A few years ago I watched a special on self inflicted amputation. There are a group of people in the world who have a vision of themselves as amputees. They know exactly what they want cut off and how much. They try to get doctors to help them, but no medical professional (obviously) will perform such a drastic and unnecessary operation. They often take it into their own hands, by sticking their limbs into dry ice to give themselves frostbite and eventually gangrene. They call 911 and the hospital has no choice but to amputate their limbs. There were people in this report who had almost no mobility left at all and had to use motorized wheelchairs to get around. Psychiatrists diagnosed this as a rare form of obsessive compulsive disorder. Doctors said that these people needed therapy and antidepressants. A couple of the amputees said that their treatment was working and that without it, they might have lost even more body parts.
This brings me to my actual topic - sexual reassignment surgery. This is not a flame thread to bash gay people or transexuals. Please don't. They have every right to exist in the world in any way that they want to without hurting anybody else. I'm not even arguing whether sex change operations should be legal or not. (They should be.)
My question is whether or not these people need psychiatric help. It's one thing to prefer another gender identity. It's another thing entirely to cut off your genitals and reshape them into something else. With any surgery, there is risk of death and I would bet the death rate for sexual reassignment surgery is higher than zero.
A common thread among transexuals seems to be that they cannot stand having their genitals. So here's a quick test. Say you're a guy and woke up this morning without a penis, but a vagina. Or a woman who suddenly has a penis now. Would you risk your life with incredibly painful cosmetic surgery or would you find a way to accept your new body and live with it? And any transgender people / healthcare professionals, please feel free to tell me why I'm wrong and and a jerk. This is merely ignorance on my part (I don't know many people in real life) and I would genuinely like to hear differing perspectives.
This brings me to my actual topic - sexual reassignment surgery. This is not a flame thread to bash gay people or transexuals. Please don't. They have every right to exist in the world in any way that they want to without hurting anybody else. I'm not even arguing whether sex change operations should be legal or not. (They should be.)
My question is whether or not these people need psychiatric help. It's one thing to prefer another gender identity. It's another thing entirely to cut off your genitals and reshape them into something else. With any surgery, there is risk of death and I would bet the death rate for sexual reassignment surgery is higher than zero.
A common thread among transexuals seems to be that they cannot stand having their genitals. So here's a quick test. Say you're a guy and woke up this morning without a penis, but a vagina. Or a woman who suddenly has a penis now. Would you risk your life with incredibly painful cosmetic surgery or would you find a way to accept your new body and live with it? And any transgender people / healthcare professionals, please feel free to tell me why I'm wrong and and a jerk. This is merely ignorance on my part (I don't know many people in real life) and I would genuinely like to hear differing perspectives.
