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[edit] Puella Nivis
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This user is a female contributor. |
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This user was born in the year of the Sheep. |
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This user recently discovered how to use userboxes. |
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This user is an expert C programmer. |
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This user believes in compliance with W3C standards. |
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[edit] Girl of the Snow
- Snowgirl was already taken, and I have a special place in my heart for Latin, which I don't speak too well. My name is Cassondra, that's pronounced /kɑ-sɔn-drɑ/ in case you're wondering. (Yes, I'm aware that my American ears are ill-equipped to hear the difference in English, but I am still allowed to dictate the proper pronunciation of my name!)
- My last name is quite uncommon in the US, and from Germanic origin, which is apparent from the "oe" in it. I often get asked how I pronounce it, and I tell them that the vowel is /oː/ not /ej/ like my parents say (it's a division in my family.) It is supposed to be pronounced: /ø/, which I occationally tell people, and I've had an easier time getting Americans to produce /ø/ closely enough that I can hear it correctly, yet, Americans have rigerously told me that there is no difference between /ɑ/ and /ɔ/
[edit] Linguistics
- Cognitive Linguistics
- What is language? How do we learn our native languages? Why are children so special that they can aquire languages so easily?
- Language Aquisition
- I'm a polyglot. I speak English, and German, with varying degrees of ability in American Sign Language, Japanese, Swedish, and Esperanto. I'm keen to learn new languages, and have studied bits and pieces of French, Spanish, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Russian, and more. I also invented my own language called "IoVeb" (meaning: "Our language").
- Comparative Linguistics
- Well, I'm a polyglot, of course it's cool to think about, and study how languages are different. Perhaps this is the most interesting part about languages. Why does Polish use the instrumental case for the predicate in a copula sentence, instead of the nominative (especially when English Grammar Nazis are so insistent upon saying that since "am/are/is" is an equal sign, they should match case on both sides)? How do German genders for various words vary from Romantic genders? (el Sol, but die Sonne, and la Luna but der Mond, are the most apparent answers I have so far.)
[edit] Computers
- Computational Linguistics
- Were there any doubt? I love compilers, and all sorts of linguistic details in Computers. It facinates me. I've primarily used computers as an extension of my linguistic endeavors even though my degree is actually in Computers, and not in Linguistics. Just more money in Computers. ;)
- Compiler Design/Implementation
- I work a lot with compilers and parsers, and retrieving data, I'm not very much so interested in moving natural language processing closer, but yet in pushing the boundaries of regularized instructional languages. (Often known as programming languages) I've invented a few languages here and there, and written parsers for a great number of languages, scripts and assemblies, and each generation gets more and more advanced.
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- My primary interests are in the area of context-sensitivity, error recovery, etc. My biggest pet-peeve is "semicolon was expected." Well, if you expected it, and you knew where it was supposed to go, then why didn't you just warn me that it's not there, and continue on?
[edit] Biology
- My interest in biology is very recent. I was never particularly interested in biology, until I came to the point where it were obvious that my biological anatomy does not match my internal identity. I'm now in the process of transitioning to be a female to the world, and while it has been, is, and will be a difficult road, I'm very much up for the challenge, mostly because I just totally didn't fit right in my "original" state.
- Right now, I'm looking into the sexual hormones in humans, animals, and plants. I've been invited to contribute to the Estrogen articles, and I think I should be able to provide some good information there. :)
- I've also been on anti-depressants for most of my life, so I'm quite familiar with male Anorgasmia. Particularly from personal experience from the drug Zoloft (which works great--I hear--but I had too many side-effects).
[edit] Hormone Therapy Experiences
I was recently made aware that Gilbert's syndrome reduces the metabolism of estrogen and other C18 steroids. I had not been previously aware of any such impact on the metabolism of estrogen, although it would certainly make sense! In the case that my GS is impacting the uptake of estrogen into my system, then there are a number of alternative methods for estrogen dosing that avoid hepatic proccessing. These were developed to help women who need/desire HRT but have impaired hepatic function, or are at risk for developing serious conditions as a result of primary hepatic processing of estrogen.
