Like the cd’s they leave behind when they break into the car.
1 Like
Is he still robbing old people’s houses?
i really hope that hes not but i dont truthfully know
They broke into the wife’s car a few years back and stole everything down to the headlight bulbs. Bar the cd’s. They didn’t take even one.
1 Like
It’s a fairly standard bit of messing, I would have thought.
1 Like
What about a finger up the arse?
1 Like
I’m alright at the minute pal. Thanks though.
1 Like
theres isent a thing wrong with it, but how do lads end up going from that towards the frank maloney route.
1 Like
theres nothing wrong with that either
1 Like
If someone is deeply unhappy in themselves, they could be an easy target for a surgeon that sees an opportunity. At this point in time the benefits of surgery have not been established, but there’s money to be made one way or another.
Plus there’s a big difference between what Frank Maloney did and a purely hypothetical situation whereby a horny heterosexual male, on mid-term from college while his bird is at work, gets baked and throws on her dress, sticks a finger up his pipe while pulling the guts off himself in front of the mirror.
Fire up a link to a peer reviewed medical study showing the beneficial effects of surgery on gender dysphoria, the medical condition we are discussing.
1 Like
Conclusion
The very high rates of subjective satisfaction and the surgical outcomes indicate that gender reassignment surgery is beneficial. These findings must be interpreted with caution, however, because fewer than half of the questionnaires were returned.
Psychosocial outcome and quality of sexual life after sex reassignment surgery: An Italian multicentric study
Objective: Sex reassignment surgery (SRS) in the treatment of Gender Dysphoria has been shown to be followed by high levels of postsurgery satisfaction, improvement in quality of life and in the general psychosocial functioning of clients, both on a short and long-term perspective (Michel et al., 2002; Landén et al., 1998; Lawrence, 2003). More recent studies based on a cohort design (Dhejne et al., 2011), however, show that after surgery, transsexuals clients are still at higher risk of mortality, psychopathology and suicidal behavior than the general population. Aim of the present study is assessing long-term outcome of SRS, through a multicentric design which involved three Italian centers specialized in the treatment of gender dysphoria (Milan, Florence, Bari).
Methods: Transsexual clients who received SRS were contacted and asked to complete a comprehensive assessment (adaptation from Lawrence 2003) including: levels of satisfaction for SRS, regret after surgery, psychosocial functioning, quality of sexual life, clinical history of gender dysphoria. Also, all participants completed the Italian version of the Psychological Well-Being questionnaire (Ryff, 1995, Ruini et al., 2003). The battery was completed either online or in a paper-and-pencil format. 28 FtM and 49 MtF transsexuals persons from the three centers completed the questionnaires, from 1 to 31 years after surgery.
Results: In both samples we found high levels of satisfaction in all the areas explored (including sexual life after surgery), and levels of psychological and social well-being comparable to those of the general population.
Conclusion: Our results support previous studies suggesting that SRS not only alleviates gender dysphoria but also improves quality of life and psychosocial functioning in transsexual persons.
Author/-s: Antonio Prunas; Diamante Hartmann; Maurizio Bini; Elisa Bandini; Alessandra Daphne Fisher; Mario Maggi; Valeria Pace; Luca Quagliarella; Orlando Todarello
Publication: Journal of Sexual Medicine, 2015
Web link: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/274833229_Psychosocial_outcome_and_quality_of_sexual_life_after_sex_reassignment_surgery_An_Italian_multicentric_study
Effects of sex reassignment surgery on quality of life and mental health in transsexuals
Introduction: Gender identity disorder is an emergent and important disorder which may lead to devastating consequences and comorbidities if proper treatment approaches are not used.
Objectives: We planned showing the improvements in patients’ life in multilple domains after sex reassignment surgery (SRS).
Aims: In our research we focused on changes experienced by people who gained new gender identity with sex reassignment surgery.
