Canada: An advocate for the transgendered
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2008/02/10/4838437-sun.html
02/10/2008
Warneke, 65, runs the province's only transgender clinic out of the psychiatric outpatient ward at the Grey Nuns hospital in Mill Woods, where he approves 16 sex-change (or gender reassignment) operations each year.
I thought I'd post this since he's my doctor (and everyone else's in Alberta's doctor).
It's pretty crazy, 2007 was the busiest year for him, and the province can't keep up to the 16 approvals per year (more people, like myself, are approved, but stuck in the politics of having to wait until the end of the fiscal year (April 31st, I think), before we can get funding, etc. So, yeah, even longer wait lists. And I know a few people who got bumped, and then bumped again 'cause there's not enough funding (like myself). The good news is, I guess, is that after the fiscal year changes over, I should have my paperwork in and hopefully everything will work out for this year.
And hopefully, despite Alberta's political climate being uncertain at this time, that funding continues and they approve more than just 16 people per year, since the demand is much higher than just 16 people per year for GRS.
And, as a side note, the point when it talks about the judge trying to order a trans woman to "dress as a man" or she couldn't see her child -- I know that person! 0_o
But anyway, here's a copy of the story.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2008/02/10/4838437-sun.html (http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2008/02/10/4838437-sun.html)
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Sun, February 10, 2008
An advocate for the transgendered
Psychiatrist is considered to be almost a saint by some of his patients
By ANDREW HANON
r. Lorne Warneke shakes his head whenever he hears the "official" statistics.
"They're way off," Alberta's only psychiatrist who specializes in transgender issues says with a rueful smile.
The generally accepted numbers are that one in every 67,000 males is transgendered, or a woman inside a man's body.
Men trapped in women's bodies are much more rare, about one in every 107,000.
But Warneke's own informal research in the Edmonton area suggests a much more staggering number - a combined average of one in 3,000.
"There have been recent studies that are much closer to my numbers," he said. "A U.S. study found one in 4,000 and a British study found one in 2,000."
Warneke, 65, runs the province's only transgender clinic out of the psychiatric outpatient ward at the Grey Nuns hospital in Mill Woods, where he approves 16 sex-change (or gender reassignment) operations each year.
In 2007, for the first time, he could have approved more, but 16 is the maximum number of operations Alberta Health agrees to fund in a year.
"It's now gotten to the point where I'm going to have to negotiate with the government for more money," Warneke says.
Turning a man's body into a woman's costs about $21,000.
Female-to-male gender reassignment, a much more complex process that involves fashioning a penis out of a skin graft taken from the inside of the patient's forearm, is more than double the cost at $45,000.
But it takes years before a patient reaches the surgery stage, involving strenuous assessments and the opinions of at least two psychiatrists (Warneke has a few colleagues who do "second consults").
After that, patients must live as the opposite sex full-time for a year or more to be absolutely certain it's right for them.
The surgery isn't performed here. There are only two surgeons in the entire country - in Montreal - who do the operations, and nearly all gender reassignment patients in Alberta are sent there. A few have gone to the U.S.
Warneke is hopeful another surgeon will start performing the more common male-to-female procedures in Vancouver, where a new transgender clinic recently opened.
In the meantime, however, he's trying to find a younger shrink willing to take over his duties here in Alberta.
"I'm good for another few years," Warneke says over coffee in a crowded bookstore. "But at some point, I'm going to have to start slowing down."
Some of his patients consider Warneke a saint, a dedicated advocate who has worked tirelessly on behalf of transgendered Albertans.
"He's such a unique individual," says Michael, who had gender reassignment five years ago. "In Alberta, we're about as redneck as you can get in Canada and he's here fighting for us."
Warneke shrugs it off, saying he's only doing what's right. He spends a lot of time lobbying schools, employers and even judges on behalf of his patients.
In one child-custody case, a judge originally ruled that a transgendered father with no history of abuse, drug use or criminal activity was such a threat to his child that he was restricted to supervised visits and ordered to dress and act like a man at all times with the child.
Warneke convinced the judge that the father posed no risk and that, in fact, the original order was more likely to be harmful to the child.
"We've come a long way, but these people are still very marginalized," he says.
Warneke admits he began to specialize in transgendered issues almost by accident.
When he was starting out in the 1970s he encountered a transgendered person and worked with them, assuming it was an interesting, but one-off case.
But more and more transsexuals began calling him for help and by the mid-1980s, Warneke had developed a reputation as an expert on the subject.
He opened the clinic in 1996 and nowadays, 40% of the patients in his private practice are transgendered.
He says there's no great mystery to the growing numbers of people coming forward and being diagnosed.
They've always been here - it's just that growing understanding is giving more people the courage to get help.
And they're getting diagnosed earlier.
It used to be nearly all of his transgendered patients were middle-aged, but a growing number are in their 20s. A few are even in their teens.
Warneke is also seeing more parents bringing in their children who are displaying "atypical" behaviour.
Most, he said, don't want him to "fix" their tomboy daughter or feminine-acting sons. They just want to know what's best for their kids.
"I tell them your job is to raise your child so that he feels good about himself."