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Psychiatric Techniques

Dr. Edgerton explained, "A
number of attempts have been
made with psychiatric
techniques. Unfortunately the
attempts have been uniformly
unsuccessful, and it is only
because of that, that doctors
have even considered anything
as specific as surgery."

Before the surgery is
performed, psychiatrists
attempt to separate transsexuals
from homosexuals, transvestites
and those who are mentally ill.
"Homosexuals don't wish
operations... if one of them
were operated on, it would be
a tragic mistake," stressed Dr.
Edgerton. Similarly, a
transvestite doesn't wish an
operation. But the transsexual is
very serious about the surgical
change."

Another pre-operative
requirement is that the patients
live as a member of the sex
they hope to become; dressing,
dating and working, as a
member of that sex. "We're
not really changing the sex,"
Dr. Edgerton said. "The patient
doesn't come in the hospital, as
a lot of magazines might lead
you to believe, with one sex
and leave with another. Before
these operations are even
considered, they have lived for
years in the sex of their
conviction."

For years, doctors have
tried to determine what causes
an individual to become a
transsexual. Throughout the
case histories of transsexuals
there runs a persistent echo of

abnormality in the male
patients' relationships with
their mothers, and in their
childhood behaviors.

Like many transsexuals,
Karen was very feminine as a
little boy and preferred dolls
and drawing to baseball and
firetrucks. Her parents had
wanted a girl and treated Karen
(then a male) as though she
were a female. By the time she
was a teenager she was
occasionally wearing lipstick
and dressing as a woman in
public. She was certain that she
wanted to live her life as a
woman.