Methods: We interviewed at least one year after the operation with 20 sex reassigned transsexuals (SR-T) who were once on SRS programme of Istanbul University Psychiatry Department Psychoneurosis and Psychotherapy Unit and who had confirmative rapports for surgery and we also interviewed with 50 non-sex reassigned transsexuals (NSR-T) who applied to the same unit for SRS programme.
Results: Worries about gender discrimination and gender victimization were lower, but worries of being uncovered about transgender identity were higher in SR-T group. SR-T group scored lower on Family Assessment Device, 4th and 5th items of Arizona Sexual Life Scale and total points excluding the 3rd item (item for penile erection and vaginal lubrication), but scored higher on Multi Dimensional Scale for Perceived Social Support, Coopersmith Self Esteem Scale and psychological subscale of World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale-Brief Form.
Conclusions: The SRS used in the treatment of transsexuality releases the conflict and makes the transformation on official gender and is associated with improvements in quality of life, self esteem, family support, sexual life satisfaction and interpersonal relationships and reduction in worries about gender discrimination and gender victimization.
Author/-s: B. Ozata; S. Yüksel; H. Noyan; M. Avayu; E. Yildizhan
Publication: European Psychiatry, 2014
Web link: http://www.europsy-journal.com/article/S0924-9338(14)77643-6/abstract
Gender-Related Victimization, Perceived Social Support, and Predictors of Depression Among Transgender Australians
This study examined mental health outcomes, gender-related victimization, perceived social support, and predictors of depression among 243 transgender Australians (n = 83 assigned female at birth, n = 160 assigned male at birth). Overall, 69 % reported at least 1 instance of victimization, 59 % endorsed depressive symptoms, and 44 % reported a previous suicide attempt. Social support emerged as the most significant predictor of depressive symptoms (p > 0.05), whereby persons endorsing higher levels of overall perceived social support tended to endorse lower levels of depressive symptoms. Second to social support, persons who endorsed having had some form of gender affirmative surgery were significantly more likely to present with lower symptoms of depression. Contrary to expectations, victimization did not reach significance as an independent risk factor of depression (p = 0.053). The pervasiveness of victimization, depression, and attempted suicide represents a major health concern and highlights the need to facilitate culturally sensitive health care provision.
Author/-s: Crystal Boza; Kathryn Nicholson Perry
Publication: International Journal of Transgenderism, 2014
Web link: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15532739.2014.890558#.U5HxsE2KAUE
Suicide Risk in the UK Trans Population and the Role of Gender Transition in Decreasing Suicidal Ideation and Suicide Attempt
Purpose: This article examines suicidal ideation and suicide attempt within the UK trans population and highlights the impact of gender dysphoria, minority stress and medical delay
Design/methodology/approach: This represents a narrative analysis of qualitative sections of a survey that utilised both open and closed questions. The study drew on utilised a non-random sample (n=889), obtained via a range of UK-based support organisations and services.
Findings: The study revealed high rates of suicidal ideation (84 % lifetime prevalence) and attempted suicide (48 % lifetime prevalence) within this sample. A supportive environment for social transition and timely access to gender reassignment, for those who required it, emerged as key protective factors. Subsequently, gender dysphoria, confusion/denial about gender, fears around transitioning, gender reassignment treatment delays and refusals, and social stigma increased suicide risk within this sample.
Research limitations/implications: Due to the limitations of undertaking research with this population, the research is not demographically representative.
Practical implications: The study found that trans people are most at risk prior to social and/or medical transition and that trans people who require access to hormones and surgery can be left, in many cases, unsupported for dangerously long periods of time. The article highlights the devastating impact that delaying or denying gender reassignment treatment can have and urges commissioners and practitioners to prioritise timely intervention and support.
Originality/value: The first exploration of suicidal ideation and suicide attempt within the UK trans population revealing key findings pertaining to social and medical transition, crucial for policy makers, commissioners and practitioners working across Gender Identity Services and suicide prevention.
