Quote from: suzifrommd on September 22, 2014, 01:25:53 PM
With increasing frequency, we've been seeing forum members speak of a need for gender surgery without socially transitioning. E.g. living post-op as a male with a vagina. They're looking for a way to do this.
The reasoning is usually something like this:
* They have body dysphoria but not social dysphoria.
* Lots of men live perfectly happy lives with vaginas. We have dozens of them posting on our FtM forum.
* Going through an RLE requires needless effort on their part and an uncomfortable year and is not helpful in decided how they want their body shaped.
* The WPATH requirement for RLE is a "guideline" and not a "rule".
Most of the time they are actively discouraged from doing this, often by the site staff. Their reasoning:
* RLE is a good idea because doctors require it.
* This is a huge step, and it's not unreasonable to require a patient to spend a year thinking about it.
* If you're not ready to live as a woman, you're probably not ready for SRS either.
What do you think? Should someone be allowed SRS who is not planning to present as a female?
Suzi,
That's the second time I have seen you write that "Lots of men live perfectly happy lives with vaginas...."
Given the lengths so many of these "perfectly happy men" go to get that problem fixed, I am really intrigued by how you can make such an affirmation which goes very contrary to my own reading of the FTM threads which, on the contrary, has me thinking most would vastly prefer to have a penis if it were easily done. Would you care to develop?
Regarding the rest of your post, given the number of people who have raised this question directly over the last few weeks, it is well worth asking.
My own take on it is that for someone who is already living as a woman and is happy, GRS looks like quite a logical step to take for both practical and psychological reasons.
For someone who is planning to continue to live as a man with no intention of ever living as a woman, it is hard, if not to say impossible, to see any practical reason to do so such surgery. Beyond that, if the intent is really to continue living as a man, in every sense of the term, I'm inclined to believe that in the person's own interest, the psychological motivations should probably be investigated even more than for a more typical MTF as we are getting dangerously close to what could look like automutilation. Not saying it should never be done, just that it would probably require even more precautions than usual.
Just to make sure I'm making myself clear, I can understand that there are MTF's who want to get GRS done but who, for practical reasons can't transition. They still identify as female though. What I am assuming is we are talking about people who do not identity as female but nevertheless think they would be happier with a vagina than with a penis.