[WillowTheWhisp]

Originally Posted by Gayle

I can't begin to understand the hell that a person who believes that they are the wrong sex can be going through,

I have heard people try to explain the torment of living in what to them seems like an alien body. I can only come close to trying to imagine it if I think how I would feel if I woke up one morning with the body of a big hairy navvy and was told I'd have to spend the rest of my life like that! I know it would feel wrong and not feel like me and would probably drive me insane.

Originally Posted by pendy

Although I know three people who have had gender reassignment surgery, I still don't really understand it. How can you know, if you are one gender, how it feels to be the other? So how can you know you would be happier male or female as the case may be?

Yes, that's a good point. If you have never experienced life as the other gender - how do you know?

Having said all that, I do have sympathy for those who have struggled through childhood feeling that they have been wrongly assigned at birth, especially if there have been doubts which required a decision leading to earlier surgery. However in this particular case the guy has lived apparentkly quite happily as a man and managed to father 9 flippin children so he can't have exactly had much of a problem relating to his gender whilst he was doing that! Then expecting the tattoo removal as an additional freebie just adds insult to injury.

There are times when I feel that the line between cosmetic surgery for vanity and plastic surgery for medical reasons meet in a shady grey area - the point about boobs and depression being one. Depression is a very real medical condition and perhaps having surgery is the lesser of two evils if it prevents years pf misery, counselling and/or drugs. Equally valid can be breast reduction where the weight is causing physical discomfort and it isn't all about being fat or going on a diet. I know a very slim young woman who has naturally huge bosoms, but there has to be a point where the NHS says "No" because life savings drugs etc should take priority.