Treatment of Gender dysphoria

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Once referred to a gender dysphoria clinic, alternatives to sex reassignment are considered. Counselling is offered to the individual about the range of treatment options and their implications.

Many people will choose to live as the sex they are psychologically. This can involve counselling, speech therapy, electrolysis (removal of facial hair) or hormone treatments. Hormone treatments can play an important role in the anatomical and psychological gender transition process for properly selected adults with gender identity disorders.

Sex reassignment surgery, commonly known as a sex-change operation, is given to people who are convinced that they are of the wrong anatomical sex. Such people are said to be transsexual. The transsexual person completes a detailed psychiatric and psychological evaluation to ensure that the desire is genuine and permanent and has been present for at least two years.

For a male becoming female, female hormones are taken orally to produce changes in the secondary sex characteristics, such as body hair reduction and breast development. Electrolysis and cosmetic surgery may be undertaken. The person is also required to live as a female for a minimum of one year before surgery is authorized.

If surgery is approved, the testes and erectile tissue of the penis are removed under general anaesthetic. An artificial vagina is created and lined with skin from the penis. Tissue from the scrotum (the sack that contains the testes) is then used create the labia, and the urethra (urine tube) is shortened and positioned in the female location.

For the female to male patient, the process is similar. The male hormone, testosterone, is taken by injection or patch. It produces largely irreversibly effects of beard growth and masculine muscle development, as well as a deepening of the voice. A mastectomy may then follow and the ovaries and uterus may be surgically removed. Penis construction, artificial testes implants and operations to create a male urethra and relocation of the clitoris to the head of the penis are available but the surgery is complex and costly.

The vast majority of transsexual people experience a successful outcome in terms of subjective well-being, preservation of bodily attractiveness and sexual function.