Abstract:

This study evaluated the decision to allow adolescent transsexuals to under go sexual reassignment surgery (SRS), following up a retrospective study done in 1997. A prospective study was done on 21 adolescent transsexuals who were treated, 20 who were not treated, and 6 who had delayed treatment. Subjects were tested on their psychological, social, and sexual functioning, and follow-up interviews were conducted; treated patients had undergone surgery 1-4 years before follow-up and non-treated patients were tested 1 to 7 years after the initial testing. The treated group post-operatively no longer showed clinical signs of gender dysphoria and showed improvement psychologically and in social functioning. The non-treated group showed some improvement, but were more dysfunctional psychologically than the treated group. Even though non-treated patients may actually have GID, the decision for them to not undergo SRS is the right one, because their high levels of non-GID psychopathology justify the decision.