Author/-s: Louis Bailey; Sonja J. Ellis; Jay McNeil
Publication: Mental Health Review Journal, 2014
Web link: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/MHRJ-05-2014-0015
Young Adult Psychological Outcome After Puberty Suppression and Gender Reassignment
Background: In recent years, puberty suppression by means of gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogs has become accepted in clinical management of adolescents who have gender dysphoria (GD). The current study is the first longer-term longitudinal evaluation of the effectiveness of this approach.
Methods: A total of 55 young transgender adults (22 transwomen and 33 transmen) who had received puberty suppression during adolescence were assessed 3 times: before the start of puberty suppression (mean age, 13.6 years), when cross-sex hormones were introduced (mean age, 16.7 years), and at least 1 year after gender reassignment surgery (mean age, 20.7 years). Psychological functioning (GD, body image, global functioning, depression, anxiety, emotional and behavioral problems) and objective (social and educational/professional functioning) and subjective (quality of life, satisfaction with life and happiness) well-being were investigated.
Results: After gender reassignment, in young adulthood, the GD was alleviated and psychological functioning had steadily improved. Well-being was similar to or better than same-age young adults from the general population. Improvements in psychological functioning were positively correlated with postsurgical subjective well-being.
Conclusions: A clinical protocol of a multidisciplinary team with mental health professionals, physicians, and surgeons, including puberty suppression, followed by cross-sex hormones and gender reassignment surgery, provides gender dysphoric youth who seek gender reassignment from early puberty on, the opportunity to develop into well-functioning young adults.
Author/-s: Annelou L.C. de Vries; Jenifer K. McGuire; Thomas D. Steensma; Eva C.F. Wagenaar; Theo A.H. Doreleijers; Peggy T. Cohen-Kettenis
Publication: Pediatrics, 2014
Web link: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2014/09/02/peds.2013-2958.abstract
This article is summarised and commented on in “Paediatrics: Transgender medicine—long-term outcomes from ‘the Dutch model’” by Daniel E. Shumer and Norman P. Spack in Nature Reviews Urology, 2014 (http://www.nature.com/nrurol/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nrurol.2014.316.html).
Speaking from the Margins – Trans Mental Health and Wellbeing in Ireland
Conclusions – Impact of Transition on Mental Health: The key finding to emerge from this study was the significance of gender transition in improving mental health and wellbeing. Seventy-five percent of the respondents felt that their mental health had improved since transitioning. Ninety-two percent were more satisfied with their bodies and 84 % more satisfied with their lives since transitioning. Both social and physical changes of gender were shown to have a substantially positive impact on trans people’s self-esteem, happiness and quality of life. Crucial here was the importance of being able to socially transition towards their felt gender identity and having that identity recognised by others. Alongside and interacting with this was the positive role played by hormonal and surgical interventions, which enabled necessary physical and psychosocial changes to be made. Such changes reduced instances of gender dysphoria and negative body image and, in turn, served to increase confidence, satisfaction and overall wellbeing.
Hormone usage had an extremely high success rate, with 90 % of users feeling more satisfied with their lives and 87 % feeling more satisfied with their bodies since initiating hormonal therapy. In relation to surgical procedures, 90 % of those who had undergone genital surgery reported feeling more satisfied with their bodies, and 83 % were more satisfied with their bodies after undergoing other surgical procedures such as breast augmentation or chest reconstruction. Of those who had made physical changes via hormones or surgery, 92 % reported having no regrets. However, participants highlighted the importance of having the right hormonal balance and receiving post-surgical care and support. Those waiting for surgical procedures or to start hormones highlighted the negative impact that delays had on their mental health.
Rates of self-harming, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts were high, with 44 % of respondents having self-harmed, 78 % thinking about suicide and 40 % of those having attempted suicide at some point over the life course. However, gender transition was shown to drastically reduce rates of self-harm and suicidal ideation within this group. Of those who had completed transition, 76 % reported having self-harmed more prior to transition, but none of the participants had self-harmed more after transition. In addition, 81 % thought about or attempted suicide more before transitioning, but this amount was reduced to 4 % after transition among those who had already transitioned.
