It’s been years as the transgender community faces backlash for wanting and being who they really are.
Even in the 21st century, transgender has to live through constant fear for their life. And also having to explain who they really are and what their sexual preferences are.
The first known person to transition from male to female was a former WWII-era GI George Jorgensen from New York.
In the year 1952, the then 27-year-old GI went to Denmark and transitioned himself into a woman.
Jorgensen went through a hefty procedure including surgeries and hormone therapy and became Christine Jorgensen.
Thus, in a time when transitioning from a man to woman and vice versa was a huge taboo, Christine became a trailblazer.
Especially for the ones seeking gender reassignment surgeries.
Gender transition is normally two-fold: a social transition and a medical transition.
A social transition can mean new dress, another name, and new pronouns while medicinal transition deals with hormone replacement treatment and surgeries.
Based on the necessities and needs of every person, a transition may incorporate both social and medical transition; only one of the two; or for the individuals who shun sexual orientation totally, none.
How Does Gender Transition Work?
Being transgender isn’t about sexual orientation or general anatomy. It has more to do with identifying one’s inner self.
It could be feminine, masculine, asexual or gender fluid. That means it’s not quite the same as the one assigned to you dependent on your physical qualities or at birth.
While a few people may never freely recognize their transgender status, others may choose to live as their ideal sexual orientation — and that could mean changing how they express their sex through transitioning.
Gender reassignment surgery is a procedure performed under the Standards of Care for Gender Identity Disorder (SOC).
Which is a general guideline of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).
Gender reassignment surgery is given many different names. Such as gender affirmation, realignment, confirmation, or reconstruction surgery.
Every year somewhere in the range of 100 and 500 gender reassignment surgeries are done in the U.S. to treat gender dysphoria.
The sorts of medical procedures to be directed are chosen by the patient’s level of comfort and desire, and finances.
Since everyone doesn’t need the same medical procedures the process is custom-fitted for every person.
The certain process is viewed as medicinally important to treat gender dysphoria, while other normal gender realignment surgeries, for example, rhinoplasty is viewed as cosmetic.
For some this new external appearance may hold more importance than the realignment of inner and outer genitalia.
The Process of Gender Reassignment Surgery.
The gender affirmation surgery depends upon your gender at birth and the gender you want to transition to.
Following are surgeries a trans woman (people assigned male at birth) have to normally get for transformation.
- Clitoroplasty (construction of a clitoris)
- Labiaplasty (creation of a labia from scrotum skin)
- Orchiectomy (removing testicles)
- Prostatectomy (removing prostate)
- Urethroplasty (reconstruction of the urethra)
- Vaginoplasty (creation of the vaginal canal made from penile tissue or a colon graft)
- Penectomy (removal of the penis)
And the procedure a trans man (people assigned female at birth) has to go through are:
- Bilateral mastectomy
- Complete hysterectomy
- Reconstruction of the genitalia with a metoidioplasty
- Ring metoidioplasty (lengthening the urethra)
- Scrotoplasty (construction of a scrotum)
- Vaginectomy (to close the vaginal canal)
- Phalloplasty (construction of the penis)
The Effects of Gender Transition.
Most transgenders go through a lot of mental stress in the phase of transition.
The distress someone feels due to their birth-assigned sex and gender not matching their gender identity is called gender dysphoria.
Gender transition is a procedure, one of a kind to every person. And for the people who do insist on their gender with a medical transition, the way frequently comprises of counseling and diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
Other process includes hormone treatment and genuine experience before genital-changing medical procedures are performed.
Not every single transgender needs these treatments; and, not every single transgender go through the medical procedure.
The individuals who do decide to transition medically may choose various methods, or focus on simply “top,” “bottom” or corrective medical procedures, i.e. cosmetic surgeries.
