When they approved me for gender surgery, they left out some important truths:
- The gender surgery is called "reassignment of gender" because the surgery cannot change your gender sex.
► Read more -- The Surgery
- Suicide attempts for transgenders both post-op and pre-op is very high--over 40%, according to Clara Moskowitz, senior writer for LiveScience. Mike Penner, sportswriter for the LA Times who transitioned, committed suicide.
► Read more -- Suicide
- Regret is very common after surgery. Three, five, ten and even 20 years after surgery, some of us are not better off psychologically. We come to understand the surgery did not resolve our gender problems or change our gender. Take a look at the emails I've received.
► Read more -- at SexChangeRegret.com
- Or we realize too late that we were suffering from powerful delusional thinking, that is, mistakenly believing that somehow surgery would change our gender.
► Read more -- Psychological Disorders
Harry Benjamin Standards of Care
If the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care are the definitive guide to the treatment of transgenders and the helping therapists are highly qualified professionals, why, then, is the rate of suicide so darn high? Why do so many good people take their life? Something must be deadly wrong.
Dr.Paul Walker, the original author of the Standards of Care for approving gender surgery, wrote to me years after my surgery saying, "I have seen far too much regret."
My Conclusion
My conclusion is very simple—something is very wrong with one or more of the following:
- Many transgenders have co-existing disorders that are not recognized and treated. The Harry Benjamin Standards of Care “one size fits all” approach is incorrect.
- Too many therapists have blind spots in considering alternative disorders or treatments, and patient suicide results.
- The process of changing genders with hormone therapy and/or surgery is not an easy one. Many patients are just not prepared for the difficulties they will face.
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