Gender reassignment therapy
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Gender reassignment therapy is an umbrella term for all medical procedures regarding gender reassignment of both transgendered and intersexual people. (Sometimes also called sex reassignment, as it alters physical sexual characteristics to be more in line with the individual's psychological/social gender identity, rather than vice versa.)
Gender reassignment therapy consists of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), various surgical procedures (see below), and epilation for transwomen, that is permanent hair removal on the face and body is accomplished with electrolysis or laser hair removal.
Sexual reassignment surgery is used for both the (re-)construction of male or female genitals specifically, this is also called genital reassignment surgery, or, often, for any surgical proceedures which will reshape a male body into a body with a female appeance or vice versa
- For transmen (Direction female-to-male)
- Sexual reassignment surgery female-to-male
- Mastectomy is the removal of female breasts and, in case of gender reassignment, the shaping of a male contoured chest.
- Hysterectomy is the removal of female internal sex organs.
- Metoidioplasty is the construction of a small penis out of the clitoris which has been enlarged by HRT
- Phalloplasty is specifically the construction of a neo-penis in transmen
- For transwomen (Direction male-to-female)
- Sexual reassignment surgery male-to-female
- Vaginoplasty The shaping of a neo-vagina
- Penile inversion - the most common form of genital reassignment surgery.
- Colovaginoplasty - a particular form of genital reassignment surgery.
- Breast augmentation is the enlargement of breasts, which can be necessary if HRT did not yield satisfactory results.
- Facial feminization surgery
Requirements
The requirements for hormone replacement therapy vary greatly, often at least a certain time of psychological counseling is required, and so is a time of living in the desired gender role, if possible, to ensure that they can psychologically function in that life-role. This period is sometimes called the Real Life Test (RLT).
Generally speaking, physicians who perform sex-reassignment surgery require the patient to live as the opposite gender in all possible ways for at least a year ("cross-live") prior to the start of surgery. The RLT is usually part of a battery of requirements. Other frequent requirements are regular psychological counseling and letters of recommendation for this surgery.
Generally speaking, physicians who perform sex-reassignment surgery require the patient to live as the opposite gender in all possible ways for at least a year ("cross-live") prior to the start of surgery in order to assure that they can psychologically function in that life-role. This period is sometimes called the Real Life Test (RLT); it is part of a battery of requirements. Most professionals in the USA who provide services to transsexual women and men follow the controversial Standards of Care for Gender Identity Disorders put forth by the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association. Outside the USA, many other SOCs, protocols and guidelines exist, although the Harry Benjamin SOCs are certainly the best known. There exists a significant and growing political movement to redefine the SOC, asserting that they do not acknowledge the rights of self-determination and control over one's body, and that they expect (and even in many ways requires) a monolithic transsexual experience when in reality there are as many different ways of being transsexual as there are transsexual people. In opposition to this movement is a group of transsexual persons and caregivers who assert that the SOC are in place to protect others from "making a mistake" and causing irreversible changes to their bodies that will later be regretted -- though few post-operative transsexuals believe that sexual reassignment surgery was a mistake for them.
See also: List of transgender-related topics