[Avodah] [Areivim] if they asked, it would have been assur

[Moshe Yehuda Gluck]

R'MB:
*> BTW, I wondered about the limits of this. Is it assur for a man to
*> eat black licorice? (Assuming it's flavored with licorice or liquorice,
*> and not anise, black licorice reduces fertility by lowering serum
*> testosterone levels.)
R' ZS:
*I know of no makor, but it seems to me that sirus means making someone
*completely sterile (or so close to it as not to make any practical
*difference), not merely reducing his fertility.

The minhag is a makor: It is a long standing practice for Jews of many areas
to enjoy the "shvitz" - which can apparently cause temporary sterility.

<SNIP>
R'  ZS:
*He was male.  She is now female.  The fact that he was a fertile man
*and she is now an infertile woman doesn't matter.  There are plenty
*of infertile women, who nevertheless have the full status of females.
*He is no different, according to the TzE.

Notwithstanding R' MB's subsequent comment (that he was referring to a
pre-op situation), what would the TzE say if "she" stopped (post-op) taking
the hormones that gave her feminine characteristics, and returned physically
to being male-like? (Although there is the obvious exception of the areas
affected by the surgery - but would "she" be considered as a "he" who had a
particularly nasty accident? Campare to a P'tzua Daka or Krus Shafcha who
still have a din of "he" l'chol davar.) 

Also, if the TzE is paskening that "he" became a "she" even pre-op (about
which I may misunderstand), and "her" wife doesn't need a Get, then what if
"she" stops taking the hormones? Is the wife retroactively married?

KT,
MYG