Whilst transition has been shown to significantly reduce rates of self-harm and suicidal ideation, it follows that those who would like to transition but who are unable to or who are experiencing significant delays or set-backs within the health care system will be at risk of increased self-harm and suicidal behaviour. Six percent of respondents reported currently selfharming at the time of completing the survey; 28 % had thought about taking their life in the last week; and one person said they were planning to commit suicide soon or in the near future. Trans-related reasons for participants’ self-harm and suicidal ideation included gender dysphoria, not having their gender recognised, social stigma, frustrations with treatment delays, lack of access to treatment, worry that they would never ‘fully’ or ‘successfully’ transition, having their identity misunderstood by health professionals and not feeling supported by gender identity specialists.
Author/-s: Jay McNeil; Louis Bailey; Sonja Ellis; Maeve Regan
Publication: Report by the Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI), 2013
Web link: http://www.teni.ie/attachments/5bdd0cd5-16b6-4ab6-9ee6-a693b37fdbcf.PDF
Study of quality of life for transsexuals after hormonal and surgical reassignment
Aim: The main objective of this work is to provide a more detailed assessment of the impact of surgical reassignment on the most important aspects of daily life for these patients. Our secondary objective was to establish the influence of various factors likely to have an impact on the quality of life (QoL), such as biological gender and the subject’s personality.
Methods: A personality study was conducted using Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) so as to analyze two aspects of the personality (extraversion and neuroticism). Thirty-eight subjects who had undergone hormonal surgical reassignment were included in the study.
Results: The results show that gender reassignment surgery improves the QoL for transsexuals in several different important areas: most are satisfied of their sexual reassignment (28/30), their social (21/30) and sexual QoL (25/30) are improved. However, there are differences between male-to-female (MtF) and female-to-male (FtM) transsexuals in terms of QoL: FtM have a better social, professional, friendly lifestyles than MtF. Finally, the results of this study did not evidence any influence by certain aspects of the personality, such as extraversion and neuroticism, on the QoL for reassigned subjects.
Author/-s: N. Parola; M. Bonierbale; A. Lemaire; V. Aghababian; A. Michel; C. Lançon
Publication: Sexologies, 2010
Web link: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1158136009000796
Transsexualism in Serbia: a twenty-year follow-up study
Introduction: Gender dysphoria occurs in all societies and cultures. The prevailing social context has a strong impact on its manifestations as well as on applications by individuals with the condition for sex reassignment treatment.
Aim: To describe a transsexual population seeking sex reassignment treatment in Serbia, part of former Yugoslavia.
Methods: Data, collated over a period of 20 years, from subjects applying for sex reassignment to the only center in Serbia, were analyzed retrospectively.
Main outcome measures: Age at the time of application, demographic data, family background, sex ratio, the prevalence of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) among female-to-male (FTM) transsexuals, and readiness to undergo surgical sex reassignment were tabulated.
Results: Applicants for sex reassignment in Serbia are relatively young. The sex ratio is close to 1:1. They often come from single-child families. More than 10 % do not wish to undergo surgical sex reassignment. The prevalence of PCOS among FTM transsexuals was higher than in the general population but considerably lower than that reported in the literature from other populations. Of those who had undergone sex reassignment, none expressed regret for their decision.
Conclusions: Although transsexualism is a universal phenomenon, the relatively young age of those applying for sex reassignment and the sex ratio of 1:1 distinguish the population in Serbia from others reported in the literature.
Author/-s: Svetlana Vujović; P. Popovic; G. Sbutega-Milosevic; M. Djordjevic; Louis J. G. Gooren
Publication: The journal of sexual medicine, 2009
Web link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18331254
Long-term follow-up: psychosocial outcome of Belgian transsexuals after sex reassignment surgery
Background: To establish the benefit of sex reassignment surgery (SRS) for persons with a gender identity disorder, follow-up studies comprising large numbers of operated transsexuals are still needed.
Aims: The authors wanted to assess how the transsexuals who had been treated by the Ghent multidisciplinary gender team since 1985, were functioning psychologically, socially and professionally after a longer period. They also explored some prognostic factors with a view to refining the procedure.
