Trump and his “locker room talk.” That’s because she knows firsthand just how real the offensive sexual actions he described in a leaked 2005 tape from Access Hollywood actually are. She also emotionally reveals that Donald Trump’s type of behavior is why she started working with Slut Walk.

Gifs: Yahoo

Bronx, NY: Woodlawn Cemetery: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt, Mary Garrett Hay, and Alva Vanderbilt Belmont.  They ask you put your stickers on the posters, not the graves.  Posters will stay up through Sunday.

Rochester, NY: Mount Hope Cemetery: Susan B. Anthony.  Open until 9pm.

Fayetteville, NY: Fayetteville Cemetery: Matilda Gage

Cinnaminson, NJ: Westfield Friends Burial Ground: Alice Paul

Philadelphia, PA: Fairhill Burial Ground: Lucretia Mott

Chicago, IL: Oakwoods Cemetery: Ida B. Wells

Battle Creek, MI: Oak Hills Cemetery Crematorium: Sojourner Truth

Buffalo, NY: Forest Lawn Cemetery: Shirley Chisholm.  (Not a suffragette, but worth visiting today for her historic run for the presidency) 

Washington, DC: Congressional Cemetery: Belva Lockwood

Brooklyn, NY: Holy Cross Cemetery: Lucy Burns

Lewis, NY: Lewis Cemetery: Inez Milholland

Boston, MA: Forest Hill Cemetery: Lucy Stone

Council Bluffs, IA: Fairview Cemetery: Amelia Bloomer

Madison: WI: Forest Hill Cemetery: Belle Case La Follette 

Argonia, KS: Argonia Cemetery: Susanna Salter

Mount Pleasant, IA: Forest Home Cemetery: Arabella Mansfield

Cold Spring Harbor, NY: St John’s Churchyard: Rosalie Jones

St. Louis, MO: Bellefontaine Cemetery: Christine Orrick Fordyce, Virginia L Minor and Phoebe Wilson Couzins

Norwalk, CT: Riverside Cemetery: Helena Hill Weed and Elsie Hill Levitt

Bozeman, MT: Sunset Hills: Mary Long-Alderson

Missoula MT: Missoula Cemetery: Jeannette Rankin

Niota, TN: Niolta Cemetery: Febb Ensminger Burn

Cornish City, NH: Chase Cemetery: Juliet Barrett Rublee

Jacksonville, FL: Evergreen Cemetery: Grace Wilbur Trout

Westbury, NY: Cemetery of the Holy Rood: “Unsinkable” Molly Brown

Cleveland Heights, OH: Lake View Cemetery: Belle Sherwin

Craftsbury, VT: Craftsbury Common Cemetery: Caroline Burnham Kilgore

Hazelhurst, MS: Shelton Cemetery: Burnita Shelton Matthews

Albuquerque, NM: Fairview Memorial Park: Ruth Hanna McCormick