History of sex change

Sex reassignment surgery SRS , also known as gender reassignment surgery GRS and several other names, is a surgical procedure or procedures by which a transgender person's physical appearance and function of their existing sexual characteristics are altered to resemble those socially associated with their identified gender. It is part of a treatment for gender dysphoria in transgender people. Professional medical organizations have established Standards of Care that apply before someone can apply for and receive reassignment surgery, including psychological evaluation, and a period of real-life experience living in the desired gender. Feminization surgeries are surgeries that result in anatomy that is typically gendered female. These surgeries include vaginoplasty , feminizing augmentation mammoplasty , orchiectomy , facial feminization surgery , reduction thyrochondroplasty tracheal shave , and voice feminization surgery among others.

An estimated 1. And, today, the topic of transgender health care is more widely discussed than ever before. Despite this, lost in the shuffle between conversations about equal access to bathrooms and popular culture icons is the history of a piece of modern medicine that should no longer remain so elusive. To be willing to embrace the future of this pivotal area of healthcare, it is imperative to understand the piecemeal roots and evolution of transgender medicine. Going against the grain, Hirschfeld was one of the first to offer his patients the means to achieve sex change, either through hormone therapy, sex change operations, or both.

Sex reassignment surgery for male-to-female involves reshaping the male genitals into a form with the appearance of, and as far as possible, the function of female genitalia. Before any surgery, patients usually undergo hormone replacement therapy HRT and, depending on the age at which HRT begins, facial hair removal. There are associated surgeries patients may elect to undergo, including vaginoplasty , facial feminization surgery , breast augmentation and various other procedures. Lili Elbe was the first known recipient of male-to-female sex reassignment surgery, in Germany in She was the subject of four surgeries: one for orchiectomy , one to transplant an ovary , one for penectomy , and one for vaginoplasty and a uterus transplant.

The dark and troubling history of the contemporary transgender movement, with its enthusiastic approval of gender-reassignment surgery, has left a trail of misery in its wake. Bruce Jenner and Diane Sawyer could benefit from a history lesson. The surgery fixed nothing—it only masked and exacerbated deeper psychological problems. The beginnings of the transgender movement have gotten lost today in the push for transgender rights, acceptance, and tolerance.