facebook
twitter
reddit
Comment
Steven Lerner, Tech Times 29 June 2018, 12:06 pm
There has been an increase in gender reassignment surgeries in recent years, including the case of a transgender man in New Jersey.
Who Is Elijah Stephens?
While growing up, Elijah Stephens knew that he was different. As early as age 6, he began to accept that he was actually a boy.
Although he never knew any transgender people as a child, Stephens did his research and wanted to transition. The first step of his transition was hormone therapy. It wasn’t an easy process for Stephens, who endured years of depression and contemplated suicide. Even today he reportedly has co-workers who ridicule him and spread gossip about his transition.
The Gorgeous Danube Delta in 4k – from Tulcea Romania
00:00
Previous
PauseNext
00:06 / 03:07
Unmute
Fullscreen
Copy video url
Play / Pause
Mute / Unmute
Report a problem
Language
Mox Player
“I love who I am,” he told NJ.com. “Because I didn’t like who I was, and to see how far I’ve come; that’s what keeps me grounded.”
The Female-To-Male Genital Reassignment Surgery
To help with his transition, Stephens endured numerous surgeries. He had a “top surgery” in 2016 to make his chest look more masculine. Stephens had a “bottom surgery” afterward to remove the vaginal canal. In February 2018, the 28-year-old finally decided to undergo a phalloplasty, a female-to-male genital reassignment surgery. It would be the first surgery of its kind in New Jersey history.
The 14-hour operation occurred at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston and it was conducted by a 15-member team of surgeons led by Dr. Jonathan Keith. Although Keith studied sexual reassignment surgery in Belgium, he never performed it before. It took him three years to plan out every aspect of the surgery.
Keith removed skin and tissue from Stephen’s left forearm to create the penis. Tissue from his thigh was implanted in the forearm to replace the other tissue. The forearm tissue was used to lengthen the urethra to carry urine through the penis. Nerves were transplanted to the penis and labial tissue was transformed into a scrotum. Keith also used arteries from the forearm so that the blood could circulate.
The Aftermath Of The Surgery
The surgery was a success. In the months since the procedure, Stephens was able to urinate in a standing position and he could achieve an orgasm. Stephens said that walking with his penis was a little awkward at first, but he has since gotten used to it.
“It’s hard to put into words,” Stephens told NorthJersey.com. “I feel whole, complete — happy beyond happy.”
His next surgery will be to add implants to help him get an erection.
Transgender Surgeries On The Rise In The US, Says Study
facebook
twitter
reddit
Comment
Karen Tumbokon, Tech Times 04 March 2018, 02:03 am
The number of transgender surgeries significantly increases in the United States based on a new study, wherein researchers also find transgender surgery as a safe procedure.
A group of researchers from Harvard University and John Hopkins University analyzed more than 20 years worth of information from the National Inpatient Sample. It is viewed as one of the largest inpatient care databases in the United States.
Transgender Surgeries Are Increasing In The US
Brandyn D. Lau, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, gathered a large amount of data on transgender surgery. The researchers compared information from patients who underwent transgender surgery from 2000-2005, 2006-2011, in addition to 2012-2014.
Milano, Cinque Terre & Lago Di Como
00:24
Previous
PlayNext
00:12 / 01:55
Unmute
Fullscreen
Copy video url
Play / Pause
Mute / Unmute
Report a problem
Language
Mox Player
Overall, Lau said the data showed a total of 37,827 medical encounters identified by a diagnosis code for transsexualism or gender identity disorder between 2000 and 2014. About 11 percent of these encounters involved gender-affirming surgery. Around 57 percent of the patients were white, and they had a median age of 38.
The data further indicated that the number of transgender surgeries had increased in 2000-2005, with at least 72 percent of patients undergoing genital surgery. From 2006 to 2011, 83.9 percent of patients underwent genital surgery. Although the data found more people with gender identity disorder, there were 4,118 patients who underwent transgender surgery.
Moreover, most of the patients who had transgender surgery didn’t have any insurance coverage. Those who did have insurance were specifically covered by private insurance, Medicaid, or Medicare.
Lau further shared what inspired him and his team to conduct the study.
“Every part of medicine has areas where we can do better. Without data specific to transgender patients, we can’t tell what we’re doing right and what we need to improve. This study was an attempt to address that problem with the best data we have available now,” said Lau.
Transgender Surgery In The Past
In the past, people who live in the United States traveled abroad to get help with transitioning. However, since then, doctors and surgeons have become more aware how important it is for people to go through a transgender surgery.
Times have certainly changed as there are a lot more transgender people in the United States. An estimated 1.4 million transgender adults in the country have been looking to get facial contouring, hormone therapy, and transgender surgery, according to the researchers from John Hopkins University.
Patients used to travel all the way to Thailand, which has been considered as one of the best destinations to undergo sex-reassignment surgery. A woman who transitions to a male spends $75,000 or more while a male who transitions to a female likely pays about $50,000.
Sex Change Regret: Growing Number Of Transsexuals Wants Gender Reversal Surgery
facebook
twitter
reddit
Comment
Allan Adamson, Tech Times 03 October 2017, 05:10 am
It was five years ago when world-leading genital reconstructive surgeon Miroslav Djordjevic accommodated the request of a transgender patient to undergo the so-called reversal surgery.
Gender Reversal Surgery
Prior to seeking Djordjevic’s help, the patient had sex change surgery that removed her male genitalia. She later changed her mind.
It was not the first and last gender reversal surgery that Djordjevic performed. Over the course of the next six months, another six patients asked him to reverse their procedures. A growing number of people, in fact, mulls about reversals despite the complexity of the procedure, which can take several operations to be performed over a course of a year, and the high cost.
The Gorgeous Praha
00:00
Previous
PauseNext
00:05 / 02:22
Unmute
Fullscreen
Copy video url
Play / Pause
Mute / Unmute
Report a problem
Language
Mox Player
Not Always An Effective Treatment
Djordjevic said that those who want to have reversal told him about the crippling depressions they experienced after the transition. Some even reached the point of getting suicidal, an occurrence already revealed by studies that found sex reassignment is not always an effective treatment for transexualism.
In a 2011 study published in the journal PLOS One, researchers found that transexuals who had sex reassignment have higher risk for suicidal behavior, mortality, and psychiatric morbidity compared with the general population.
“The overall mortality for sex-reassigned persons was higher during follow-up than for controls of the same birth sex, particularly death from suicide. Sex-reassigned persons also had an increased risk for suicide attempts and psychiatric inpatient care,” researchers wrote in their study.
Personal issues may still persist even after a sex change. Those who underwent gender reassignment have been sharing about their experiences that prompt them to consider reversal.
“I had assumed the problem was in my body,” related a transgender who shared her regret about transitioning. “Now I saw that it wasn’t being female that was stopping me from being myself; it was society’s perpetual oppression of women. Once I realised this, I gradually came to the conclusion that I had to detransition.”
A Money Matter
After talking with patients, Djordjevic, who has over two decades experience in genital reconstructive surgery, raised concerns over the psychiatric evaluation and counseling that patients who consider gender reassignment receive.
“I have heard stories of people visiting surgeries who only checked if they had the money to pay,” he said. “We have to make very strong rules: nobody who wants to make this type of surgery or just make money can be allowed to do so.”
To date, all the reversals Djordjevic performed have been transgender women over 30 years old who want to restore their male genitalia.
