Every Transsexual's Right to GCS

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I don't really understand the importance of the surgery, maybe the hormones but the surgery won't make you any more or less of man or woman. You can surgically create something but it will never be the real thing, medicine hasn't advanced that far yet unfortunately. I've heard that SRS increases the suicide rate of people that have the surgery done, it makes sense considering the permanency of the procedure. What if your unhappy with the result of the surgery?

See here on the common misquoting of one source that leads to the misinterpretation that suicide attempts are more common after SRS. Note that the source only shows that the lifetime suicide attempts of people who have had SRS are higher, but does not show how many of those suicides came before or after SRS:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp5820930.html#5820930

One could argue that those who get SRS were more severe cases to begin, so naturally the lifetime suicide attempt rate would be higher.

If you have any source beyond that, I'd like to see it. It would go against what has generally been seen in the literature.

Thank you for that.

Well, here are some professional health care (medical and related fields) organizations that do understand the importance of the surgery:

The American Medical Association
The American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychological Association
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health
The Australian Medical Association
The Royal College of Psychiatrists - And by endorsement, the following (not limited to):
The British Association of Urological Surgeons
The British Psychological Society
The Royal College of General Practitioners
The Royal College of Nursing
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
The Royal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Surgeons

http://www.apa.org/about/policy/transgender.aspx
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload ... ctions.pdf
http://www.psychiatry.org/File%20Librar ... erCare.pdf
http://www.wpath.org/uploaded_files/140 ... erhead.pdf
http://www.qahc.org.au/files/shared/doc ... nt__2_.pdf
http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/files/pdfversion/CR181.pdf

... nah, let's just stick to the views of random posters on WP. Surely, they are more qualified to determine "medical neccessity" than the combined scientific and medical establishment.

Oh, and for the lulz:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Donnab ... mmissioner

Looks like the "cosmetic/not medically neccesary" claim about SRS hasn't been doing very well in US courts, so far.

Last edited by GGPViper on 02 Jan 2014, 4:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

Well, most of us are very ignorant about this topic, obviously. Especially if we happen to be absolutely delighted with our own genitalia. It is really hard to imagine what they're dealing with, given that the closest analogy that we've been able to come up with is lazik, which is in no way comparable.

At the very least it should be tax deductible.

I believe I heard that in some psych class I took when I was in college some years ago actually. I've heard transgendered people mention it as part of the reason why they wouldn't get the surgery before too. Other people on here seem to have heard it as well. It seems like a very pervasive piece of misinformation if that's what it is.

If one of our transgendered posters feels comfortable answering, I was just wondering what the importance of the surgery specifically to the genitals is to them personally? Is it really necessary? I can see how hormones and secondary sex characteristics may be important since that helps you live your life out in public but you don't walk around naked. You're not or at least shouldn't be tricking partners about your birth gender. You risk making yourself into a eunuch, there is no going back. I'd rather have functioning genitalia regardless of my gender identity than imitation ones.

The reason the medical community and the trans community stress the importance of full transition is because it is extremely important and medically necessary for a lot of people. They have to ignore genderqueers for the sake of winning the argument and beating back people's ignorance. Bringing genderqueer into it only makes the debate to complex for most (stupid) people to follow.

Still, it's not really fun if you are genderqueer or even just a transperson who only wants a partial transition, but I guess we have to fight our own battle rather than expecting the wider community to do it for us.

Last edited by puddingmouse on 29 Dec 2013, 12:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

My reasons are multifaceted:

Even as a little child I was averse to my genitalia. When I took a bath, I would cover it with a washcloth. If I catch it looking down or in the mirror I feel momentary shock, almost like being electrocuted in aversive therapy. Its brushing up against my leg feels very very uncomfortable. If I get sweaty, it gets even more uncomfortable as I am constantly aware of it. I cannot have sex until I have the surgery. There's also something visceral, like I need a vagina, in a way that I cannot explain; constant denial of that, especially knowing such techniques exist, is painful emotionally.

As well, I cannot change all my identification to female until I get this surgery. If for whatever reason I end up in jail or if I am put in the hospital, if that thing is still between my legs I will be placed with the men, no matter how long I've been on hormones or how long I've lived full time as a woman. At my work, I am forbidden to use the women's bathroom until I have the surgery and if I use the women's bathroom elsewhere and a disruption is caused I may go to jail and be charged with disorderly conduct because of my genitalia, and likely placed with the men. If I go to Japan, I could not go to the women's bathhouse with that thing in between my legs.

The reasons are diverse, but there you have some of them. It's a combination of ending suffering and allowing myself to socialize more normally as a woman. The current techniques I have accepted are "good enough" for me, and I will not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Hear that, folks? That was the sound of the opposition being utterly crushed under a mountain of evidence and expert opinions.

Why won't it be the real thing ? There is talk about "womb transplant" so trans-woman can give birth to children assuming the pelvis is feminized enough.

The uterine transplant is the surgical procedure whereby a healthy uterus is transplanted into an organism whose uterus is absent or diseased

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uterus_transplantation

Quoted From source above ....

Application on transgender women

It may be possible for trans women to receive uteruses in the future. Some concerns regarding genetics, anatomy and hormones addressed below:

1.Women with Swyer syndrome have male genetics and lack ovaries, but have a uterus. Similarly to trans women, they need hormone replacement therapy to induce female puberty and maintain female secondary sex characteristics. Such women have had successful pregnancies, though obviously requiring egg donation and IVF.

2.In the case of most trans women who began HRT past male puberty, the pelvis has failed to develop femininely and broaden as it would have before or during puberty. However, as proven by Nadya Suleman (octuplets), Lina Medina (youngest mother) and Stacey Herald (smallest mother at 71 cm [27]), a small pelvis is not an obstacle to gestation, even in extreme cases. Delivery would be via c-section.

Where precisely would you draw the line between a man and a woman who looks like a man? What about a woman and a man who looks like a woman?

I would do what the U.S. census does for racial classification, and make a lot of categories, and let people self-define their gender.

So anyone who say that they are men are men?

I think so on the Census. Generally, the federal government, including the State Department (for passports) and the Social Security Administration, recognizes the changed sex once a physician certifies that the person has "undergone appropriate treatment to change gender," which is left up to the opinion of the physician.

We have no definition for men ? So, calling yourself a man means nothing. A person can call themselves what they want.

Perhaps, you are alluding to the sociological impact of people defining outside "man" and "woman" ?

people can be born with both genitals so gender isn't a binary thing, even in nature.

I think the Chinese were onto something, they did away with gender specific clothing.