#gonads

Having a hormonal dominance that is congruent with one's gonads. Such a person is cishormonal and also has fully functioning gonads that produce expected hormone levels (ovaries predominantly producing estrogens, or testes predominantly producing androgens) or or is taking HRT that aids or replaces the gonad's typical function.

Contrahormonal

Transgonadal and Altergonadal flags

To go with the cisgonadal flag we made for a request

Transgonadal - having or desiring to have gonads different then the ones you were born with. Including desiring a lack of any form of gonad, or someone without gonads desiring to have them. This also includes desiring surgery that is not currently medically possible, such as ovary transplants.

I'm 169 cm (approximately 5' 7") and 78kg (172 lbs), with top surgery done. When worn with clothes, if I shift the shaft to the side, it gives me a natural bulge, just enough to know there's something there without it being too much. I can make it a bit bigger by putting the shaft straight down, but it's not my preference.

I got it in the colour C3, as I read colours seemed lighter than they really are on the webpage, but it ended up being almost a perfect match to my skin. I dont know if a C4 would have been more realistic as this area of the body tends to be darker than the surrounding skin, but I'm happy with my choice. The packer feels soft on my skin, but I chose to wear 2 pairs of underwear to keep it tucked and as clean as possible. I'm so excited to let you know how its durability is and what everyday wear feels like.

Determined Sex

To study the mechanisms by which genetic mutations cause disease in humans, researchers replicate comparable mutations in mice and closely observe their development (such as the developing mouse ovary pictured). But if those mice can’t endure the mutations, and do not survive to adulthood, their use is limited. Mutations of the WT1 gene are linked to defects in the development of male and female genitalia. Previously, mice engineered to lack this gene were so severely impacted that only minimal insights could be gleaned, but a new approach has created a more viable strain of mouse, with the gene silenced during early gonad [testes or ovaries] development. These mice developed genital tracts containing both male and female structures, had ambiguous external genitalia and lacked mature gonads. Understanding how WT1 helps distinguish early sex development could ultimately help us intervene with treatments for humans.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Image from work by Alejo Torres-Cano and colleagues

Celltec-UB, Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in PLOS Genetics, June 2022