BY all appearances, Andy Guy looks like any other young man with his dark stubble, thick brows and blokey clothes.

The only physical giveaway that all may not be what it seems is his delicate-looking hands.

You see, Andy Guy wasn't always a guy.

The 33-year-old was born Anna, biologically female, and grew up to become a beautiful blonde actress - albeit one who always felt intrinsically male.

In June, Mr Guy became the first Australian to undergo the sex reassignment surgery, phalloplasty, in the US.

He returned to Sydney last week, declaring he'd never felt happier since undergoing the $80,000 procedure in which a layer of skin, a vein, artery and two nerves were taken from his right forearm to craft a penis and scrotum.

The surgery, done under general anaesthetic, was performed by three surgeons who also stitched up Mr Guy's vagina.

``I feel a lot more grounded and relaxed and a lot happier for no other reason than I'm able to exist as what I've always felt like,'' Mr Guy said.

Growing up in St Leonards, in Sydney's north, Mr Gray felt like he was a boy since he was five years old.

media_camera Pictured in Frenches Forest today is Andy Guy, 33, who returned to Sydney last week after becoming the first Australian transgender man to undergo forearm phalloplasty (i.e. using the flesh from his forearms to create male organs). He used to be a beautiful woman called Anna but always felt as if he was a male on the inside. He is making a documentary about his story.

As a youngster Anna eschewed dolls and dresses in favour of more traditionally male toys like racing car sets and skateboards, and always preferred wearing board shorts to the beach.

``I said to Mum, `If you want to be a boy, what can you do about it?' She said, `You can have an operation,''' he said.

``I guess parents brush that off as just a question or a tomboy phase.''

He attended the private girls school Wenona in northern Sydney, where he wore a dress every day and dated boys, despite always feeling attracted to females.

``If anything, it just felt like a uniform I was putting on,'' he said. ``If I had gone to a school where there would have been boy and girl toilets, it would have been a lot harder.''

After a couple of high school boyfriends, she tried dating as a lesbian and dressing very femininely.

media_camera Andy Guy as Wenona schoolgirl Anna, aged 6, in 1986. Picture: Supplied

But after his mother passed away from breast cancer 10 years ago, he began to be honest about who he really was and started hormone treatment in 2010.

His father, from whom he was briefly estranged after revealing he had gender identity disorder, eventually loaned him the money to have the procedure in San Francisco because no Australian surgeons were trained in the operation.

Mr Guy said he gets frustrated that the gender reassignment gets confused as a gay rights issue when it is really a health issue.

``This is a procedure about becoming the person you are, not about your sexual behaviour or sexual orientation, which is what it becomes caught up in,'' he said. "For me, I've always felt male. That's what I know I am. I'm just a guy.''

media_camera Andy Guy in 2008 when he was still Anna Guy. Picture: Sally Flegg Photography

Mr Guy is finishing work on a documentary on his experience, It's Not About The Sex, which he is co-executive producing with Augusta Miller, daughter of legendary director George Miller.

Since his surgery, he has been lobbying the Australian government to recognise sex reassignment as a medically necessary procedure for those suffering from his disorder.

Many other governments around the world are already helping fund the procedure, including New Zealand, where citizens receive a subsidy to travel to the US for the surgery.

However, new Federal Health Minister Peter Dutton said: "There will be no change to existing arrangements in Australia."

Originally published as New surgery helps Anna become Andy