surgeon in Vancouver willing to perform bilateral castration (for me at least)

[ghostautumn (imported)]

I'm posting here the website for the Vancouver clinic of the doctor who is willing to castrate me. I can't promise he would be willing to do it for anyone - I had already undergone chemical castration for 2 years, so in my case, all he required was that a psychiatrist he works with in Victoria (on Vancouver Island, a few hours away by ferry and bus) verify that I was of sound mind and understood the consequences (having already satisfied himself that I was and did). I believe the psychiatrist also has a Vancouver office, though she books a couple months in advance for appointments. I saw the surgeon a month or two after making my first inquiry. Perhaps he would be willing to work with other psychiatrists that might be more local to you, I'm not sure. And as I say his conditions for other people might be different. The quote for the surgery was approximately $4,000, tax and everything included. He requires you to stay in the area overnight so that he can see you the next morning to take out the drainage funnel and make sure you're doing well. They had an option to have a nurse stay with you over night in a local hotel, but that is very expensive. The psychiatrist's fee would have been about $350, though it was free for me since I was trying to get it covered publicly - which looks unlikely to happen until the new DSM 5 comes into force in 2012, when the conditions for GID change to include non-transsexual transgendered individuals who don't identity as either male or female. (I've chosen to do the cutting myself and immediately rush to the E. R. Fortunately in Canada at least all hospital visits are free, so sadly this is the only way I can afford to do it. Please don't post any patronising words of caution, we're all adults here and I know perfectly well what I'm doing - and have a successful academic career and a host of psychiatrists who could verify my sanity should they try to hold me for more than a few days, which is unlikely.) This is the substance of the reply I got back from the doctor about 7-10 days after my initial inquiry, with all personal details omitted:

"Dear _________,

Thanks for your inquiry. Most of my work in this area involves transsexual individuals and as such I (and most of my trans health colleagues) follow the current Standards of Care as recommended by WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health, Inc http://www.wpath.org/about_wpath.cfm). (to which I belong). However, in keeping with my belief that gender is fluid, and the fact that WPATH emphasizes the need for flexibility, I have done some surgeries for individuals that don't necessarily fit into polar constructs of gender identity. I would be happy to consult with you to discuss your goals. As with any individual who might undertake an irreversible surgery of this nature, an evaluation by a psychiatrist would be required. I'm sure you understand that this is in no way a personal judgment, but is for your protection (as well as mine and the Trans Health Programs). I work closely with Dr. ___________ who is in your area. The telephone number for Dr. ________'s office is __________. You may contact her office directly and arrange to see her either before or after you see us. You may contact our office at ______________ or _____________ to schedule your consultation visit.

Regards,

Dr. _____________"

The clinic's web address is http://www.fairviewplasticsurgery.com/p ... owman.html (http://http://www.fairviewplasticsurger ... owman.html). He is a good doctor affiliated with a major university, and this is his private clinic. There is a form on the contact page by which you may make inquiries - that is how I started, and how I would recommend that anyone else should begin with to make inquiries for themselves.

[graylayer02 (imported)]

This is great news. Let us know how and if things work out, since the broader community is currently stuck without a safe surgical option and there is NO way I'm ending up in some guy's basement with a knife and a bottle of rum.

[bobbie (imported)]

Know you have heard all the reasons not to do it yourself. I know too many people that had to rush to the hospital. One was only a little concuss. He could never drive to the hospital. His friends had to make the emergence call. Castration from a doctor has risks of something not going right. There are some post here telling on the surgical problems from a doctor doing it. Read some of the problems that many in here had with Dr Kimmel. He is retired now. YEA!

You cut wrong artery and have a bad bleeder. You will not have time to go to the hospital. If you arrive in the hospital you will most likely end up seeing a psychiatrists. Wants to know why you are doing self harm. You may get more then you may want on your medical records. Does self harm medical insurance even cover it?

Wish you all the luck in this choice.

[ghostautumn (imported)]

[This post was in response to the positive response and questions Bobbie had originally posted, but he subsequently edited that post to be a more predictable horror story cautionary tale. For my response to that post, see my comments in brackets at the bottom.]

I was on Androgen from the age of 19 to 21 for the reason most of us would be - to cancel the effects of male sex hormones on my body so as to achieve a calmer, more peaceful state of mind and a state of body that I could recognize as in agreement with my cognitive gender identity - and it was at least partially successful in achieving those ends. I went off of it because my medical coverage changed and Androgen was no longer covered - you can imagine what sort of effect that had on me. This post gives more details about my personal story: http://www.eunuch.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=16351. To clarify, I've already been effectively approved by the psychiatrist - if I had $4000 to pay for the surgery I imagine I could probably have it done before Christmas. Being a grad student, I obviously don't nor would I for several years at least. Both the surgeon and the psychiatrist are great - they typically work with the transsexual/transgender community so they're very sensitive, professional and considerate. I can't say whether they would approve someone who wasn't claiming to feel neither male nor female, but I think there would be individual scenarios where they certainly would.

It was my attempt to gain public coverage of the surgical fees that has been less successful. While the psychiatrist and her colleague will most certainly recommend my case to the board in charge of approving coverage of gender reassignment surgery, her opinion is that they are unlikely to cover this sort of surgery at the moment, because of the way the DSM-IV is worded in regards to gender identity disorder - basically it doesn't acknowledge the existence of people who's cognitive gender is neither male nor female. Practically speaking the DSM-IV only recognizes transsexualism when it comes to GID, which is why governments that cover gender reassignment surgery for transsexuals aren't likely to cover surgery for male-to-eunuch individuals yet; they won't because they aren't obliged to by the medical community. That's likely going to change when the DSM-V comes into force in 2012, according to her, and she would know given that she was one of the chairpersons of the DSM-V transgender committee, which recommended that the definition of gender identity disorder be expanded to include a category of people who do not identify themselves as either gender. (Coincidentally, the higher-up chairman who will need to approve that change is my former therapist who first recommended that I be put on Androgen, so I imagine he will approve it.) When that change comes into effect, all governments (and I imagine insurance companies, though I may be wrong on that count) which cover gender-reassignment-surgery for transsexuals will be bound by international statute to also cover surgery for people like us (or many of us here, at any rate), probably on the condition that you first do an extended test run of chemical castration.

Unfortunately, all of that is several years in the future, but for those who can afford the surgery now, these doctors are certainly a great option.

[To Bobbie's edited post:

I'm perfectly aware of all the complications that could go wrong, and I'm taking all possible precautions. I'll clamp the testicles off with a high-pressure forcep prior to numbing and cutting and after flushing them will immediately call an ambulance (that's covered in Canada). I agree that I will most definitely end up answering questions from a psychiatrist, at which point I'll be able to give him the numbers of all five doctors who have previously been involved in my treatment, all of whom could vouch for my sanity, and whose medical records would document in detail my treatment for "gender identity disorder." I'll also hand him copies of the numerous academic papers on modern eunuchs written by Dr. Richard Wassersug and colleagues - among them our very own JESUS - as well as the quote I was given for the very same surgery by a reputable doctor. Then I'll calmly explain that if the government covered this surgery, I obviously wouldn't have done it myself, but knowing that they wouldn't, I chose to affirm my human dignity by taking control of my life and my body. If at that point they still intend to hold me longer than a couple days (unlikely), I'll exercise my right to legal counsel and be out very shortly.]

[ghostautumn (imported)]

I didn't mean that to sound rude, but I've read all the posts in this forum for years now, I'm well aware of what I'm doing and how to maximise my chances of being among the luckier members of this community.

Thanks for your concern.

[Origen (imported)]

It seems to me, ghostautumn, that you are quite a hero in the way that you are campaigning for change, both with the medical profession, and with the Provincial authorities. In the future, many will have cause to be grateful to you for your struggle which clearly has not been an easy path.

Admiringly...

[ghostautumn (imported)]

Thank you, I'd feel more deserving of the compliment if I had been successful, but at least it's only a matter of 3 years until hopefully many more jurisdictions will cover this surgery for people like us. Once I've finished my PhD in a few years I do intend to write a book about us (modern eunuchs and those who wish to be), our experiences and our fight for recognition and acceptance. I think once we've gotten the major international transgender advocacy networks supporting us the issue could really break out publicly - which would obviously open a lot more doors for us. At the very least doctors won't be able to look at you as though they'd never heard of any (sane) person choosing to be castrated.

[Milkman (imported)]

I agree you are a hero and an activist.

I know a trans woman in the US who removed one of her testicles herself.. ended up in the hospital and yet they Dr.s refuse to remove the other one, even though she has lived as a woman for over 7 years!! Castration should be a personal option for anyone who considers it.. maybe with a once year waiting period

[graylayer02 (imported)]

Agreed. For the medical community it's imperative that we move these issues from being 'not my problem' or 'you're so weird' for the doctors, to something that they know how to treat. I might have to do the same thing here with the Germans; I do know at least one open minded psych. It's the urologists themselves I'm worried about.

[bobbie (imported)]

Agreed. For the medical community it's imperative that we move these issues from being 'not my problem' or 'you're so weird' for the doctors, to something that they know how to treat. I might have to do the same thing here with the Germans; I do know at least one open minded psych. It's the urologists themselves I'm worried about.

We the archive are a very large aviatrices of all that you mentioned. We have become the spokesman for eunuch's. We are the most Googled Yahoo, etc. search engine for the topic of castration and eunuch's. That includes and any variation on the subject. We are the go to area in the net where you can find information.

We the archive partaken in 2 very important research studies. They have to do with voluntary castration for any reason. They have presented 2 fanatic papers to very elite Doctors. Doctors are the ones that set standards for medical procedures. Thees doctors are working very hard on changing the medical reasons for castration. They and the archive in general has been hard at work changing the reason for someone to only become an eunuch.

It will take time to get doctors to get the information. Will be an up hill battle changing the way they address this problem. They only want to heal. Never destroy something that is healthy.