The Medical View

Afterwards, they headed off to their General Practicioner's office. This was as much for legal purposes as it was for medical ones: her family wanted to make sure that GPAD hadn't done any lasting harm to her system (all of the cases Zoe had read about said that this wasn't likely, but it was better to be safe than sorry). Moreover, a signed letter from a doctor swearing that Victoria and Jon were the same person (or at least used to be) would greatly expedite the process of having her identity legally changed (especially considering that Victoria was barely recognizable as having ever been Jon).
And so Victoria and her family had to spend the next two and a half hours waiting in the Doctor's office. Victoria had at least had the good sense to bring one of the many books she had purchased in with her, a hardcover work of pop-science called The Female Brain. She had actually managed to finish it in the time that it took for her to be called inside: she apparently had improved reading ability after her metamorphosis. After finally being called in, she had to wait a further fifteen minutes sitting on a metal slab in an open-backed hospital gown before the Doctor finally came to see her.
The Doctor (named Dr. Lester) strolled in, gazing down at his patient information. When he looked up it was with some small shock. "I'm sorry," he said, "I had been expecting a male patient."
Victoria forced a smile. "It's a long story."
**** *
Dr. Lester had heard about Gender and Personality Alteration Disease before (indeed, it seemed like everyone had except for Victoria), but it was such a rare condition that he had never personally witnessed a case of it before. Indeed, he at first thought that Victoria was simply playing a practical joke on him, but she eventually managed to convince him, if not to believe her, than at least to humour her enough to run the tests that confirmed that her story was true. These tests consisted of taking X-Rays of her teeth and comparing them to Jon's dental records (teeth were distinct from person to person and were completely unaffected by the transformation). When it turned out that these results lined up to within a ninety-eight percent certainty, Dr. Lester appologized profusely for his earlier skepticism. Moreover, he actually seemed to think that he was lucky to see in an instance of such a rare and fascinating disease in his own office, but he forced himself to curb his enthusiasm, out of fear that he might offend Victoria.
He then interrogated her as to the symptoms she had experienced yesterday, and performed a full physical, including, awkwardly, a gynecological examination. The results were what were to be expected: "Jon" (as Dr. Lester assumed that she still wanted to be called) had become a completely healthy, reproductively viable member of the female sex.
"I'm sorry," Dr. Lester said, looking gravely at her. "But there's nothing we can do."
Victoria had to suppress a giggle at the thought that the Doctor would assume that she would have a problem with this. "I see," she replied, as seriously as possible.
"You should begin ovulating within a week or two. That means that you will have menstrual periods once a month from now on," he smiled uncomfortably. "Just like any other woman. It will also be possible for you to become pregnant...should you engage in sexual intercourse with a man.
"It is not medically possible to turn you back into a reproductively viable male. However, should you choose to do so, it should be possible to restore you to the appearance of manhood using a combination of hormone replacement therapy, reconstructive surgery, and sexual reassignment surgery. Biologically, you will be equivalent to a female-to-male transsexual. Are there any questions?"
In fact, Victoria did have one: something that had been nagging at her ever since yesterday (or whcih she thought had been nagging at her since yesterday; in reality, this was just because she had temporarily forgotten all knowledge of the stone). "What exactly is GPAD?"
"Ah." Said Dr. Lester sagely, "that is a very good question, and I wish I could give you a very good answer. The truth is, we just don't know. Now, people have theorized that its viral, bacteriological, environmental, genetic... some people have even hypothesized that its an exotic form of cancer. But the truth is...there's not really any good evidence to support any of these claims; no sign of infection, no genetic or environmental similarities...The truth is that your guess is as good as mine. It seems to strike males randomly, transforming them down to a genetic-level into females with no warning signs, and for no good reason. It almost seems like magic!"
That certainly wasn't what Victoria had expected to hear from a medical professional. She took it as ominous evidence that the scientific community was at its wit's end with this thing. And maybe it was just her Gothic appetite for all things strange, but that just intrigued her all the more.