Thailand Sex Change Surgery

Sex Change Surgery in Thailand - New Regulations November 2009

2009-09-13T11:28:00.000-07:00

Sex Change Operations in Thailand are to face new rules and regulations in late 2009. The article below discusses regulations that will be faced by domestic Thai SRS patients. It is unclear yet probable that these rule changes will affect incoming patients from abroad looking for SRS operations carried out in Thailand by Thai surgeons skilled in Sex Change Surgery.

From November 29, the Medical Council of Thailand will strictly enforce new regulations allowing only those transgendered people aged over 18 to undergo a sex-change operation, secretary general Dr Samphan Komrit said yesterday.

Transgendered people aged 18 to 20 must have parental consent, while those over 20 can decide for themselves.

Transgendered people must also consult a psychiatrist, live as a woman for a year and receive hormone therapy before being allowed to undergo a sexchange operation.

Surgeons who provide such operations must be registered with the Medical Council and treat any complications that may occur following surgery.

Samphan said these regulations would raise the standard of sexchange operations.
He said surgeons violating the regulations would face warnings and even revocation of their medical licence.

Transgender Women of Thailand chairperson Yollada Suanyot expressed satisfaction with the new regulations but said relevant agencies, such as the Interior, Foreign and Justice ministries, should revise laws to allow transgendered people to change their gender title from Mr to Miss.
Yollada said changing their gender title after undergoing a sex change would help transgendered people live with dignity.

"It would be good if we could change from being a Mr to a Miss, because then we could proudly assert we're a women. We'd no longer have to explain we're a 'ladyboy' when anyone looks at our ID or passport," she said. "We want to live with dignity, the same as anyone else."

Office of the AttorneyGeneral investigator Sermkiat Woradit suggested transgendered people band together to request the independent National Human Rights Commission to help revise all laws involving them, be it civil, criminal or family law.

Samphan said he backed this idea and that relevant agencies should issue special laws for "third sex" citizens.

Pongphon Sarnsamak - The Nation/Asia News Network

Sexual Reassignment Surgery in Thailand or The US - Consider The Costs

2008-02-06T08:46:00.000-08:00

Thinking of undergoing Sexual reassignment surgery in The US? - Think again!

Below is an account of someone who did "The Works" in The US and at US prices. If you don't have that kind of money to spare or simply don't want to spend that vast sum then consider having all the surgical procedures done in Thailand at 20% of the US cost.

This account was passed to me. Sorry I don't know who the writer is. If you know then
please tell me and I can properly reference the article about SRS in Thailand.

It costs way more than you think to transition properly. By properly, I mean making sufficient
changes that you can live successfully in your identified gender. Living successfully means
that you are know longer seen as your birth gender.

If all you want to do is change your genitals from male to female you can do that in Thailand
for less than $12,000 US plus airfare. You'll need to have a good amount available for
counseling afterwards if this is all you do as your face, facial hair, voice, body build, hair, etc.
will cause you to not fit in to society.

If you want sticker shock, these are my costs that I incurred over the 2006 - 2008 period
using the best US doctors (in my opinion anyway):

Sexual reassignment surgery (vaginaplasty) - $21,650
Sexual reassignment surgery (labiaplasty) - $4,770
Breast augmentation - $6,975
Facial Feminization Surgery (part 1 - jaw alignment) - $11,680
Facial Feminization Surgery (part 2 - trachea shave, jaw contouring, shortening the chin,
shortening the upper lift, rhinoplasty, forhead contouring, hair advancement) - $40,945
Laser Hair Removal of beard and mustache - $1,940
Electrolysis (preparation for SRS) - $650
Counseling ($70 to $125 per hour, once a week for about 3 years) - over $6000 and still
counting
Voice therapy ($80 hour for about a year) - about $4000
Miscellaneous costs such as airfare and lodging - about $1000

Total to transition completely - just over $100,000.

Oh by the way, that doesn't include the indirect costs of lost income, alimony or child
support if transitioning causes you to loose your job or marriage. This is not something to take likely. Go talk to a counselor before you do anything else.

Plastic Surgery in Thailand, Sex Change Surgery in Bangkok - A New Nose or a New Gender

2008-01-17T09:22:00.000-08:00

Bangkok, Thailand and its shiny new clinics have become the new capital for medical tourism, particularly for plastic surgery - and sex change surgery Wether you are looking for larger breasts, smaller breasts, larger buttocks, smaller buttocks, a new nose or even a new gender there is a Thai surgeon whose skills are fo hire.

In a huge ground floor room with panoramic windows, English patients and Saudi nobility sit back in comfortable sofas with Starbucks coffee in their hands. Welcome to ‘Bumrungrad International’, the largest private hospital in south east Asia, nestled right in the heart of Bangkok. Here, you feel a long way from the operating tables. The atmosphere is more akin to a luxury hotel or a shopping centre, with escalators leading straight to a MacDonald’s and a book shop, as well as to boutiques on the second floor. This is exactly what the management of this new generation hospital intended. The nurses are recruited on appearance as well as their qualifications. Appointments can be made from abroad via email after consulting their detailed website, complete with a photo of your surgeon.

