Not fantasy, but sci-fi. Would it have to be a very advanced civilization?
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1See this question. More generally, your question is too vague. We discuss warewolves etc. so a story with gender changing is not a problem. – JDługosz Aug 09 '16 at 02:57
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5Gender changing pill or sex changing pill? Are we growing/repurposing organs or rewiring the brain? – ApproachingDarknessFish Aug 09 '16 at 03:20
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The only reason I can think for downvote would be it's a poorly worded question. Please comment if you downvote – paulzag Aug 09 '16 at 03:52
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2@paulzag No concrete description of the pill's effects and too many variables (plausibility vs technological advancement). More importantly, no demonstrated effort. – ApproachingDarknessFish Aug 09 '16 at 04:24
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1@ApproachingDarknessFish Thanks! I forgot about no demonstrated effort! I like that! – paulzag Aug 09 '16 at 04:30
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Nanomachines could restructure the body in a few weeks or months on a cellular level, destroying unwanted cells and initiating growth in areas where it didn't occur before. All the soft tissues could be changed over fairly quickly, the problem would be collagen and bone, nose/ear shape can be changed surgically but it would be a very intensive process to surgically reshape bones.
Giving birth naturally with a male pelvis... not good.
But hey if it's far enough in the future they can probably pulverise bones with ultrasound and let the nanomachines regrow them in whatever shape the client desires.
Cognisant
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Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. ~ Arthur C. Clarke
Hey if a pill can do it, they can get the "body" to reabsorb existing bone and other tissue and then regrow it in the correct biological configuration.
"Not fantasy but sci-fi" makes no sense in this context.
The trick (and where the fiction gets interesting) is retaining a sense of contiguous personality. You need to keep enough of the neural network intact for memory and personality, but change enough to allow the new biology, while dealing with learning about the changed body. How much is innate/autonomic nervous system/evolution of the brain?
Personality is shaped by gender. My gender image is shaped in many ways. The memories of my adolescence - the attraction to a particular gender that was not my own. My curiosity about the parts that were "other".
Plus this opens the nature vs nurture story paths.
paulzag
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