Some individuals suffer from Gender Dysphoria, which is a condition wherein individuals feel a mismatch between their biological sex and their gender identity. While the biological sex refers to an individual’s state of birth (either male or female), their gender identity is what they identify themselves as, or feel themselves to be. Adults with gender dysphoria feel like they are trapped in someone else’s body resulting in unhappiness, anxiety and discomfort.
While the exact causes of this condition have not been determined, recent studies suggest that gender dysphoria may result from changes in gender development due to hormonal differences.
Other rare conditions, such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), and intersex conditions (also known as hermaphroditism) may also result in gender dysphoria. In such a situation, individuals often have a desire to live according to their gender identity and thus, go through several surgical and nonsurgical procedures so as to make their physical appearance more consistent with their gender identity.
The Ideal Candidates for Sex Change Surgery
The patient must have good Body Mass Index. Their weight divided by the square of their height should give a value between 20 and 25. Being overweight won’t necessarily exclude a person from surgery, but a stable weight category definitely helps as the excess fat tissue in and around the operating area of the patient’s body only adds to the surgeon’s troubles.
The patient must not have any sort of a bleeding disorder, high cholesterol, high BP, obesity, arthritis, diabetes, severe allergies, coronary and pulmonary diseases and severe depression.
The patient needs to have a positive outlook and realistic expectations as no surgery is perfect. For example, many people who undergo Surgeries involving the Breast tissue start regretting it a few weeks after the surgery seeing the red, swollen area but they must understand that all this will eventually pass.
Side effects of Sex Change Surgery
- A patient who undergoes a sex reassignment procedure is able to enjoy her sexual life in the future as s/he does not have to deal with the mental stress of being in the wrong body.
- Finding the right doctor and getting the desired treatment can lead to psychological happiness for the patient.
- With medical tourism rising, the treatment is cheap in a few noted destinations.
- After the gender reassignment surgery, the patients are usually found to be less gender dysphoric. There have less anxiety levels, depression levels etc than before.
- The patient who has undergone the surgery from male to female or vice versa, will be unable to reproduce.
- The patient will not only have to face physical changes but also psychological changes which may be hard to deal with. With the help of counselling and post operative care provided by the hospitals the patient are able to recover better and faster.
- Postoperative complications can include hematoma. Small hematoma can be cured through puncture and the larger one needs the patient to undergo surgical treatment.
- Complication such as nipple necrosis may arise. The patient can undergo aesthetic procedures which can reconstruct the nipples.
Temporary Side Effects Of Sex Change Surgery
- Most of the complications relating to this surgery are more psychological and hormonal, than physical.
- Undergoing sex change surgery is easy. But to completely fit into the role of a different gender takes a longer span of time, generally, a few years.
- You will need to undergo therapy before and after the surgery to help you change your sex mentally, and to adjust to other’s opinion of you based on your sex.
- The surgery changes your genitalia. However, the hormones that determine secondary sexual characteristics such as your voice and hair growth are not affected by the surgery.
- You will need to undergo some other treatments to change the hormonal composition of your body that suits your re-assigned gender more appropriately.