Method: From 107 Dutch-speaking transsexuals who had undergone SRS between 1986 and 2001, 62 (35 male-to-females and 27 female-to-males) completed various questionnaires and were personally interviewed by researchers, who had not been involved in the subjects’ initial assessment or treatment.
Results: On the GAF (DSM-IV) scale the female-to-male transsexuals scored significantly higher than the male-to-females (85.2 versus 76.2). While no difference in psychological functioning (SCL-90) was observed between the study group and a normal population, subjects with a pre-existing psychopathology were found to have retained more psychological symptoms. The subjects proclaimed an overall positive change in their family and social life. None of them showed any regrets about the SRS. A homosexual orientation, a younger age when applying for SRS, and an attractive physical appearance were positive prognostic factors.
Conclusion: While sex reassignment treatment is an effective therapy for transsexuals, also in the long term, the postoperative transsexual remains a fragile person in some respects.
Author/-s: Griet de Cuypere; Els Elaut; Gunter Heylens; G. van Maele; G. Selvaggi; G. T’Sjoen; R. Rubens; P. Hoebeke; S. Monstrey
Publication: Sexologies, 2006
Web link: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1158136006000491
This study found a reduction in the rate of suicide attempts from 29.3 % pre-treatment to 5.1 % post-treatment.
Factors Associated with Satisfaction or Regret Following Male-to-Female Sex Reassignment Surgery
This study examined factors associated with satisfaction or regret following sex reassignment surgery (SRS) in 232 male-to-female transsexuals operated on between 1994 and 2000 by one surgeon using a consistent technique. Participants, all of whom were at least 1-year postoperative, completed a written questionnaire concerning their experiences and attitudes. Participants reported overwhelmingly that they were happy with their SRS results and that SRS had greatly improved the quality of their lives. None reported outright regret and only a few expressed even occasional regret. Dissatisfaction was most strongly associated with unsatisfactory physical and functional results of surgery. Most indicators of transsexual typology, such as age at surgery, previous marriage or parenthood, and sexual orientation, were not significantly associated with subjective outcomes. Compliance with minimum eligibility requirements for SRS specified by the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association was not associated with more favorable subjective outcomes. The physical results of SRS may be more important than preoperative factors such as transsexual typology or compliance with established treatment regimens in predicting postoperative satisfaction or regret.
Author/-s: Anne A. Lawrence
Publication: Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2003
Web link: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1024086814364
Patient Satisfaction with Sex Re-assignment Surgery in New South Wales, Australia
An evaluation of the effect of sex re-assignment surgery on a group of patients attending a private clinic in Sydney, Australia. Fifty-seven patients who underwent full male-to-female sex re-assignment surgery between 1987 and 2000 completed a satisfaction survey. Several factors that might influence the extent of satisfaction with surgical outcome were explored, including age, work status, social life, and the appearance and function of the new genitalia. Patients reported significantly improved social and personal satisfaction following surgery, compared with five years previously. The study challenges outcomes from previously reported studies with regard to the age of patients at the time of surgery, and the finding that from the patient’s perspective, there is no fundamental association between a successful surgical outcome and a satisfactory post-operative life experience.
Author/-s: Fran Collyer; Catherine Heal
Publication: Australian Journal of Primary Health, 2002
Web link: http://www.publish.csiro.au/?paper=PY02039
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brynn-tannehill/myths-about-transition-regrets_b_6160626.html
But there’s the 2004 British study that says gender-confirmation surgery (GCS) isn’t effective.
This statement is another gross representation of the research. The study in question was an update of a 1997 study and concluded that between 1998 and 2004, only two studies on the effectiveness of GCS had partially met the criteria of being peer-reviewed and having both a control group and a dropout rate of less than 50 percent. Of those two studies, both showed that patients benefited from the treatment. But the small sample size of the studies prohibited the update from drawing any conclusions on the effectiveness of GCS.
