I am a woman! Please remind me how

You are completely, absolutely and totally a woman, right down to your cells. I'm sorry you've been through all of that.

Quite

you can't "feel" like a woman

All of your lived experience OP and every cell in your body 💐

If you remove female organs like uteri (is that the right plural?), you don’t change sex. No one who has had a hysterectomy has started producing sperm. Males who have had their testicules removed don’t start ovulating.

I have all the bits that you have removed at this time.

Who knows what is ahead of us.

I am no more a woman than you.

I'm in the same position - BRCA2 positive so all relevant bits removed and hormones suppressed.
I'm a woman because the gene would not have been activated in the same way in a man. I have lived experience as a woman. I have XX chromosomes. I have menstruated. I have birthed and fed three children.
I hope you're ok.

Don’t worry about the facial hair, OP ( as a result of hormonal changes). Mine are as the natural result of old age, and I seem to have more whiskers than my cat. I have noticed it hurts less to pull them out as you repeat it, though.

I wish you well!

We are the sum of our parts OP.

Whether they are still with us or inside us or not.

Born a goddess - remain a goddess. 🌻

XX

You are XX which makes every cell in your body female, you’re a woman

If you were conceived and grew into a female foetus, and now are an adult, then you are a woman.

I'm also trying not to be swayed by what others have written so haven't read most of the comments. I'd say -

Male and female are reproductive classes. All humans belong to one of them. You had organs removed that only one of those 2 groups can possess, therefore their removal proves which group/class you belong to.

Membership of either group can be actual, potential, historic or broken. I'm postmenopausal, so my reproductive ability is historic, my daughters' is actual, my granddaughter's is potential. But we are still a member of that sex class called female. And if granddaughter's reproductive ability should turn out to be 'broken' - why, she'll still be as female as the rest of us.

💐 for your experience OP.

My answer to your question:

Being a woman is a developmental pathway set at conception that is an unfolding of experiences throughout life; which may include the painful experiences unique to being a woman such as you are going through now.

I like to think of being a woman as a complex sum of the psychological, social, and ancestral, as well as biological/genetic and anatomical.

Being in my 50s, I am very aware of this ongoing process, as I am having to learn to let go of what it is to be a young woman, and embrace and grow into an older woman. Eg; letting go of pleasing and growing in fierceness and a sense of standing for larger community protection.

The phases of Maiden, Mother, Crone (true in some way for those without children too) seem very real to me right now; as something unique to womanhood and as something that cannot truly be appropriated.

I'm reading the book 'Nella Last's War'- diary of a world war 2 housewife at the moment. Not my usual kind of book, but I've been blown away by the connection I feel to a woman of my age, over a generation ago, living a very different life to me.
Some of her journal entries as she faces what it means to be a woman - in her family and community and society at large-the rage and compassion, protection, losses, unfulfilled desires, and frustrations, could have been written by anyone of us on here.
They could never have been written by a man.

Being a woman links us across time and space. That's what I mean by the ancestral part.

Apologies for length of this response, but the confluence of reading this book now, at this time, in the context of the battles we are facing, and reading your post now really brought all this home- and made me want to respond with my reflections.

(Recommend the book btw!)

What you've been through and are still going through can by factual definition only happen to a woman. Every part of your body is biologically coded as female, which is why you still need to take hormones to oppress that.

If you chose to identify differently that's entirely your right, but medically speaking you need to be treated as a woman otherwise the consequences will be terrible.

Wishing you all the best 💐

Woman is not a feeling, it is a being. You are a woman.

You are a woman and come from a long line of women who have given birth. You could never father a child. Socially, your parents, friends and wider society would have assumed or discussed that you would or wouldn't be a mother one day. I'm sorry to hear that your cancer will have removed choice from your lifetime but you are still one of us and we have more in common than not.
I hope society has been kind and that you are kind to yourself. It's amazing being a woman, I hope you are proud of yourself and that are enjoying life because there are so many different paths we can take.

XX

I hope you are not feeling too shit from the chemo, OP.

I have a (female) friend facing a similar decision, and a hereditary (male) cancer in my family. It's almost as though pronouns and gender stereotypes make no difference to biological reality.

Your chromosomes are female. They can't change x

The short answer is a woman is an adult human female. The female sex is determined at conception and is encoded in every cell of your body. Your body may have had the capability to produce and use large gametes to reproduce with a male who has small mobile gametes. There are a couple of other things that make your sex Prof Winston outlined them but I can't find the quote.

Mostly our sex is observed at birth by looking at our secondary sex characteristics penis or vulva, often by a parent or midwife.

How you feel as a woman is not what makes you a woman you just are.

I've purposely not looked at the responses so apologies if I repeat others thoughts.

Off the top of my head:

The very fact you had the bits there in the first place to remove is the obvious clue as to your femaleness of the species.

from the moment you were conceived you were always going to be an adult human female

It's in every bit of your body. chromosomes, bones, etc.

🍫and🌹for you whilst you ponder. I hope things are as well as they can be for you now.

I have a genetic form of cancer which means female body parts have been removed and female hormones suppressed

There you go. You are a woman, and with the worst luck possible, this is proven by the cancer you have.

And I'm very sorry OP for everything you're going through.