I started off with 1mg daily for one month, and I am now taking 2mg daily of Estradiol, 1mg in the morning and again at night. This is typically a lower range of estrogen dosing in transsexuals, although my gynecologist is somewhat concerned about giving me straight 4mg a day! And I personally agree with him. That is just way to harsh a jump in my, albeit it non-medical, opinion. But many transsexuals want to go head first and throw caution to the wind and not let the levels build up, slowly. Given two protocols for handeling HRT in transsexual women, my gynecologist indicated that he was gravely concerned about the course that Anne Lawrence recommends on her webpage, seeing it as "way too agreessive." Fortunately, I have time on my side, because I am young.
In about another month we will be taking a look at my Estrogen levels to determine how they are doing. When we got my baselines, my testosterone levels were quite low, so we would like to see what impact estrogen will have on my system, before we start any anti-androgens. If we were to start off giving me Spironolactone and I didn't need it, then I would have to be watching my potassium intact, potentially unnecessarily. This hypogonadism is likely why I have very low levels of masculinization, most times just enough to make me look like an older woman, rather than a full man. My shoulders are almost unnoticably wider, I have an older sister who is taller than I, my best friend and I have the same shoe size, and hand-size, and other best friend wears shoes larger than I do! I also have had perhaps the crappiest upper-body strength possible, seeing as how in High School, I typically would dare women to arm wrestle me, and despite trying honestly as hard as I could, I never won a single match.
My gynecologist is thinking about giving me Progesterone in addition to estrogen, and while my initial indications from the web suggest that it is unnecessary if one is attempting to achieve a female form, and usually causes transsexual women to experience PMS, thus they recommend not to take it. Although, I am now thinking that it may be a good idea. Progesterone is an anti-androgen, and given my low hormone levels in the first place, it along with estrogen, may be sufficient to keep my androgen levels out of the way, or at least, allow me to take very minimal amounts of anti-androgens. (My gynecologist recommended Flutamide to me, as this is typically what is given to women with high androgen levels.)
So, my situation is slow right now with respect to hormones, and unknown, although if GS does impact my hepatic uptake of estrogen, then we will look towards replacing oral pills with either sublinguals, patches, or injections. (Patches are typical inconvenient after awhile, given that you would need to place 4~5 patches on your skin somewhere.)
[edit] November Updates
I though, maybe I could give an update on how things are going. The levels shown in my blood serum were still a little low in the Estrogen range, and so at that point, I moved up to 3mg of Estradiol daily. I then also began taking Spironolactone twice daily at 25mg, and 2.5mg of Medroxyprogesterone daily. The next scheduled contact with my gynecologist was March of 2007.
[edit] March Updates
Before meeting with my gynecologist, and some self-evaluation of results and risks, I am now taking daily 4mg of Estradiol (2mg twice-a-day), 75mg of Spironolactone (25mg in the morning, 50mg at night), and still the 2.5 mg of Medroxyprogesterone. My development had kind of leveled off from the amounts that I was taking from the first test batch. I am also still well below the minimum hormone regiment that is recommended by Anne Lawrence, though. Her recommendations being 6-8mg Estradiol a day (OMG, I would run through a 3-month supply of pills in half a month or less!), 100-300mg of Spironolactone (I'm not very far off from this, one more pill a day.), and 5-10mg Medroxyprogesterone. (I'm at half the minimum, and don't feel any necessity to raise these levels.)
I decided to take a progesterone after some reading online, etc. These suggest that development of breasts in absence of progesterone results in a more fibrostic breast matter, rather than a more typical form. So that it's not really that it influences the development of breasts from a social significant view point, but rather just the maturity of the breast material itself. Also, I do not feel that I should be exempt from PMS just because I was not born with natural hormones, so any cautions that it might cause PMS are entirely moot in my case.
I am starting to feel hormone cycles, and my bodily development is happening very suitably. My march update showed that I had gained weight, and I would not be surprised if this trend were continuing. (This is a good thing, when you're stick-figure thin.)
