Tougher to get sex change

[Shana A]

Nov 25, 2009
Tougher to get sex change

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_458856.html

BANGKOK - PUNLOP Tongchai is awake for the entire two hours it takes to be turned into a woman on the operating table of a Bangkok sex change clinic, realising a childhood dream.

The 27-year-old Thai cabaret dancer chats to nurses throughout the ordeal under the surgeon's knife, numbed only by local anaesthetic.

Growing up in Thailand, a country with one of the largest transgender populations in the world and surgeons who have pioneered ever cheaper and quicker sex change techniques, Punlop's ambition was always within reach. For as little as US$2,000, he became a woman.

also

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hFXJFvNLdTk3-kQMkXVArPlOu_Jg

[Hannah]

On the day of the operation, Punlop strolls into the surgeon's glass-fronted clinic, set along a busy Bangkok street in the heart of the city's shopping district, after friends recommended Thep's "fully conscious" procedure.
Dressed in a sundress, tracksuit top and sandals with a face free of make-up, Punlop is escorted up three flights of steps to a small, dingy operating theatre, the walls plastered with newspaper cuttings of transsexual cabaret stars.
Thep takes an hour and three quarters to fashion a vagina using the skin of Punlop's male genitals. She is free to leave the same day and within four weeks had completed all the necessary check-ups.

Fully conscious 

[qRachelp]

Fully conscious 

I'd do it fully conscious if I had to.  With me, it's either SRS or death; there is no other option.

Without Reserve,
Rachel

[Janet_Girl]

I'd do it fully conscious if I had to.  With me, it's either SRS or death; there is no other option.

Without Reserve,
Rachel

Amen Sister.  Amen.



Janet

[Hannah]

Yeah but there are options. I don't know for sure that I'd want a one hour vagina, I'd rather save some money for a while and get a nice, pretty, working one.

[Butterfly]

Thailand tightens sex change laws
The Telegraph UK
By Claire Truscott, in Bangkok for AFP
Published: 2:30PM GMT 27 Nov 2009


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/6669101/Thailand-tightens-sex-change-laws.html


Punlop Tongchai is awake for the entire two hours it takes to be turned into a woman on the operating table of a Bangkok sex change clinic.

The 27-year-old Thai cabaret dancer chats to nurses throughout the ordeal under the surgeon's knife, numbed only by local anaesthetic.

Growing up in Thailand, a country with one of the largest transgender populations in the world and surgeons who have pioneered ever cheaper and quicker sex change techniques, Punlop's childhood ambition was always within reach.

For as little as $2,000 (£1,218), he became a woman.

But the government is making it tougher for patients like Punlop to undergo the procedure, forcing them to prove they are psychologically fit to change sex.