2 transwomen share their life experience before gender reassignment surgery

Kritika, a 22-year-old transwoman who had faced humiliation and bullying almost her entire life, says she has finally thrown out the "masculine cage" that imprisoned her soul, after a gender reassignment surgery.

Kritika suffered from what doctors describe as "gender dysphoria", the condition of feeling one's emotional and psychological identity as male or female to be opposite to that of one's biological sex.

"I was a female trapped in a male's body. I was bullied in schools, humiliated in college and faced job rejections," she said.

Kritika hails from Lucknow and had enrolled in an engineering college. "One day some boys tried to sexually assault me, forcing me to drop out and crawl into isolation for one year," she said.

She and Taksh (22), another transwoman, shared their life struggles today at a press conference here organised by the hospital where they were operated for gender reassignment.

Kritika, who underwent surgery in October, says she is married now and working as an executive with a private airline.

Taksh, who has walked the ramp at a popular fashion show, underwent the gender reassignment surgery in February.

Richie Gupta, director of department of plastic, cosmetic and reconstructive surgery at Fortis Hospital in Shalimar Bagh in Delhi, said in gender dysphoria cases a person's mind (gender) is at conflict with the physical body and sex as assigned at birth.

"The condition has a definite neurologic, genetic and hormonal basis, as proven by scientific research. The first step is to make a firm diagnosis of gender dysphoria, and to rule out psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia. This is done with the help of psychometric analysis and opinion of two different psychiatry teams.

"Once that is done, the they also have to undergo endocrinological evaluation and hormone therapy... They must undergo real life experiences living in desired sexual role, in these cases, as a female for a period of more than two years," he said.

The hospital authorities said the facility follows the guidelines laid by World Professional Association for Transgender Health.

"In the two cases, after hormone therapy, surgeries were done (feminising genitoplasty), which involves removal of penis and reconstruction of new vagina, clitoris and labia. Breast augmentation is required in a few cases, in which sufficient breast enlargement does not occur even at eighteen months of hormone therapy, or where the transwoman specifically demands the procedure," Gupta told reporters.

Optional procedures which facilitate them in the desired sexual role in the society include, voice-change surgery, hair transplants, rhinoplasty, liposuction and facial feminisation surgery, which consists of forehead and jaw shaping surgeries, he said.

Gupta said a transman or transwoman can live normal sexual life but "cannot biologically produce children".

"However, their sperms (in case of male-to-female) or eggs (in case of female-to-male) can be preserved, and they can go for test-tube baby or become parents through surrogacy later," he said.

Taksh said: "People made me feel as if femininity was something to be ashamed of, and that I would be giving up the privileges that comes with being a male."