Psychiatrist says sex-change surgery is a collaboration with a mental disorder, not a treatment.

http://www.narth.com ^ | Ethics & Medics, October 2005 | Richard P. Fitzgibbons, M.D.

[Maelstorm]

This covers some key topics. The first is that after sex-change operations the same feelings of gender displacement remain. Also there is copious evidence that the desire to become a woman is not because of some inborn feeling but instead a desire to escape being a man and the responsibilities of that designation.

[Travis McGee]

Amen.

[coloradan]

What is the Catholic position on hermaphrodites? (People who have both kinds of genitalia?)

[GOP Poet]

Wow. This is huge. This is going to send the gay and transgender nazis in a w-whir-rl. Of course this is a no duh moment for most of us here at FR. Thus all these programs and federal and state and local monies spent on these surgeries and hormone shots etc ate just enabling the illness.

[muir_redwoods]

"Psychiatrist says sex-change surgery is a collaboration with a mental disorder, not a treatment."

True perhaps but it does take them out of the gene pool

[GOP Poet]

ate=are. (I haven’t had breakfast yet . . . LOL.)

[DannyTN]

Captain Obvious finally makes an appearance among psychiatrists.

[pnh102]

Try selling these people on the fact that no matter what they do... no surgery will make them look like the opposite sex, ever.

[DivaDelMar]

I go further and suggest that the plastic surgeons and “therapists” are not only enabling, they are EXPLOITING mental illness.

May God have mercy on all involved.

[joeu01]

This is a lot of words for what most people know already-you have to be disturbed mentally and emotionally to mutilate yourself with a sex change.

[9YearLurker]

That is a good article, and the one GID case I know well fits perfectly within its perspective.

[Maelstorm]

Well it isn’t so obvious to most in the Psychiatrist community in many sectors. There is a push right now to eliminate GID (Gender Identity Disorder) from the DSM.

[ChildOfThe60s]

Interesting and cogent.

Something I would be interesting in seeing researched is the long term health consequences (10-20 years) of the surgeries and associated hormone use. Seems to me that there would be much higher risks of heart disease and cancer.

[9YearLurker]

I think it actually says a fair bit more than that. It says that most GID suffers know and recognize the psychological trauma that contributed to their solution and that in a supportive environment that can help them address that underlying issue there is hope for more wholeness in their natural gender and less pain in their life going forward. Finally, it says that some well-meaning parental responses intended to convey their acceptance for whomever the GID sufferer may be, particularly in pre-adult years, can be harmful by pushing them further from the needed insight and understanding.

[al baby]

"People who have both kinds of genitalia?)"

Brings new meaning to the old saying "Go screw yourself"

[ChildOfThe60s]

True perhaps but it does take them out of the gene pool

Yeah, but adoption is still an option.

[Maelstorm]

That is an entirely different thing. I’m not sure about Catholics but I imagine most Doctors would support sex reassignment at birth in those cases which works for most but there are some cases where it does not. It is not the same thing of course. Some one mentally deciding they want to be a woman or vice versa is not the same thing.

[Maelstorm]

Most of them look like monsters. There are some exceptions but not many.

[chris_bdba]

I believe it is that they test the child, find out which sex it truely is then medically treat the child that way.

[Maelstorm]

Yes the hormone treatments do result in liver complications and there is an elevated risk of cancer. That has been the one thing that has puzzled me. The idea that “doctors” would perform a procedure on someone that is likely to shorten their life.