Health

Sex Change: The Promise That Can’t Be Kept

It is an unfortunate reality that transgender medicine is having a negative impact on the health of transgender people.  Transgender ideology promotes the idea that without medical treatment consisting of sex reassignment surgery and hormone therapy, transgender people cannot be healthy and whole.  We are routinely threatened with the spectre of suicide if transgender people are not supported and affirmed in their quest to change their sex.  In reality, sex reassignment surgery does not lower the suicide rate of transgender people and it creates a whole host of other problems.

While every adult should be able to do what they want with their own bodies, they should also be fully informed of the risks and possible outcomes.  Whether it is a nose job, face lift, breast enhancement, liposuction or whatever else, every individual who embarks on physical changes must give informed consent, which means they fully understand what is taking place, they understand the immediate risks, and the short and long term consequences have been explained to them.  In the case of transgender medicine, this is not always taking place.  Transgender people routinely have an unrealistic understanding of what to expect from the procedures they are undergoing.  Many procedures are botched and require repair.  Even when successful, there are long-term consequences of taking hormone medication for the rest of one’s life.

For those who have had relatively successful transitions, there is also another issue relating to their desire to “pass” in medical settings and not disclosing their true sex to a physician treating them, which can affect the treatment they receive and their response to it.  Males and females have different physiology – our heart attack symptoms are different, our responses to medications are different, and our risk for certain diseases is different – the list goes on.  Transgender people do themselves no favour by trying to pass at all cost – it could cost them their life if they are misdiagnosed or improperly medicated by a physician because they were too proud to disclose their true sex.