Gender dysphoria

Sex reassignment therapy

The phone at the Paldi residence of a renowned family of jewellers rang, and everyone in the family jumped up. It had been a week since their youngest son Shyam* had disappeared on his way home from their shop in Madhavpura. As presumed, the call was from the police. As hoped, it was the cops telling them that their child has been traced . What was not expected, though, was the police informing the family that Shyam was no longer their son, but their daughter.The youth had disappeared to undergo a gender reassignment surgery, said the police. His parents and younger sister are still recovering from the shock. Police said, “Shyam is a graduate and had joined the family business. Some years ago, he realised he was a man trapped in a woman’s body. Shyam tried to convince his family to allow him to undergo a sex change operation but they refused to listen to him. Since then, he never spoke of it at home.” Everyone thought things were fine till Shyam disappeared last week. Assistant Sub-Inspector (Madhavpura) K N Manat, who is investigating the case, said, “The family submitted a missing person application to the police. We traced his phone to a location in Navrangpura.” Cops found his motorcycle parked at a private hospital.“He had undergone a gender reassignment operation there. He gave us a statement that he willingly went under the knife. We informed the family and closed the case,” said Manat. Sources close to the development said, “Shyam had been preparing for the operation for a long time. He underwent hormone replacement therapy for a year and a half before opting for the operation.” The family rushed to the hospital, but Shyam refused to meet them. The police tried to coax the 25-year-old to talk to his relatives, but he remained adamant.When a person becomes uncomfortable in his/her skin and identifies with the other gender is called gender identity disorder or gender dysphoria. The exact cause of this disorder is not known but theories abound that certain hormonal complications during foetal development, genetic abnormalities or defects in child rearing or bonding or acombination of all three can result in gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria can be easily diagnosed based on the symptoms, psychological examination and clinical tests that are carried out by psychiatrists and psychologists who confirm the disorder. Treatment of this disorder, however, is mentally draining for the person as he/she has to come to terms with reality and either undergo a counselling session or sex reassignment and hormonal therapies if required.After undergoing counselling sessions, the person might undergo a sex reassignment or a sex change therapy. It is a surgical procedure by which a person’s physical appearance and function of their current sexual characteristics are changed to match the one’s with which they identify. It is an umbrella term for various surgeries that are performed as a part sex reassignment that include genital reconstruction surgery, chest reconstruction, breast augmentation and hysterectomy.