Sex Change

The alteration of a patient's external sex organs through surgery and hormone treatments with the aim of making them conform as closely as possible to the physical structures of the opposite sex. The prosedure is typically performed on male transsexuals, and occasionally on female transsexuals. Both male and female transsexuals are convinced that they have been trapped in the wrong body, and insist that they are meant to be members of the opposite sex physically, emotionally, and mentally.

The male-to-female operation is usually preceded by a year of psychiatric evaluation and counseling, accompanied by hormone injections and cross-dressing. During the surgical procedure, the penis and testes are removed and labia and vagina are constructed. In the female-to-male procedure, skin from the abdomen and labia are used to construct a penis and scrotum. The requests for male-to-female sex changes average about 20 to 1 in frequency over requests by females to be changed into males.

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