Trans men can never have a fulfilling sex life
Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull said:
“you take a autistic girl on the pathway to, uh, cross-sex hormones, then she has vaginal atrophy, then she might have a fake penis that never works. She never gets an erection. A penis has 20,000 sensitivity receptors in the glans. She'll never have that. She'll never have a fulfilling sex life.”
The specific anatomical detail about sensitivity receptors gives the claim a scientific veneer, and concerns about surgical outcomes for phalloplasty are real enough that the broader claim sounds grounded in fact.
The specific number about receptor counts gives this a scientific sound, but what it describes is one possible outcome of one surgical procedure that many trans men never have, presented as the inevitable destiny of every autistic girl who goes near testosterone. Most trans men do not pursue phalloplasty. Those who do have access to techniques that preserve and reposition existing tissue, and the research on sexual satisfaction in trans men after hormonal transition shows high rates of satisfaction, not the bleak picture being painted here. Vaginal atrophy from testosterone is a real side effect, and it is also manageable, often with topical treatment, which is a very different thing from permanent irreversible harm. The cost of believing this version of events falls on trans men and transmasculine people whose actual sex lives, which are often good and often fulfilling, are simply written off, and on young people frightened away from care by a catastrophe that the evidence does not support.
What I said at the time:
“you're completely wrong in all of your medical evaluation there, and that's why non-medics shouldn't get involved in medicine.”
Trans men and transmasculine people, whose actual lived experiences of sexuality are erased, and young people who may be frightened away from care by a picture of inevitable sexual ruin that does not reflect the evidence.