Transgender Surgery

Transgender Surgery

There are many names for transgender surgery, and they include genital reconstruction surgery, sex realignment surgery, gender reassignment surgery, or colloquially, a sex change. Sex reassignment surgery (SRS) is the surgical procedure or several surgical procedures in which a transgender person’s functionality and appearance of their existing sexual characteristics are transformed to resemble their identified gender. These type of genital surgeries may be operated on intersex people as well, in which case is done mostly at infancy. However, a 2013 report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture criticizes the nonconsensual usage of this surgery on intersex people. Also, people pursuing sex reassignment surgery are also called transsexual.

Scope and Procedures

Genital reconstruction surgery (GRS) or genital reassignment surgery is the best known surgery that reshapes the genitals. The sex reassignment surgery is clarified by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) which is the medical subspecialty organization. This is to include any large number of surgical operations performed as part of a gender dysphoria medical treatment. The surgical procedures according to WRATH include certain facial plastic reconstruction, genital reconstruction, chest augmentation or reconstruction, bilateral mastectormy, and total hysterectomy. However, some of these procedures are chosen on a case by case basis to ensure the appropriateness of some procedures for each patient.

Medical Considerations

It may be hard for people with hepatitis C or HIV to find a surgeon who are able to perform a successful surgery. A lot of surgeons operate in small clinics that not equipped to treat the possible complications of people with these conditions. In some cases, surgeons may charge higher fees for patients with hepatitis C or HIV. And some medical professionals think it’s unethical to reject hormonal or surgical treatments for these people due to these medical conditions.

Other health conditions, such as hypertension, obesity, and abnormal blood clotting, are normally not a problem for experienced surgeons. There are, however, an increase risk in the anesthetics and in the post operation complications. Surgeons would most likely require overweight patients to lose their weight before surgery. They may also require patients to restrain from taking hormone replacement and to restrain from smoking before the operation.

Physical Health & Quality of Life

There may be side effects of the sex reassignment surgery in the quality of life and their physical health due to the sex steroid treatment. Several studies have shown the following results: the quality of life was still lower than the control group even though their perception of their quality of life was that it was quite good or normal. Another study in comparison to the quality of life of the control group to the transsexual people confirmed similar results. Nevertheless, a long term study of data in comparison of patients who’ve undergone SRS 15 years prior have shown that these patients’ personal and physical limitations were significantly lower even though the results are similar when it comes to the comparison of their quality of life to the control group. Then there is another study that found that the enhancement of the quality of life of transsexual patients could happen through other variables. For example, trans men had a higher perception of health score than the trans women due to the trans men having a higher level of testosterone than them. However, trans women with the feminization surgery of the face have higher satisfaction in different ways of their quality life, such as with their general physical health.

Sexual Satisfaction

Trans women and trans men were able to maintain their genital sensitivities after undergoing SRS. This is due to the procedures and surgical tricks. As a matter of fact, the majority of these individuals have reported having more enjoyment and satisfaction of sex after SRS. This is because these individuals were satisfied of their new primary sex characteristics. Before undergoing SRS, these patients were frigid and not enthused about engaging in sexual acts.