UK: Sex change ops on the NHS have trebled... since the procedure became a 'righ

[Natasha]

UK: Sex change ops on the NHS have trebled... since the procedure became a 'right'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1196024/Sex-change-ops-NHS-trebled--procedure-right.html
Stephanie Condron
6/28/09

The number of people having sex-change operations on the NHS each year
has almost trebled since the procedure became a 'right'.

More than 1,000 people have had the surgery in a decade, costing the
taxpayer up to £10million.

[tekla]

That's more or less one every other week.  Not like a huge amount.

[Sandy]

Now match that against the number of cardiac bypass surgeries that happen each year.  That £10million probably only a fraction of that amount.

Yeah the trans folks are just crawling out of the walls now!  Soon it'll be fashionable to get a "sex-change".  They'd better stop it before it becomes mandatory!

-Sandy

[tekla]

Yeah, but you can medically prove that by-passes save lives, or at least extend them.  Any evidence that SRS is a life saving procedure is merely anecdotal, not scientific.

[Sandy]

If SRS was not a medically accepted procedure for the treatment of GID then it would not have gained the amount of acceptance that it has in the last oh, say, 30 - 40 years!

It is a treatment, it improves the quality of life.  In many cases it successfully eliminates or reduces the amount of depression and suicidal ideation and attempts.  Doesn't that count?

-Sandy

[tekla]

I'm just saying you can't prove a quality of life issue (always a slippery slope argument at best anyway) with science the way you can prove other procedures that have a quantitative component.  I think its particularly hard in a system where care is rationed and subsidized. 

And, here is the worst part of national health, and people should think long and hard about what it would mean in the US to really have it - when you make everyone pay, you give everyone the right to question how their money is being spend.  So long as the deal in the US is, it's my money (or its covered in the insurance, which is also your money in a way) I can do with it what I want, you really disallow a lot of conversations about if its 'right' or 'wrong' - and also, the huge conversation about 'if we have X resources, and Y needs, how best to match X to Y to help the most people.'

[Syne]

actually there was a study that showed treating transsexualism did reduce co morbidity but I do not recall the size of the study. This discussion does highlight that we have a lot more to look into and how important it is that treatment can be followed and documented.

[Chrissty]

I regret that I have to agree with Tekla, in that our NHS system is slowly falling part with terrible inefficiency...and a lot of the critical resources are being rented out to private healthcare, making the waiting lists even longer.

£1m a year in the NHS is absolutely insignificant compared to the waste in administration overheads.

Chrissty

[lisagurl]

I'm just saying you can't prove a quality of life issue

You can not prove anything without money. Things that are not profitable do not stand a chance of having studies done.

[tekla]

It's far more than money, its just a subjective call as to which way of life is best, and like all subjective human stuff, the correct call is going to be different for different people at different times in their lives I bet.