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 under- standable emotional reaction to your deep-seated ambition to go through life as a woman.

You must realize, however, that emotion, especially if unusually in- tense, is not always rational and may well conflict with sound rea- son. Therefore, you should make an effort to think over your prob- lem as unemotionally as possible, and to do so more than once. Let me help you to do it by supply- ing a little more knowledge and common sense. It may prove use- ful 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 opera- tions are required to change the external appearance from male to female.

The difficulties of finding a com- petent surgeon are great. Few hos- pitals at the present time will allow such operations. Complica- tions 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 specialist in gerontology. He was consulting en- docrinologist of the College of the City of New York and has con- tributed to numerous scientific and medical journals.

SEX ROLE PROBLEM

Furthermore, the operation, even if successful, does not change you into a woman. Your inborn (gene- tic) 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`y places your testicles in the ab- domen 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 one after the operation. Even a climax (orgasm) during sex relations has been reported by most such pa- tients. But remember, a time may come when sex is no longer impor- tant. Would you still want to be a woman then? Constant glandu- lar treatment with hormone injec- tions or tablets off and on probably would be necessary for the rest of your life.

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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