SEX-CHANGE OPERATIONS

From Philosopedia

George Jorgensen Jr./Christine Jorgensen

SEX-CHANGE OPERATIONS

In 1952, George Jorgensen Jr. became Christine by having a sex-change operation in Denmark. An estimated 25,000 Americans have had sex-changing surgery up to 1998, according to New York Times reporter James Brooke (8 November 1998).

Through the 1980s, when few surgeons would perform the operations, about two-thirds of the nation’s sex-change surgeries were done at Mount San Rafael Hospital. In Trinidad, Colorado, of the 3,800 patients Dr. Stanley H. Biber treated, the pioneering surgeon claimed that over the years only three, all men, had been unhappy in their new sex.

Because of unfavorable publicity in the 1970s, Dr. Biber and other surgeons drew up guidelines to eliminate the surgery on demand. Most candidates now must go through two psychiatric evaluations, live and dress in their new role for at least a year, and undergo nine months of hormone treatments: testosterone for women and estrogen for men. Toward the end of 1998, Dr. Biber found a major shift in the sex of his patients, from overwhelmingly male to 50-50 now.