It is thanks to establishments like the Bumrungrad, listed on the stock market, with its 400,000 foreign patients a year – equal to 40% of its clientele – that Thailand has become a favourite destination in less than a decade. The combination of ‘sea, sex and scalpel!’ attracts more than a million tourists each year, almost one tourist in ten, and this seems unlikely to change.

Tourism in Asia is currently seeing 20- 30% growth per year. South America, Singapore, India and Malaysia are finding it hard to compete with their smaller Thai neighbours in terms of the quality of treatments, prices and the local tourism infrastructure, which are widely advertised abroad by a governmental organisation, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)

Although most clients involved in this kind of tourism are American, Australian or from Asia and the Middle East, more and more Europeans are turning to the Thai scalpel, frustrated by long waiting lists and the price of operations in their home countries.

The focus of this enthusiasm is plastic surgery. Operations of an aesthetic nature are developing extremely quickly in Thailand in response to growing national and international demand. More and more Europeans are therefore coming to visit Siamese soil for long enough that ‘She’ can ‘fix’ her nose (2, 300 Euros), enlarge or reduce her bust, get rid of her winkles and remove her fat with liposuction. While his other half is getting a waistline worth putting on the cover of Elle, ‘He’ can take the opportunity to make his baldness a bad memory (1, 400 Euros minimum), remove his tattoos and enlarge his pectorals.

‘Bumrungrad international’ admits between 300 - 500 patients of this calibre each year, predominantly from Britain, France and Germany. After a few days of recovery, the hospital recommends, among other things, recuperation suites near the beaches of Phuket and Pattaya before returning to Europe.

Travel agencies are onto a good deal, working with local clinics to specialise in all inclusive packages, combining ‘operation + hotel + beach’ for their patients, who are still primarily tourists just like any other. ‘Bumrungrad’ even has an agreement with Thai airways where patients can exchange air miles for a medical check-up at the hospital.

Of course all of this comes at a high price. A facelift by Dr Pichet, director of the Bangkok plastic surgery clinic, will cost 3, 500 dollars. You can have full lips for the same amount. European patients make up 30% of their clients and are mostly women. However, Dr Pichet has more than one scalpel up his sleeve because he is primarily an SRS specialist, a mysterious abbreviation referring to sex reassignment surgery.

There is no shortage of patients in this group either. '30% of my operations are linked to sex changes, mainly from male to female, and are usually combined with operations to feminise the chest and face,' continues the Doctor. 'A full sex change needs to be approved by a psychologist and must include pre and post operative check-ups. The embassy also has to be informed of their legal change of identity or the patient may be unable to cross the border!'

The situation is the same at BNH hospital in Bangkok, which admits about fifty European clients per year for similar operations, with the Italians and the English at the top of the list. Although there is no such thing as risk free plastic surgery, the doctors state that side affects for their procedures are minimal and that their clients are completely satisfied. Judging by the patients’ bright new smiles and the thank you cards sent to their doctors, it is almost
convincing.

A SEX SWAP OP..AT 18 EXCLUSIVE BRITAIN'S YOUNGEST-EVER TRANSSEXUAL

2007-04-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

In her low-cut dress Lucy Parker smiles confidently at the camera. She couldn't be more different than the picture of the 11-year-old boy in his school uniform with the pudding-basin haircut.

Yet the pictures taken seven years apart are of the same person. Richard Parker, schoolboy, has become Lucy Parker, the teenage girl who loves make-up and wearing the highest of high heels.

At 18 Lucy is the youngest transsexual in Britain. She started hormone treatment at 16 and has had an operation to give her breasts. In a few months her transformation will be complete after a final operation.

"Some people will say I am too young to have made this decision, but for me becoming a true woman can't come soon enough," says Lucy. "I have spent 16 years trapped in a man's body, but my soul is a woman's."

At the beginning of the year Lucy, who's a Size 8 and 5ft 10in tall, had 34C breast implants - an 18th birthday present from her mum Allison, 41.

In the next few months Lucy will undergo $10,000 sex reassignment surgery, possibly in Thailand, to remove her manhood and build a vagina. "After the operation I will be finally who I was meant to be," says Lucy who lives in Middlesbrough on Teesside.

Sarah Arnold Sundaymirror.Co.Uk

Sex Change Surgery - The Beginning

2007-03-24T21:09:00.000-07:00

"The Johns Hopkins Hospital has quietly begun performing sex change surgery.
The Baltimore hospital, one of the most eminent teaching and research institutions in the country, has also established a "gender identity clinic," staffed by a special committee of psychiatrists, surgeons and other specialists, to screen applicants for the operation.

Although the controversial surgery has been performed in many European countries in the last fifteen years and by a few surgeons in this country, Johns Hopkins is the first American hospital to give it official support.

