The most common complaints of my patients are that the person's social life is determined by the opposite sex, unlike the genetic structure to which he belongs, and that he does not belong to the body he is in. As a Plastic Surgeon, I do not have the ability to explain why this internal structure is formed in this way and why these people feel this way, its psychological and psychiatric background, which is a subject on which I am not an expert. I can give you the necessary information about the surgery and legal procedure of gender reassignment surgeries, which is what I do best.
First of all, legally surgeons cannot perform surgeries that will change the gender of anyone who wishes. Because in these surgeries, the reproductive function appropriate to the person's genetic structure is permanently eliminated. For this reason, this operation imposes very serious legal obligations on the surgeon and they may be prosecuted under the provisions of the Turkish Penal Code for unauthorized procedures. Then let me explain what the legal process is like. Of course, I am not a lawyer, but as a member of the sexual identity council, I have some information because I constantly deal with these procedures and the answers we write to the courts. First of all, the person has to apply to the court with this request to change their gender and change their identity from pink to blue or blue to pink. Subsequently, the court judge requests that the person apply to official institutions that have a sexual identity council, such as Hacettepe University, in order to fully reveal the person's sexual identity and to understand whether he or she is transgender. Gender identity councils exist in several university hospitals in Türkiye. This council includes Psychiatry, Gynecology, Urology, Endocrinology, Plastic Surgery and lawyers. However, as expected, the most dominant decision-making authority in this council is Psychiatrists. Psychiatrists sometimes follow the applicant for up to approximately two years. Here, it investigates whether the patient's sexual identity and genetics are compatible with his/her sexual identity. In the meantime, the patient is given hormones appropriate to the gender he/she wants to change by the endocrine system, resulting in changes in his/her body. In this way, important findings are obtained as a result of this endocrine treatment, whether the person really wants to be of the opposite sex or not. is. Ultimately, this treatment is reversible and if the patient gives up on the gender change process, the medications are stopped and the patient returns to his/her previous state. If the psychiatrist decides that the person's sexual identity is the opposite sex, he brings these people to the sexual identity council, where they are re-evaluated by the sections I mentioned before and the final decision is made. If the council decides that gender reassignment is appropriate for the patient, the judge evaluates this result and allows the person to undergo a series of surgeries that will cause permanent loss of reproductive function and create new sexual organs. With this permission, the person can go to the institution or doctor of his choice and have these surgeries. Later, he applied to the court again and declared that he had gender reassignment surgery. The court judge may ask the patient to be examined in a fully equipped hospital to determine whether these surgeries have been performed or not. When the doctor's report stating that the person has undergone gender reassignment surgery reaches the judge, the court allows the person's identity card to be issued in accordance with the opposite gender.
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