Should society really enable this?

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OK, I happen to be a MtoF Transgendered individual. While I understand that modification to *your* genital area is considered mutilation, to people like myself, it isn't. I see people with tongue piercings, nose and lip rings and tattoos. That form of "self-mutilation" creeps me out, but that's just because it's something that I don't feel the need to do to my body. Having pierced ears is enough.

For me, sex-reassignment surgery came second after I had facial surgery first. It was more important for me to blend into society facially since that is the feature that allows people to identify you, as you. After that was accomplished, it became time for me to blend into society genitally. You might laugh at that kind of comment, but it's true. Here is what you have to deal with prior to surgery:

First, you constantly have to hide the genitals by wearing some kind of undergarment (this is what I did) to literally tuck it between your legs. This would tend to apply constant pressure on the testicles, which was very discomforting. On rare occasions reflexive arousal would occur. It's rare with a virtually dead sex-drive, but it can still happen.

Second, you have to be careful about what you wear. One time I wanted to buy a nice pair of slacks, but unfortunately I couldn't because the genital area was too revealing, even with an undergarment. I hated not being able to wear what I wanted to and that really bothered me.

Third, suppose you get into an accident (heaven forbid) and need immediate medical attention. Do you want to die because some EMT who cuts away your skirt or jeans can't deal with the horror of conflicting genitals? It has happened before and even though accidents are rare, it would be an awful way to die.

Fourth, it's just mental torture knowing you have a genital configuration that you honestly feel should not have been there in the first place. Imagine having your current brain, but waking up in the body of a member of the opposite sex and then being told to just deal because that's the body you are given. That would be awful, wouldn't it?


Do I miss my prior genital arrangement? Nope. My current genital arrangement works perfectly and I'm still orgasmic. Yes, I did get a Urinary Tract Infection just once so far (which sucked) and having to dialate sucks too, but I've made the best of it. I fit in perfectly as a female member of society and that's all I wanted.

I believe it's perfectly reasonable to expect someone to live at least 6 to 9 months as the gender they desire to become prior to any surgery. After that, let them have the surgery because it really is torture to deny someone what they truly want so badly. If someone is going to judge us for what we've done to our bodies, let it be the Lord himself.

Thanks for understanding.

A few points:
In terms of the comparison to requesting amputation for cosmetic type reasons, I personally don't see anything wrong with that providing that the person is of sound mind.

Gender is often considered to be a social construct, so I'd consider that separate from one's biological sex, so in that case one wouldn't necessarily be changing their gender characteristics through surgery.

I'd also consider it more ethical to perform sexual reassignment surgery than most plastic surgery. As another poster said, people are thoroughly psychologically evaluated before being allowed to undergo sexual reassignment, but many people go through numerous costmetic surgeries with no evaluation whatsoever.

it is NOT my place to say whether this is right or wrong.

"The fact is that a person can never truly switch his or her gender but will only destroy his or her sexual organs and any chance at fertility by undergoing such a surgery."


I think you're confusing gender with sex.


"It just doesn't seem right to me that the medical community would indulge this."


The medical community hardly indulges it. It's extremely difficult and very expensive to get any sort of SRS surgery.

We feel that we were born mutilated.
Is hard to explain and hard to understand, I know.
Anyway we don't need that people understand us... only respect is needed.

I can see where you're coming from in some respects, what with not understanding why people would purposefully "destroy" or "mutilate" something that already works *biologically* perfectly, but there's so much more to it than that, as everyone else has already said.

Something else to consider: what about other elective surgeries? Women get breast enhancements that interfere with the sensation and *function* of their nipples. Most women with enhanced breasts cannot breastfeed. Even more, they run the risk of the implants bursting someday and, depending on what's in them, either being poisoned or getting nasty infections. People who get botox are injecting poison into their *faces*. Some men are now getting penis enhancing surgery that increases size but decreases sensation. Plastic surgery is dangerous and generally completely elective, and far less necessary to most people who get it than SRS is to transgender people. Just something to think about to put things into perspective.

***Excuse me, but I have minds to twist and values to warp***

A person who decided to undergo SRS does have to go through a period of psychological counseling, as well as meet standards above and beyond basic psychological health (see the Harry Benjamin standards).

Anyone can go get a cosmetic procedure, some of which are very mutilating with potential short and long term consequences, often with nothing more than enough money to pay for the procedure. And yet that is acceptable to most people in our general society.