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Just Add Hormones: An Insider's Guide to the Transsexual Experience
 
 
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Just Add Hormones: An Insider's Guide to the Transsexual Experience [Hardcover]

Matt Kailey (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

Price: $21.95 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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Book Description

June 15, 2005
Matt Kailey lived as a straight woman for the first forty-two years of his life. Though happy as a social worker and teacher, he knew something wasn't right. Then he made some changes. With the help of a good therapist, chest surgery, and some strong doses of testosterone, Kailey began his journey toward becoming a man.

As his body morphed and his voice dropped, Kailey began noticing subtle shifts in the way he was treated. Men suddenly stopped offering to change flat tires for him but insisted on talking to him about women and bodily functions. Women got nervous when he baby-talked to their infants but routinely asked him to move heavy things around the office. In these everyday exchanges, Kailey recognized the many ways we define what it means to be male. He also realized that, with few role models, he had to learn to accept himself as a person between two genders.

As he writes about his transition from female to male, Kailey answers all the questions you've ever had about what it's like to live as a transsexual. From the fear of public restrooms to deciding whether to "pack" his pants, Kailey explains what the world looks like from his new vantage point-a position more people are discovering as gender transitions become increasingly common.

More than a memoir, Just Add Hormones is full of sound advice for those who may be questioning their gender. And through his story, Kailey offers valuable insights to the families and friends of those who have started a transition.

Funny, fresh, and incredibly candid, Just Add Hormones can help us all consider-and even laugh at-our own notions of what it means to be a man or a woman.

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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Alas, it ain't that simple--that is, just adding hormones, stirring, then coming out on the other side of gender. Fortunately, Kailey explores the complexities of the female-to-male (ftm) transition he, then 42, started in 1997. Raised in a traditional two-parent home with a stay-at-home mom, he recounts the details of his change, including chest surgery, and options open to male-to-females (mtfs) as well as the more complicated, expensive surgeries now available to ftms (whose numbers, he notes, approximately equal those of mtfs). The self-proclaimed "transman" also explores the internal changes as he deals with gender resocialization, "passing" in the initial stages of transition, blending masculine and feminine personality traits in the new persona, and navigating postchange medical care (Kailey raised some eyebrows in his gynecologist's office when arriving for his pap smear). Including a list of definitions helpful for negotiating the world of trans-speak, this book is a natural for the gender issues shelves. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Parts of Just Add Hormones dwell, wittily, on the author's own experiences . . . other chapters offer a cheeky insider's discussion of pesky pronouns, pants-packing, bathroom blues, and on-the-job jitters. But the real worth of Just Add Hormones stems from its thoughtful analysis-at times philosophical, at times political, and at times polemical-of a life-changing decision.--Richard Labonte, Q Syndicate

"A heartfelt plea for mainstream American society to understand, accept and support gender diversity . . . Kailey describes all with frankness, engaging his reader with honesty and a touch of humor."
-Kirkus Reviews

"This book is a natural for the gender issues shelves."
-Booklist

"Anyone who has ever contemplated, is just curious about, or finds him or herself in the midst of gender transformation will appreciate and applaud this extraordinary, comprehensive journal. Both informative and quite fascinating, Kailey delivers his life story with a compassionate eye and a true heart."--Jim Piechota, Bay Area Reporter

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 184 pages
  • Publisher: Beacon Press (June 15, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0807079588
  • ISBN-13: 978-0807079584
  • Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 0.8 x 8.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #927,734 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Trans-cendent, July 25, 2005
This review is from: Just Add Hormones: An Insider's Guide to the Transsexual Experience (Hardcover)
So often booka written about a lived experience can frustate and even alienate. The reader is made to feel like an outsider.

I am pleased to say that JUST ADD HORMONES does't only reach out, it embraces. All the awkward and intimate questions about what it means to be trans are answered. It's an INSIDER guide but it is not cliquey. It is personal but it is not embarrassing. It is funny and smart and warm.

Recommonded reading for anyone of any gender. So says this man.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Informative, Yet Easy to Read, July 11, 2006
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a better understanding of the trangendered and transsexual (particularly transmen). As a man in transition, I feel as if Matt Kailey has been reading my mind (or my journal), and he also gave me an idea of what's ahead for me. I have recommended it to all my friends who want to learn more about this part of my life. Good job, Matt.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book for FTM or any type of gender bending., April 6, 2008
This review is from: Just Add Hormones: An Insider's Guide to the Transsexual Experience (Hardcover)
This is a good read. Overall a decent source of information on FTM and gender reassignment in general. The writer is very unique. Very interesting life story. It's somewhat of a page turner. It talks about how to tell your family and the phases the family will go through as you transition. I read this book and then gave it to my Mom to read with the hopes it would give her some understanding of gender transition. Not what I expected but overall a great book on the topic of transition. I would recommend this book to all FTM, anyone transitioning, or anyone that wants a look into the wonderful world of gender bending. Details the difference between changing gender in general and how the word "sex" is misconceived when the word transsexual is used. I would recommend this book for anyone's library.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
I started my gender transition from female to male in 1997, after living for forty-two years as a heterosexual female in mainstream American culture. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
most transpeople, many transpeople, trans community, transsexual people, gender transition, transsexual man, binary gender system, gender presentation, gender reassignment, genital surgery, sex reassignment
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Gender Identity Disorder, Easter Bunny, Uncle Matt
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