2 gender reassignment surgeries performed in Madurai

These two, one a 24-year-old is a postgraduate (M Com) from Madurai, and the other, a 21-year-old B Com graduate who lives with his parents in Tirunelveli, have been living as transmen for over 10 years before undergoing the female-to-male gender reassignment surgery performed by the transgender specialty team of GRH under the guidance of Dean A Rathinavel, sources said.

Before taking this crucial step, they underwent psychiatric assessment and hormonal therapy for more than a year as per the Tamil Nadu Government National Health Mission (NHM) protocol. Doctors said it was important to assess and address their emotional state before performing the surgery.

It took a team of specialists drawn from various specialities to perform this surgery that lasted about two hours for each of them. This included the obstetrics and gynaecology team led by the department head, Dr N Sumathi, and Jeyanthi Prasad and Krishnaveni. They did hysterectomy, a gynaecological abdominal operation, and bilateral salpingo oophorectomy, a surgery to remove both fallopian tubes and ovaries.

While Dr S Pappiah and Sudharson was in charge of anaesthesia, pre and postoperative care was provided by the Department of Plastic Surgery led by its head, Dr Suresh Kumar.

Dr Sridhar S, head of the Department of Endocrinology and also convenor of the Transgender Clinic at the hospital, said the clinic was fully functional with all specialities every Thursday. He added that 10 more patients were waiting to undergo gender reassignment surgery in the coming days. After the clinic at GRH came into existence in July, 37 transpersons are in various stages of preoperative treatment, Dr Sridhar said. Plans are afoot to introduce breast implantation surgery, penile implant procedure, voice therapy by vocal cord tightening, and laser hair removal for hirsutism for transpersons in the coming days, he said. With the help of Social Welfare Department, the Transgender Board at GRH has conducted medical assessment and issued transperson identity cards 170 individuals.

Apart from Tamil Nadu, such surgeries have only been done in two or three states including Kerala and West Bengal, sources said.