The problem is that meeting the requirement of double-blind studies with control groups using transgender individuals is both impractical and ethically unacceptable, as summarized here:
One problem with medical treatment (and obviously surgery) for transsexuals is that blinding of studies is not possible. It is immediately obvious whether a participant received treatment or not, substitution by placebo will not work for obvious reasons. Clearly, all sex reassignment studies thus fail the gold standard. The next issue is including a control group into the study. This would require to properly diagnose transsexuals, making sure they meet the requirements and indications for sex reassignment surgery, and then to randomly split the participants into two groups — one receiving surgery and one not. Clearly, both groups have to be large for the result to be statistically valid. Then you could measure quality of life of the participants and compare the groups at intervals of several years. That’s the theory, anyway.
In reality, you would find the pressure transsexuals find themselves under grow so much that a large part of the untreated group commits suicide (Haas, Rodgers, Herman 2014) or seeks treatment illegally or abroad. This makes such a study highly unethical, it would never get the okay from an approvals body! You simply cannot withhold treatment from a highly stigmatised group that has a prevalence of 42 to 46 % suicide attempts, compared with 4.6 % in the general population.
But this does not mean there hasn’t been research: Seventy-one peer reviewed articles showing the effectiveness of transition-related medical care can be found here. http://www.cakeworld.info/transsexualism/what-helps/srs
And in 2014 another study, by Dr. Cecilia Dhejne, the lead author of the first Swedish study described above, addressed the dropout-rate issue in a study of all Swedish applicants for GCS between 1970 and 2010. She found a 2.2-percent regret rate for both sexes, and a significant decline in regrets over the time period.
Hopkins Hospital: a history of sex reassignment
By The News-Letter on May 1, 2014
19 Comments
By RACHEL WITKIN
For The News-Letter
In 1965, the Hopkins Hospital became the first academic institution in the United States to perform sex reassignment surgeries. Now also known by names like genital reconstruction surgery and sex realignment surgery, the procedures were perceived as radical and attracted attention from The New York Times and tabloids alike. But they were conducted for experimental, not political, reasons. Regardless, as the first place in the country where doctors and researchers could go to learn about sex reassignment surgery, Hopkins became the model for other institutions. But in 1979, Hopkins stopped performing the surgeries and never resumed.
In the 1960s, the idea to attempt the procedures came primarily from psychologist John Money and surgeon Claude Migeon, who were already treating intersex children, who, often due to chromosome variations, possess genitalia that is neither typically male nor typically female. Money and Migeon were searching for a way to assign a gender to these children, and concluded that it would be easiest if they could do reconstructive surgery on the patients to make them appear female from the outside. At the time, the children usually didn’t undergo genetic testing, and the doctors wanted to see if they could be brought up female.
“[Money] raised the legitimate question: ‘Can gender identity be created essentially socially?’ … Nurture trumping nature,” said Chester Schmidt, who performed psychiatric exams on the surgery candidates in the 60s and 70s.
This theory ended up backfiring on Money, most famously in the case of David Reimer, who was raised as a girl under the supervision of Money after a botched circumcision and later committed suicide after years of depression.
However, at the time, this research led Money to develop an interest in how gender identities were formed. He thought that performing surgery to match one’s sex to one’s gender identity could produce better results than just providing these patients with therapy.
“Money, in understanding that gender was — at least partially — socially constructed, was open to the fact that [transgender] women’s minds had been molded to become female, and if the mind could be manipulated, then so could the rest of the body,” Dana Beyer, Executive Director of Gender Rights Maryland, who came to Hopkins to consider the surgery in the 70s, wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
Surgeon Milton Edgerton, who was the head of the University’s plastic surgery unit, also took an interest in sex reassignment surgery after he encountered patients requesting genital surgery. In 2007, he told Baltimore Style: “I was puzzled by the problem and yet touched by the sincerity of the request.”
Edgerton’s curiosity and his plastic surgery experience, along with Money’s interest in psychology and Migeon’s knowledge of plastic surgery, allowed the three to form a surgery unit that incorporated other Hopkins surgeons at different times. With the University’s approval, they started performing sex reassignment surgeries and created the Gender Identity Clinic to investigate whether the surgeries were beneficial.
“This program, including the surgery, is investigational,” plastic surgeon John Hoopes, who was the head of the Gender Identity Clinic, told The New York Times in 1966. “The most important result of our efforts will be to determine precisely what constitutes a transsexual and what makes him remain that way.”
To determine if a person was an acceptable candidate for surgery, patients underwent a psychiatric evaluation, took gender hormones and lived and dressed as their preferred gender. The surgery and hospital care cost around $1500 at the time, according to The New York Times.
Beyer found the screening process to be invasive when she came to Hopkins to consider the surgery. She first heard that Hopkins was performing sex reassignment surgeries when she was 14 and read about them in Time and Newsweek.
“That was the time that I finally was able to put a name on who I was and realized that something could be done,” she said. “That was a very important milestone in my consciousness, in understanding who I was.”
When Beyer arrived at Hopkins, the entrance forms she had to fill out were focused on sexuality instead of sexual identity. She says she felt as if they only wanted to consider hyper-feminine candidates for the surgery, so she decided not to stay. She had her surgery decades later in 2003 in Trinidad, Colo.
“It was so highly sexualized, which was not at all my experience, certainly not the reason I was going to Hopkins to consider transition, that I just got up and left, I didn’t want anything to do with it,” she said. “No one said this explicitly, but they certainly implied it, that the whole purpose of this was to get a vagina so you could be penetrated by a penis.”
Beyer thinks that it was very important that the transgender community had access to this program at the time. However, she thinks that the experimental nature of the program was detrimental to its longevity.
“It had negative consequences because when it was done it was clearly experimental,” she said. “Our opponents were able to use the experimental nature of the surgery in the 60s and the 70s against us.”
By the mid-70s, fewer patients were being operated on, and many changes were made to the surgery and psychiatry departments, according to Schmidt, who was also a founder of the Sexual Behaviors Consultation Unit (SBCU) at the time. The new department members were not as supportive of the surgeries.
In 1979, SBCU Chair Jon Meyer conducted a study comparing 29 patients who had the surgery and 21 who didn’t, and concluded that those who had the surgery were not more adjusted to society than those who did not have the surgery. Meyer told The New York Times in 1979: “My personal feeling is that surgery is not proper treatment for a psychiatric disorder, and it’s clear to me that these patients have severe psychological problems that don’t go away following surgery.”
After Meyer’s study was published, Paul McHugh, the Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Hopkins Hospital who never supported the University offering the surgeries according to Schmidt, shut the program down.
Meyer’s study came after a study conducted by Money, which concluded that all but one out of 24 patients were sure that they had made the right decision, 12 had improved their occupational status and 10 had married for the first time. Beyer believes that officials at Hopkins just wanted an excuse to end the program, so they cited Meyer’s study.
“The people at Hopkins who are naturally very conservative anyway … decided that they were embarrassed by this program and wanted to shut it down,” she said.
A 1979 New York Times article also states that not everyone was convinced by Meyer’s study and that other doctors claimed that it was “seriously flawed in its methods and statistics and draws unwarranted conclusions.”
However, McHugh says that it shouldn’t be surprising that Hopkins discontinued the surgeries, and that he still supports this decision today. He points to Meyer’s study as well as a 2011 Swedish study that states that the risk of suicide was higher for people who had the surgery versus the general population.
McHugh says that more research has to be conducted before a surgery with such a high risk should be performed, especially because he does not think the surgery is necessary.
“It’s remarkable when a biological male or female requests the ablation of their sexual reproductive organs when they are normal,” he said. “These are perfectly normal tissue. This is not pathology.”
Beyer, however, cites a study from 1992 that shows that 98.5 percent of patients who underwent male-to-female surgery and 99 percent of patients who underwent female-to-male surgery had no regrets.
“It was clear to me at the time that [McHugh] was conflating sexual orientation and the actual physical act with gender identity,” Beyer said.
