Transexual Sues Health Insurer for Refusing to Cover Breast Implant Surgery

[Shana A]

Transexual Sues Health Insurer for Refusing to Cover Breast Implant Surgery

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,655305,00.html

"This is just how I am," said former British soldier Sarah Jane Smith.

A British transexual living in Germany is taking her health insurer to court after the company refused to pay for breast implants. She argues that the operation should be covered as part of gender reassignment procedures.

Sarah Jane Smith, 51, lives in the body of a man, but for years she has self-identified as a woman. As a school boy, Smith stole his teacher's underwear, as a British soldier working in Northern Ireland he wore lingerie underneath his uniform. As a married man he donned make-up and high heels whenever he was at home alone.