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make start pageBorn Between a Man and a Woman Finally Got the Surgery |
Jul 02, 2007 |
A woman from Houston who was born intersexual underwent a surgery for complete vaginal construction after a long fight for her gender identity.
Jessica's story
Jessica, who asked to use only her first name for privacy, had a rare condition called partial androgen insensitivity syndrome from her birth. Having first partially female and male genitals, with her body chromosomally male but resistant to male hormones, she waited for the surgery all her life.
Now, Jessica, 21 year old woman had a very complicated 11 hour surgery that was her dream since her adolescence. She was born with the genitals that resembled underdeveloped penis or enlarged clitoris with gonads but no vaginal opening.
Those born with this rare condition usually look like females but do not have internal organs for reproduction as females do. When she was 18 month, doctors did some corrections to her appearance, removing the gonads, correcting her urinary tract and making her external genitals resemble female ones. Jessica had been taking hormones to make her breasts grow.
In adolescence she realized her difference from the peers. She hid the truth about her condition for many years, knowing that it could arouse unhealthy interest. She always felt like a girl and wanted to have a complete vaginoplasty to end with ambiguousness of her body. Her mother lost insurance cover and Jessica had to work part-time to make her dream come true. Finally, several months ago, a doctor Lawrence Cisek from Texas Children's Hospital agreed to perform the surgery.
This type of surgery is extremely rare so that the doctor decided to videotape it as a tutorial to other experts dealing with intersexual patients. The procedure was performed with the laparascopic technique where a piece of colon was transplanted to form a vagina. The surgery was almost a whole day long with the recovery period of more than six weeks. If everything goes right, Jessica should be able to feel and function like a typical woman of her age.
Intersex
The condition known as hermaphroditism or AIS is met in one or two out of 1,000 births, according to 2000 survey of medical literature. Usually, the condition was kept in secret as a doctor decided on the gender after birth performing a surgery and prescribing the intersex person the lifetime hormones. However, this situation underwent some changes in last years. More and more patients are waiting till late childhood to make a decision on gender identity.
Sheri Berenbaum, a psychologist from Pennsylvania State University and a member of North American Task Force on Intersex said that the matter becomes even more complicated as many doctors cannot decide on the right time for the surgery as well as evaluating many other factors that can become crucial for the final decision.
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No doctor should decide on the gender of an individual. They should wait at least until the onset of puberty and let the individula decide which gender they identify with... It's all about gender identity.
