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.

[Zoe Brain]

Let’s try the logical, unemotional approach to “hermaphrodites”. First of all, there is NO SUCH THING as a genetic “hermaphrodite”. One either has Male Chromosomes or Female Chromosomes. That’s it.

Er, no. That's biologically nonsense.

46XX = Female, 46XY = male. Usually. But there's people with 47XXY chromosomes too. And mosaics, with both 46XX and 46XY cells in different parts of their bodies. And 45X, and 48XXYY and... many combinations.

And some people with 46XX chromosomes have fathered children, and some with 46XY chromosomes have given birth.

The trouble with many with strong opinions on these issues is that they are scientifically less than knowlegeable. A bit like Democrats discussing the economy.

[Zoe Brain]

From an eminent MD who's just given a presentation on the subject to the APA:

Hi Zoe,

Yes, we gave our presentation to 60 plus psychiatrists from the US, AU, FR, IT, EU, UK, Holland etc.

We spoke for 2 1/2 hours on why cross gender identity was a normal inherited variation of humans. We showed how Transgender Brains think, smell, and hear like the opposite sex. We presented internationally accepted guidelines for hormonal treatment of transsexuals to be published Summer 2009.

Here are my slides and with my participants' permission I shall send you theirs. We are now in print in the APA Syllabus and soon in the APA Journal this summer. I am checking if we were recorded.

My greatest personal compliment came from Frank Kruijver, from Holland, whose research of the human brain in TSs started it all. He thought we have taken his work very far in our understanding of the human brain.

Hope you can do something with this.

Sid Ecker, M.D.

Dr Ecker's slides are available at OII Australia - Organisation Intersex International, a representative group for Intersexed people, those born with biological differences from the standard male or female.

Dr Eckers conclusions are based on studies involving autopsies, MRI scans, and experiments in multiple disciplines conducted by many independant labs in different countries.

One more thing that the article doesn't mention - that Dr Zucker's "cure" results is high suicide rates, and that he attempts to pursuade the children that they are merely gay instead of transsexual.

Neither Dr McHugh's article, nor Dr Fitzgibbons' has been accepted by any medical journals, as they have no evidence whatsoever to back up their claims, merely conjecture and one highly flawed study conducted 30 years ago, which has been contradicted by over 300 studies since.

[Westbrook]

> 46XX = Female, 46XY = male. Usually. But there’s people
> with 47XXY chromosomes too. And mosaics, with both 46XX
> and 46XY cells in different parts of their bodies. And
> 45X, and 48XXYY and... many combinations.

I submit that these are extremely rare, and even rarer are the chromosomal defects that are associated with gender identity.

Furthermore, after the sugery they are committed for life to ingesting hormones of the OPPOSITE SEX.

For our insurance costs to be impacted by people who are opting for what amounts to elective, cosmetic surgery is absurd. Plastic surgeons probably enjoy the challenge, and perhaps even defray the costs. However, I suspect that the costs are passed on to insurance cases involving accident victims.

Occasionally, a very talented doctor can sculpt a member of the opposute sex, but most sex-change people end up looking like side-show circus freaks.

I recently had to pay big money for braces for one of my children. Perhaps if I could prove that it was related to one of the Liberals’ pet causes, I could have gotten a break.

[Zoe Brain]

Such a therapeutic regimen, when prescribed or recommended by qualified practitioners, is medically indicated and medically necessary. Sex reassignment is not "experimental," "investigational," "elective," "cosmetic," or optional in any meaningful sense.

That's what the World Professional Association for Transgender Health say, based on the 98% success rate from this treatment, vs the 0% of anything else. The AMA and APA both agree.

Whether it is morally justifiable or not is another matter. Some people believe that such biologically mixed-up people should be euthanased, or denied treatment so they die. Others just think they should be isolated in camps or on an island somewhere, for the good of society.

One thing - almost no medical insurance policies cover this, and many that used to deleted it. They actually pay more dealing with the long-term consequences, it costs more money not to surgically treat conditions like these, but they avoid controversy.

The initial costs amount to 19c a year per person insured, but after 5 years, the cost is negative.

[Screaming_Gerbil]

Nobody is talking about slapping anybody around to make them become a man. I was a small, thin, artsy little guy in elementary school and junior high school. I was lousy at sports. I preferred playing piano and drawing to such “manly” activities. Needless to say, I was smacked around and teased a lot. My dad was a real hard guy, born in Italy.

Nevertheless, things changed when I got to high school and I started dating girls. My musical talent paid off with the girls, for sure. Eventually I married, and now have 11 children (see my tag line). I’m very, very glad that there were no “transgender support groups” to completely screw me up when I was younger!

There is a danger in what has been called "the war on boys" or "the war against boys" to try to encourage "less aggressive" / more feminine behavior among boys. Unfortunately it just frustrates and unfairly targets the boys for normal boy behavior.

Also there is a potential danger in whatever counselors and/or support groups are out there supporting Lesbian/Gay/Transgender/Questioning youth encouraging young males to just accept being different or gay or whatever when all they are is just a normal young heterosexual male but not as masculine as most of the other boys. Thinking someone is gay (or transsexual) just because they seem to look or act that way is just as wrong as forcing someone who can't live up to being a man (or woman) to do so.

I am glad to hear that in spite of the earlier childhood difficulties you turned out ok. Good for you. Wow - 11 children! You certainly don't have a problem with male hormones!

[Westbrook]

> I am glad to hear that in spite of the earlier childhood
> difficulties you turned out ok. Good for you.

Yeah, being small and skinny and from a home where the culture was more Italian than American was a little difficult.

While I never did become good at sports myself, I’ve been able to successfully coach my children with the things I learned but was never able to do well. Consequently, they do a lot better at sports than I ever did.

> You certainly don’t have a problem with male hormones!

All it took was the right girl!
:)

And she’s still gorgeous after almost 33 years of marriage!