University gyms and locker rooms

Aug 28, 2013 12:43

I just had top surgery this summer and I'm almost ready to start working out again, but as I'm about to start university and therefore have a free gym membership with them, my mother wants to stop paying for my membership at the gym near our house. Currently I'm living with my parents and communiting forty minutes to school every day, and the gym I'd been using is five minutes from my house. I wanted to ask about your experiences at university gyms during/post-trasition, because the gender marker on my student records is female, and I'm worried about having to use either locker room, especially if the showers are public. (At the gym by my house all the showers are individual stalls, but I'm not using the locker rooms at all because I've been going there for almost a decade and everyone knows who I am; I change and shower at home, and it's not a big deal because it's a three-minute drive.) I really don't want to have to drive forty minutes in sweaty clothing or change into clean clothes while sweaty and gross, and if that ends up being the situation then I'll probably stop working out altogether. Having already had top surgery, I don't really feel it's an option to use the female locker rooms anymore, even if that's what the university tells me is my only option. Did any of you manage to find a workable solution to this quandary?

(The school in question is the University of Michigan. If any of you can tell me specific information about the locker rooms at any of the three locations there, or how you/they dealt with trans people using the facilities there, I would be especially grateful.)

One further unrelated question: surgery happened a little over a month ago, and the incisions have healed quite nicely. The nipple grafts are still massive scabs. How long should I expect the sutures to take to dissolve and for the scabs to clear away? Will they heal more quickly once the surgical binder comes off and they're more exposed to the air?

I've left this post unlocked in the hopes that it will get more responses that way (because I frequently forget to sign in and end up missing a lot myself), but if someone wants it locked for any reason, I would be more than happy to do so.

michigan, bathrooms, surgery-top surgery, school

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