I am confused about this idea of sex reassignment surgery

[OsculeturMeOsculo]

That depends on perception.

 

[ATraveller]

The simple truth is this area of research is not easy. They’re dealing with neuroscience, which is complex and relatively new since the brain is an extremely complex organ and the techniques for collecting pertinent data are new and researchers are still learning about how good their data collection is.
That and the field is incredibly politicized, which complicates things further.

 

[QwertyGirl]

It is an objective fact that academia is heavily state-financed, heavily influenced by political correctness, heavily atheistic and even anti-Christian, and heavily leftist. There is no credible way to deny this.

I noticed you left “nutjob” off this time. Thank you. The rest I won’t waste any time debating with you. Clearly you have your mind already made up.

 

[AnnaTheCat]

Yes, because it’s obvious.

 

[DominusEmpyreus]

I really don’t get people who insist in getting all worked up about this. First off, you realize that a certain amount of the surgery transgender people get is driven by the harassment of others who feel it is their right or prerogative to do so. You have to consider the amount of courage it takes to follow through with any sort of coming out; you will lose friends, maybe jobs, be kicked out of your house, disowned by your family, etc. Not everyone gets the surgeries you might image. Some are just fine with not doing all, can’t afford to do many, or even want any; but others endure months of genital pain, top surgery one way or another, and sometimes literally rearranging their face. Again, some of this is driven by harassment, especially for those wanting to be female. They face homophobia, being called molesters, being called failed men, sexism, and the ridiculous feminine idea.

What you see on TV or even youtube is mostly the glossed over version. Caitlyn Jenner does not speak for the trans community, she’s a rich privileged celebrity who has little to fear and could afford any surgery available.

One item that bugs me is the deal made of people using facilities of their identity. The attacks especially centers around male to female people, as if they are rapists in waiting. There’s already an etiquette that applies to everyone, do your thing and get out. I particularly find the concept of forcing people to use the facility of their birth sex hilarious, find pictures of female to male people. The testosterone they take is very effective; they can grow beards, their voice will drop, they gain muscle mass, and can go bald. Try to explain such a person to your child.

 

[anon10271182]

Here in California the state will do it for free. Well, at taxpayer expense anyway. But only if you’re a convicted murderer.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...ABAB&usg=AOvVaw0V7asiwxF1khMBTJiOo3lR&ampcf=1

 

[po18guy]

DNA does not lie. The Kinks’ 1970 song Lola tells of this sexual confusion almost 50 years ago.

 

[Alex337]

DNA does not lie. The Kinks’ 1970 song Lola tells of this sexual confusion almost 50 years ago.

This is a whole other argument about what is sex and gender. Either way trans* folk have existed for as long as we know. This is about how to treat dysphoria.

 

[Thorolfr]

Here in California the state will do it for free. Well, at taxpayer expense anyway. But only if you’re a convicted murderer.

Actually, even people on Medicaid in California can get some forms of gender reassignment surgery as well as cross-gender hormone replacement therapy. So, it’s not just murderers.

 

[anon10271182]

And taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for it.

 

[Thorolfr]

DNA does not lie. The Kinks’ 1970 song Lola tells of this sexual confusion almost 50 years ago.

Actually the DNA can lie. An intersex person who is XY can have androgen insensitivity syndrome and have all the outward physical traits of a woman. In fact, many of these people don’t even know that their chromosomes are XY until they fail to menstruate during puberty. As someone pointed out in another thread, there have undoubtedly been Intersex people who have looked physically like women and have gotten married to men in the Catholic Church, perhaps without even realizing that their chromosomes were XY.

 

[blackforest]

I believe that was the point of the study. What other control group would you have used?

This is actually as strong of a study as could be developed with this population. Randomized controlled research won’t work on such a small demographic, but the researchers had access to a lot of anonymized aggregate data for follow-up.

Ideally, the transition would have cured their dysphoria, as you have suggested. But the transgendered individuals showed a higher rate of psychosocial complications than their cisgendered counterparts. The authors are quick to caution that the research is preliminary, and they don’t attempt to explain why the complications occur. Perhaps the transgendered feel a lot of regret, perhaps they face a lot of discrimination, perhaps both of those and so much more.

But research isn’t here to whisper sweet nothings in our ears and tell us what we want to hear. It can present some uncomfortable truths that should be faced, especially when life-or-death issues like suicide arise.

 

[Thorolfr]

And taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for it.

Why not? If they have to pay for people who suffer from depression, or ADHD or OCD or other mental conditions because of the Mental Health Parity Act, then why shouldn’t they have to treat gender dysphoria?

 

[DarkLight]

I think the argument is something like, what we want to know is whether trans people who have transitioned have a better outcome than those who haven’t. So (I’m making numbers up here), if 10% of the cisgender population suffers from depression, 30% of transgender individuals who haven’t transitioned do, and 20% of those who have do, that would still suggest that there’s some gain from gender transition.

 

[blackforest]

I think the authors are working under the premise that the data for psychiatric morbidity and mortality (i.e. suicide) should be similar for the post-surgical transgendered individuals as for the general cisgendered population. That is an important question to address, and the higher morbidity and mortality rates would suggest that SRS may not be a guaranteed intervention for gender dysphoria, at least until the post-surgical issues are adequately addressed.

There’s a more recent meta-analysis. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/09540261.2015.1115753

 

[Augustinian]

Illinois has hormone therapy for transexuals in their penitentiary system

The late Richard Speck who was serving life in the Land of Lincoln was on hormone therapy according to a video that is online.

 

[anon10271182]

Treating a mental delusion with psychotherapy is one thing. Expensive elective surgeries at taxpayer expense is another.

 

[Alex337]

I don’t think anyone had ever suggested that transitioning would solve all the problems, such as the societal discrimination and years of trauma folks face.

 

[Augustinian]

Treating a mental delusion with psychotherapy is one thing. Expensive elective surgeries at taxpayer expense is another.

Surgery has been performed for psychiatric problems before. The Prefrontal Lobotomy was very popular in the mid 20th century

 

[Thorolfr]

Treating a mental delusion with psychotherapy is one thing. Expensive elective surgeries at taxpayer expense is another.

Lots of other expensive elective surgeries are performed for other medical conditions. As Wikipedia explains in its article on “Elective surgery”:

Most surgeries necessary for medical reasons are elective, that is, scheduled at a time to suit the surgeon, hospital, and patient. These include inguinal hernia surgery, cataract surgery, mastectomy for breast cancer, and the donation of a kidney by a living donor are performed as elective surgeries.

If my mother had breast cancer or I had cataracts in my eyes, I’d hope that the surgeries would be covered.