A transgender woman, man, or non-binary person may choose to undergo gender affirmation surgery.
Gender dysphoria is the distress some trans people feel when their appearance does not reflect their gender.
Dysphoria can be the cause of poor mental health or trigger mental illness in transgender people.
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These steps are one way the medical community and insurance companies limit access to gender-affirmative procedures.
Steps may include:
Firstly, not all transgender experience physical body dysphoria.
Hormone Therapy & Transitioning
Hormone therapy involves taking progesterone, estrogen, or testosterone.
An individual has to have undergone hormone therapy for a year before having gender affirmation surgery.
The purpose of hormone therapy is to change the physical appearance to reflect gender identity.
Changes to the body can include:
When Are the Hormonal Therapy Effects Noticed?
This is especially true for breast development.
Surgery for this group involves top surgery and bottom surgery as well.
Top surgery includes :
Complications and Side Effects
Surgery is not without potential risks and complications.
With surgery, there aresurgical riskssuch as bleeding and infection, as well asside effects of anesthesia.
Cost of Gender Confirmation Surgery
Surgery can be prohibitively expensive for many transgender individuals.
Costs including counseling, hormones, electrolysis, and operations can amount to well over $100,000.
Transfeminine procedures tend to be more expensive than transmasculine ones.Health insurance sometimes coversa portion of the expenses.
One 2017 study found that surgical satisfaction ranged from 94% to 100%.
After this is complete, hormonal treatment is begun with testosterone for transmasculine individuals and estrogen for transfeminine people.
Some of the physical and behavioral changes associated with hormonal treatment are listed above.
These are broken down into “top” procedures and “bottom” procedures.
Surgery is costly, but precise estimates are difficult due to many variables.
Many people who undergo these procedures express satisfaction with their results.
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