your mind. Sometimes you may feel that such an operation is all you live for and that, without it and without the change you can accomplish that way, life is not worth living. This is an understandable emotional reaction to your deep-seated ambition to go through life as a woman.

You must realize, however, that emotion, especially if unusually intense, is not always rational and may well conflict with sound reason. Therefore, you should make an effort to think over your problem as unemotionally as possible, and to do so more than once. Let, me help you to do it by supplying a little more knowledge and common sense. It may prove useful for your entire future life.

First of all, sex is determined at the moment of conception and therefore never can be changed. The so-called "change" by surgery concerns only those organs that make you physically and legally a man (or a woman). A serious major operation or series of operations are required to change the external appearance from male to female.

The difficulties of finding a competent surgeon are great. Few hospitals at the present time will allow such operations. Complications may arise afterwards, more operations may become necessary and the outcome is never certain. The artificial vagina that can be created by plastic surgery may or may not function to your later satisfaction in marital relations. I am speaking from experience with more than a single patient.

Dr. Benjamin is a prominent N, Y. endocrinologist and spécialist in gerontology. He was consulting endocrinologist of the. College of the City of New York and has contributed to numerous scientific and medical journals.

Furthermore, the operation, even

if successful, does not change you into a woman. Your inborn (genetic) sex will remain male. You must be aware of this fact, although it may have no practical meaning for your later life as a woman. If the surgeon castrates you as part of the operation, you would be, technically and from the glandular point of view, neither male 'nor female. You would be a "neuter.”.,

Only your psychological sex is female. (Otherwise you would not have wanted the operation in the first place.) If the surgeon mere' places your testicles in the abdomen to make them invisible, you would have to be considered a male, from a glandular viewpoint. as well as legally.

Yet, it is true, you could look like a woman in the genital region and function as as .one after the operation. Even a climax (orgasm) during sex relations has been reported by most such patients. But remember, a time may come when sex is no longer important. Would you still want to be a woman then? Constant glandular treatment with hormone injections or tabletsoff and on probably would be necessary for the rest of your life.

Is your general appearance and physical build such that you can pass as a woman, or is it possible you will look more like a man dressed up as a woman?

Don't ask the mirror. Take the word of an objective outsider..

Masculine features, a heavy bone structure, a height above the average, a prominent "Adam's apple" could be handicaps because they cannot be changed.

The law too may cause you many difficulties and complications. even after the operation. Much red tape stands in the way for you to

mattachine REVIEW

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THIS WOMAN, Elizabeth Kimberly Belvedere Hughes, was formerly James Ernest Hughes until he underwent a sex change operation.-European.'

have your birth certificate read "female" instead of "male." But you may need that for a new job, or if you should want to get married as a woman.

And then, please remember that you are not alone in this world. You undoubtedly have relatives, parents, 'brothers and sisters. You must ask yourself how they would feel, having a daughter instead of a son, a sister instead of a brother. Their attitude and their happiness deserve your consideration before you undertake such an irrevocable step as a "conversion operation." You can only hope that they will put your happiness before their own preferences.

Religious convictions may trouble your conscience. Find peace

and clarity before you decide on something that cannot be undone.

Even if all obstacles (including the important financial one) have been overcome and the operation has become possible for you, you should remind yourself once more that when you awake from the anesthesia, you are not a woman by any means.

When you have recovered from the pain and the after-effects of the operation, after a few weeks or months, your real work beginsto change into a "woman." You have to learn how to behave like a woman, how to walk, how to use your hands, how to talk, how to apply make-up and how to dress. Existing handicaps would require special attention.

Of course, you may have had your experience with dressing, etc., for some time already, but it was then more or less a game. Now it would be so much more serious because it is permanent. Also, your beard and body hair may require long and costly electrolysis to be removed.

Finally, but highly important, how do you know you can make a living as a woman? Have you ever worked as a woman before? I assume that so far, you have only held a man's job and have drawn a man's salary. Now, you may have to learn something entirely new. Could you do that? Could you get along with smaller earnings?

Again, I ask you to think over all these problems carefully, sensibly and unemotionally. If you could try, perhaps with the help of a psychologist, to adjust yourself to your present male status, making the best of it in whatever form or manner, you may, certainly save yourself immense complications in your future life and probably many sacrifices too.

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