Boys take female hormones in sex-change bid

Published Dec 10, 2004

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Bangkok - Thai boys as young as 10 intent on having sex changes are buying and using over the counter female hormones in an early bid to smooth their transition to womanhood, a leading surgeon said on Friday.

Dr. Preecha Tiewtranon, considered Thailand's godfather of sex re-assignment surgery has helped pioneer the process 25 years ago, said youngsters routinely acquired oestrogen and other hormones available without prescription in the kingdom, which has emerged as a world leader in the swelling cosmetic surgery industry.

"They have been taking hormones from a young age... sometimes 10 years old," Preecha told reporters at Bangkok's BNH Hospital, where he was conducting a sex change operation on Friday at a workshop of dozens of international doctors in the field.

"It's okay for the Thai standard," he said when asked about youths using hormones without approval by doctors.

He said Thais needed a single consultation with a psychiatrist to determine if they were mentally prepared to undergo gender re-assignment, while prospective patients in Western nations like the United States are mandated to undergo lengthy psychiatric testing and therapy.

A 27-year-old Thai tour guide went under Preecha's knife on Friday and was due to emerge as a woman three hours later.

Before the surgery, he said that since the age of eight he wanted to be a woman and began taking female hormones at 15.

"This is the most important thing in my life," said the patient, who identified himself as Be. "After the operation I'll feel like a new woman."

Preecha said he has performed more than 2 600 sex reassignment surgeries and hailed Thailand as a world leader in the field, in large part because of its relative low cost - minimum rates are 300 000 baht (about R45) - and high standard of treatment.

At first his patients were all Thai, "but in the past five years 90 percent of the cases are from overseas," Preecha said. Most of them were from the United States.

Westerners have flocked to the kingdom for the operations mainly because rising insurance rates and the threat of malpractice suits have driven up medical costs, and the waiting list for such procedures can be years long, he said. - Sapa-AFP

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