About five or six years ago, one of Karl Ricaneks students showed him a video on YouTube. It was a time lapse of a person undergoing hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, in order to transition genders. At the time, we were working on facial recognition, Ricanek, a professor of computer science at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, tells The Verge. He says he and his students were always trying to find ways to break the systems they worked on, and that this video seemed like a particularly tricky challenge. We were like, Wow theres no way the current technology could recognize this person [after they transitioned]. To tackle the problem, Ricanek did what all good scientists do: he started collecting data. Like all AI systems, facial recognition software requires stacks of information to train on, and although there are a number of sizable and freely available face databases available (ranging in size from thousands to millions of images), there was nothing documenting faces before and after HRT. So, Ricanek turned to the internet a decision that would later prove to be controversial. On YouTube, he found a treasure trove. Individuals undergoing HRT often document their progress and post … Continue reading →

Im not the only transgender fan of Doctor Who. My friends and I have frequently used the term "regeneration" as a silly way to refer to elements of our transitions, often when posting progress photos, or wishing each other luck the night before someones top surgery. At Gallifrey One, a Who convention I attend every year, we even had someone create preferred pronoun ribbons as part of the badge ribbon tradition, wherein attendees hang an increasing number of colorful ribbons until they, intentionally or not, somewhat resemble Tom Bakers iconic scarf. Still, while Im not alone in my identity within this particular fandom, I have had a rather specific connection to the show that has, almost eerily at times, run parallel to my own regeneration. It started in 2013, when Matt Smith regenerated into Peter Capaldi. It was Christmas night; I was sitting in my best friends basement for our annual tradition of watching the Doctor Who Christmas special projected onto his home theater wall, fueled by a fancy bottle of whiskey my dad had bought me. By this point we already knew Capaldi was on the way, wed seen his eyebrows help save Gallifrey a few months earlier, but … Continue reading →

Mazy Gilleylen of Overland is looking forward to her 12th birthday in September. But shes dreading what comes next. Approaching puberty is alarming for transgender kids like Mazy. The changes puberty brings can feel like their bodies betrayal of who they are. Doctors can prescribe puberty-blocking drugs to prevent unwanted prevent breast growth or a deepening voice. But the cost is out of reach for many families. Mazys parents are struggling to pay for what they see as a lifesaving measure. "We have no time to wait because she's going into middle school and we definitely have puberty knocking at our door," her mother Amber Gilleylen said. ((AUDIO: St. Louis Public Radio's Nancy Fowler visits Mazy Gilleylen and her family in their Overland home.)) My heart tells me Im a girl Mazy was assigned a male gender at birth. But ever since she could talk, shes insisted she knows who she really is. My heart tells me Im a girl; Im just a girl, Mazy said. When she was 8, her family began calling her Mazy and embracing her pink clothes and barrettes. She has friends who only know her as a girl with long hair and turquoise fingernails. But … Continue reading →

The absence of women in medical studies, both as subjects and researchers, has serious repercussions for female patients. But a growing number of women doctors and business owners are stepping up to solve these problems. By Candice Helfand-Rogers Female entrepreneurs are starting up medical businesses to address the health needs of other women. (Credit: National Eye Institute) Editors note: This article introduces a series spotlighting women whose medical businesses are turning profits by serving other women. Marje Isabelle was inspired to start Fertile Matters, a London firm that uses hormones to track clients fertility and improve their chances of becoming pregnant, in part by an infuriating personal encounter. She says that, during a visit to a male gynecologist, he told her, if a woman comes in and says she has hot sweats or cant sleep and is tired or has mood swings, hell put them on hormone replacement therapy. Then he added: If they dont come back screaming, then its the right dose. Its an extreme example of a pervasive problem: the failure of many doctors and medical experts to consider and sometimes even acknowledge the fact that womens bodies work differently than mens. It exists on every level of … Continue reading →