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PHOTO
GALLERY
A seventeen year-old makes the transition
from Adina to Ayden. Follow some of the important
milestones in her journey.
LAUNCH
PHOTOGALLERY |
Transsexualism - also known as Gender Identity Disorder
or Gender Dysphoria - is considered a psychiatric
disorder by the World Health Organization and the
American Psychiatric Association. The disorder causes
mental distress. Transsexuals will go to great lengths
to alter their sex to correspond with their gender.
Gender experts have come up with a set of guidelines
called The Harry Benjamin
International Gender Dysphoria Association's Standards
of Care For Gender Identity Disorder.
This universal consensus gives medical professionals
direction on how to manage patients seeking hormones
and surgery. The Standards of Care advise three months
of psychotherapy and that patients live as the opposite
sex for a full year before even considering surgery.
But they are only recommendations. (see the guidelines
 )
Aaron Devor says that
'sex is between the legs, and gender is between
the ears.'
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Aaron Devor
Aaron Devor is the Dean of Graduate
Studies and a Professor of Sociology at the University
of Victoria. He is an international expert in gender
and sexuality. (see his homepage
)
Devor has no doubts about the benefits of cosmetic
surgery in treating transsexuals.
Aaron Devor: "Cosmetic
surgery is done widely in society and it's done precisely
for this reason, to relieve mental anguish. Everybody
who goes in for a nip and tuck is going to go in because
they think they'll feel better."
But he says that it's not possible
to change sex completely.
"There's a whole variety
of core elements that are part of what makes a person
male or female that are not affected by the sex change
procedures. We don't have the technology to affect
people on that core level. However if you look at
the feel and the smell and the shape of the body,
we can change that quite successfully."
Dr. Ray Blanchard has
studied gender for about twenty-five years
and advises a more cautious approach.
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Ray Blanchard
Psychologist Ray Blanchard is in
charge of Canada's most established gender clinic
at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.
He has been studying transsexuals for about twenty-five
years. He says that we know more about how to treat
transsexualism than what causes it.
Ray Blanchard: "If
people are desperately unhappy right now and there
is nothing else to do besides sex reassignment, then
I think this is the best we can do and what we should
do. Cosmetic surgery can help people lead much happier
and productive lives."
His clinic sees about fifty patients
a year and he rejects 75% of them.
Ray Blanchard: "We
are not trying to encourage people to have sex reassignment
surgery. On the contrary, we encourage people to try
to make an adjustment to their biological gender."
He advises a cautious approach.
Ray Blanchard:"I think
it would be preferable if everyone who wants to make
a decision about having parts of their body removed
or altered should have some kind of screening procedure.
If not ours, then something similar to make sure that
is what they want before they take any irreversible
steps."
Dr. Leslie Shanks is
a family practitioner who treats many patients
wanting to change their sex at Toronto's Sherbourne
Health Centre.
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Leslie Shanks
Doctor Leslie Shanks is the Medical
Director at Toronto's Sherbourne Health Centre. The
clinic sees more than 200 transgendered patients.
Leslie Shanks: "Certainly
we have been shocked since we've opened our trans
programming here at the number of people we're seeing."
Shanks doesn't believe Ayden is
too young to start hormone therapy. Her goal is to
reduce the suffering of her patients.
Leslie Shanks: "We're
not talking about a political or philosophical choice.
We're talking about an intense distress with the body
that they were born in."
She says the bottom line is a person's right to make
informed decisions about their health.
Leslie Shanks: "I
would say no if I felt it wasn't a gender identity
issue. I would say no if I felt they had a medical
contraindication to it or if there was a psychiatric
contraindication to that."
Dr. Pierre Brassard is
one of the top cosmetic surgeons in the world
specializing in sex reassignment surgery.
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Pierre Brassard
Dr. Pierre Brassard is a cosmetic
surgeon at a private hospital in Montreal, Quebec.
It is the only private clinic in Canada specializing
in sex reassignment surgery. The clinic has a waiting
list more than a year long with patients coming from
all over the world. (see the website
)
He says the clinic is doing approximately two hundred
and forty male-to-female genital surgeries and ten
female-to-male genital surgeries a year. Penises are
much more complex to construct than vaginas.
Pierre Brassard: "It's
not a life saving procedure so I don't save lives.
But that's what I hear all the time. You saved my
life."
"When they (patients) come
they really need the surgery. And the surgery is really
important to them and for most of them after the surgery
they're much better.
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