Two operations approved by the committee of specialists have already been performed, the first last September and the second last month ... They are said to be recovering satisfactorily.

In the male-to-female operation, which takes three-and-a-half to four hours, the external genitals are removed and a vaginal passage created.

Female hormone treatments before and after surgery gradually reduce secondary male sexual characteristics such as body hair and enhance feminine appearance through breast development and the widening of hips.

About ten percent of the 100 applications received by the hospital have been from women, on whom a transformation operation can also be performed.

The men and women who seek sex change surgery are called transsexuals. They are almost always physically normal, but they have a total aversion to their biological sex that dates from early childhood. They have the apparently unshakable conviction that they are either female beings trapped in a male body or males trapped in a female body.

The overriding desire in the case of men is to be accepted as women. For this reason, psychiatrists believe, they are often sexually inactive before surgery because of their distaste for homosexual relationships.

Although transsexuals frequently assume the identity of the opposite sex without surgery, they are distinguished from transvestites, who derive pleasure from wearing the clothing of the opposite sex but have no desire for a sex change.

While opinion is not unanimous, many leading psychiatrists and psychoanalysts who have examined transsexuals, believe that they cannot be helped by psychotherapy. Such persons, moreover, are regarded as prone to mental breakdown and depression, suicide and, occasionally, self mutilation.

Dr. John E. Hoopes, a plastic surgeon who is chairman of the Johns Hopkins committee, said last week:

"After exhaustively reviewing the available literature and discussing the problem with people knowledgeable in this area, I arrived at the unavoidable conclusion that these people need and deserve help."

Transsexualism is thought to be relatively rare and far more frequent in men than in women. Dr. Hoopes said transsexuals in this country probably numbered in the thousands.

About 2,000 persons have undergone sex change surgery. Of these, perhaps 500 are from the United States. The best known is probably Christine Jorgensen, formerly George Jorgensen, who was operated on in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1952 and has since become a nightclub performer and actress.

Virtually all the operations have been performed in Europe, Morocco, Japan, and Mexico. A few surgeons have performed the operation in this country, probably not more than a dozen times in all, but many hospital boards have refused to permit it.

Experts in the field believe that the Johns Hopkins decision that the surgery does not violate legal restrictions on mutilation or ethical and moral codes will lead to its being performed at other hospitals in the United States.

The Johns Hopkins committee was formed a year ago. After preliminary studies, it began accepting applications for surgery in July. Most of its patients have been referred to it by the Harry Benjamin Foundation here.

The foundation is headed by Dr. Harry Benjamin, an endocrinologist, who has been studying and treating transsexuals, often without charge, for the last 15 years.

Dr. Benjamin has led the fight to have these persons regarded as a distinct medical phenomenon and coined the term transsexual to describe them. Earlier this year he published a book, The Transsexual Phenomenon.

His work is supported by the Erickson Foundation of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which also pays the cost of transsexual research at Johns Hopkins. The foundation, headed by Reed Erickson, also supports research in air pollution and human resources. Mr. Erickson is a consulting engineer of independent wealth.

The Johns Hopkins clinic examines only two patients a month. There already is a long waiting list. Applicants receive a thorough physical and mental examination from the committee, which costs $100. Only those who show no signs of psychosis and appear to have a degree of insight into their condition are accepted. . . . A number of psychiatrists familiar with the subject regard the majority of transsexuals as emotionally normal except for their gender confusion, which leads to intense feelings of frustration.

"It flies in the face of everything I believed when I began," said a Los Angeles psychiatrist-psychoanalyst, who has done considerable research in the field. "They are shockingly normal except for that one area."

After surgery and about two weeks of hospital care, the overall cost of which averages about $1,500, the patient is asked to be available for further study at the hospital. Also, for a former male, for example, to retain external female characteristics, he must continue receiving female hormones.

"This program, including the surgery, is investigational," Dr. Hoopes said. "The most important result of our efforts will be to determine precisely what constitutes a transsexual and what makes him remain that way.

"Medicine needs a sound means of alleviating the problems of gender identification and of fostering public understanding of these extremely unfortunate individuals. It is too early in the program to be either optimistic or pessimistic."

The origins of transsexualism are not yet certain. No organic basis for the condition has been found, but research is continuing into the possibility that it may be at least partly due to heredity or abnormal glandular functions before birth.

Psychiatrists believe that transsexualism is caused by prolonged conditioning early in life, perhaps within the first three years. Some cases, in which a mother wanted a daughter instead of a son and raised her child accordingly, seem obvious, but the origin of others is obscure.

By means of the family histories that it takes from transsexuals, the Johns Hopkins committee, as well as the Benjamin Foundation, hopes to shed new light on the problem. Similar investigations, although without surgery, are also being carried on at the University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center."

This amazing news was rapidly propagated by other newpapers all around the country.

This article appeared on the front page of The New York Times on November 21, 1966: