I was a woman long before gender-affirming surgery

[Jessica_Rose]

I was a woman long before gender-affirming surgery

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/i-was-a-woman-long-before-gender-affirming-surgery/ar-BB1poZq0?ocid=windirect&cvid=3641a1781d054200be070f4da02d04c7&ei=37

Story by Ugla Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir (July 2024)

My gender-affirming surgery granted me a calmness and serenity that I'd never experienced before.

But while this was an important step for me – almost exactly 12 years ago – I can confidently say that my new genitals were not what made me a woman.

I have always been one deep down, and anyone suggesting otherwise is wrong. So trying to define a woman by their body parts alone is just another way to objectify us – trans women or not.

But even though I felt so strongly about it, I still knew that having it done didn't mean I was any more valid in who I was than the person I was before. I'd always known who I am – and that existed both before and after this surgery.

At the end of the day, I feel grateful and privileged to have had gender-affirming surgery 12 years ago. But that's not the reason I'm a woman.

I'm a woman because I know I am and I always have been. No one, no matter who they are, has the right to tell me any differently.