Objective To investigate postoperative
functioning of the first 22 consecutive adolescent transsexual patients of
our gender clinic who underwent sex reassignment surgery.
Method The subjects were interviewed by an
independent psychologist and filled out a test battery containing
questionnaires on their psychological, social, and sexual functioning. All
subjects had undergone surgery no less than 1 year before the study took
place. Twelve subjects had started hormone treatment between 16 and 18 years
of age. The posttreatment data of each patient were compared with his or her
own pretreatment data.
Results Postoperatively the group was no
longer gender-dysphoric; they scored in the normal range with respect to a
number of different psychological measures and they were socially
functioning quite well. Not a single subject expressed feelings of regret
concerning the decision to undergo sex reassignment.
Conclusions Starting the sex reassignment
procedure before adulthood results in favorable postoperative functioning,
provided that careful diagnosis takes place in a specialized gender team and
that the criteria for starting the procedure early are stringent.
Citation: J Am Acad
Child Adolesc Psychiatry 1997 Feb;36(2):263-71 an article published on the
Internet by PubMed <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/>