However, she thinks that shutting down the surgeries at Hopkins actually helped more people gain access to them, because now the surgeries are privatized.
“Paul McHugh did the trans community a very big favor … Privatization [helps] far more people than the alternative of keeping it locked down in an academic institution which forced trans women to jump through many hoops.”
Twenty major medical institutions offered sex reassignment surgery at the time that Hopkins shut its program down, according to a 1979 AP article.
Though the surgeries at Hopkins ended in 1979, the University continued to study sexual and gender behavior. Today, the SBCU provides consultations for members of the transgender community interested in sex reassignment surgery, provides patients with hormones and refers patients to specialists for surgery.
The Hopkins Student Health and Wellness Center is also working toward providing transgender students necessary services as a plan benefit under the University’s insurance plan once the student health insurance plan switches carriers on Aug. 15.
“We are hopefully working towards getting hormones and other surgical options covered by the student health insurance,” Demere Woolway, director of LGBTQ Life at Hopkins, said. “We’ve done a number of trainings for the folks over in the Health Center both on the counseling side and on the medical side. So we’ve done some great work with them and I think they are in a good place to be welcoming and supportive of folks.”
Schmidt does ongoing work to provide the Hopkins population with transgender services, and says he would like for Hopkins to start performing sex reassignment surgeries again. But Chris Kraft, the current co-director of the SBCU, says that this is not feasible today, as no academic institution provides these surgeries since not enough people request them.
“It is unfortunate that no medical schools in the country have faculty who are trained or able to provide surgeries,” he wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “All the best surgeons work free-standing, away from medical schools. If we had surgeons who could provide the same quality services as the other surgeons in the country, then it would make sense to provide these services. Sadly, few physicians are willing to make gender surgery a priority in their careers because gender patients who go on to surgery are a very small population.”
Beyer, however, does not think that the transgender community needs Hopkins to reinstate its program, and that there are currently enough options available.
“We’re way, way past that,” she said. “It’s no longer the kind of procedure that needs an academic institution to perform research and development.”
Though she finds the way that Hopkins treated its sex reassignment patients in the 60s and 70s questionable, she thinks that the SBCU has been a great resource for the transgender community.
“Today those folks are wonderful people,” Beyer said. “They’re very helpful. They’re the go-to place up in Baltimore. They’ve done a lot of good for a lot of people. They’ve contributed politically as well to passage of gender identity legislation in Maryland and elsewhere.”
The Maryland Coalition for Trans Equality’s Donna Cartwright said that the transgender community does not have enough resources available to them. She said offering surgery at a nearby academic institution could provide more support to the community.
“Generally, the medical community needs to be better educated on trans health care and there should be greater availability [of sex reassignment surgery],” she said. “I think it would be good if there was an institution in the area that did provide health care, including surgery.”
McHugh had already made up his mind on the issue even before he entered Johns Hopkins University. Therefore it’s no surprise that a study he wanted to produce a certain set of results, did so.
http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/mchugh.htm
McHugh:
This interrelationship of cultural antinomianism and a
psychiatric misplaced emphasis is seen at its grimmest in the
practice known as sex-reassignment surgery. I happen to know about this because Johns Hopkins was one of the places in the United States where this practice was given its start. It was part of my intention, when I arrived in Baltimore in 1975, to help end it.
Team @Sidney is after going nuclear on this, no way @anon7035031 can compete with the avalanche of data dished up here.
@anon7035031 will sift through all that.
Im advising nobody else to read it in the meantime lads, let our man deal with this one.
6 Likes
Does anyone have @Bandage’s phone number? Give the poor bastard a call and make sure he hasn’t dropped dead.
Also, I just checked google hot trends, and “gender dysphoria” and “gender realignment post-op satisfaction” have just broken Top-10 with over 20,000 searches thanks, single-handedly, to @Sidney and his afternoon / evening of furious internetting. Incredible scenes!
1 Like
His pre marathan running self is on some TV3 show there aptly called no fatties allowed.