What’s really troubling is that a number of us commenting know guys who have done this. I do too, and he went in as an obsessive, selfish, masculine-looking man and came out even more obsessive, more selfish (which was very difficult to do) and he’s still very masculine looking. He lost his job, somehow got on disability, and threatened suicide if his ex-wife didn’t take him back... haven’t seen either of them in almost a decade, but at the time, the two of them had even fewer friends than they did before his surgery.
I knew someone too - don’t know what’s become of he/she/it but I did see their name on a email that went by my desk so I assume they’re still working in their job.
Three things I learned:
This individual apparently took a blow to the head about 3 years before they went public. Some people that knew him/her said that the blow to the head must have knocked a screw loose.
This individual was trying to ask me for tips on how to get the state or the insurance company to pay for their medical care/surgery.
This individual had to take female hormones for year prior to having the chopping procedure. They said that one day they noticed that they were crying for no reason and for something that wouldn’t have made them cry previously. That one observation/statement gave me great insight into how women are emotionally made up. Maybe I’m not the first one to have ever realized this (duh) but female hormones and tears for no reason are definitely linked. It’s just not often that you can do such a biological experiment and use the person themselves as the “control” subject.