Man Undergoes Sex Change

Weeks after the Supreme Court’s verdict on section 377 of CrPC sparked raging debates across the country over individual’s right to sexual choice, a young man from Kolkata underwent a sex change operation at a private hospital here earlier this week to have a “more comfortable relations” with his male partner, free of legal hassles.

“I feel I am a woman trapped in a male body. That’s why I decided to go under the knife to change myself. It will be unfair to call me gay as I am a woman from within and my partner too sees me as so. Both of us would be more comfortable after the change,” said the graduate, who did not want to be named or photographed. The 23-year-old, a beautician by profession, said she used to dress up like a girl since her childhood. “When my family noticed what they called some unusual behavior as I grew up, they started imposing restrictions. But I could never imagine myself as a man,” she said.

“I met with strong resistance from my family when I told them that I had decided to undergo the surgery, but finally they relented. My boyfriend stood strongly behind me,” she said from the hospital bed on Thursday. Her boyfriend works as a chef.

Dr Jayant Kumar Dash, who led a team of doctors for the gender reassignment surgery, said the youth’s male organ was removed and a female sex organ created by a surgical procedure called genitoplasty. She will undergo a series of other secondary procedures to become a complete woman in six to eight months, he said. She would have to go through surgical procedures for change of her voice, facial feminization and breast augmentation. Before the surgery, she was on hormone therapy for the last six months, the doctor said.

Dr Dash said such “patients” have what is called genetic identify disorders. Though born male with all male anatomical features, they are female psychologically. They are usually detected by psychiatrists. Prevalence of such male is one in about 12000 globally according to various studies, he said. Though she will have a near normal sex life as a female post-surgery, she will not be able to conceive as ovary and uterus can’t be created artificially. The entire procedure would cost her anything between Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh.