A case report from the Department of Urology, Royal North Shore Hospital in St. Leonards, discusses a transwoman in Australia who intentionally burned her penis to undergo gender-reassignment surgery.
Self-Inflicted Harm
The 57-year-old woman assigned male at birth wanted to undergo gender-affirming surgery. The experts assumed that the woman wanted gender euphoria but was unwilling to pay major medical fees. Because of this, she decided to use chemicals to burn off her manhood.
She arrived at the emergency department of a local hospital seven days after suffering from a chemical burn on her penis. Upon arriving at the urology department, she already had necrosis or dead tissue on the tip of his penis. In addition to burns, she also exhibits swelling and redness along the shaft length. The patient was taken to the Royal North Shore Hospital for further treatment.
Before the surgery, the woman had been undergoing androgen deprivation therapy. This procedure lowers the testicular hormone level in the male body, which is responsible for facial and body hair as well as the deepening of the voice. According to the report, the woman moved to a more rural area and stopped using the therapy due to limited access. In Australia, the national public health insurance Medicare does not cover gender-affirming surgery.
Fortunately, the dead tissues did not metastasize to the urethra or bladder. Everything was almost going well until the doctors discovered the necrosis had consumed her penis. The emergency operation performed on the woman is usually done to treat penis cancer, but the medics were forced to amputate the dead penis and create a urethral opening in the remaining one-centimeter stump.
The doctors kept as much of the urine tube as possible for use in potential future gender surgeries. After being monitored for eight days, it was found that she did not suffer complications from the penectomy. She was then discharged and referred to a trans-surgery specialist.
Lawmakers proposed legislation in 26 U.S. states that would ban minors from receiving transgender care. Some states, like Texas, Oklahoma, and South Carolina, also consider banning transgender care for individuals up to 26 years old.
READ ALSO: Trans Women Could Be Getting Womb Transplants in Near Future, Fertility Experts Say
How Does Gender Reassignment Surgery Work?
Gender reassignment surgery refers to the operation performed to transition individuals with dysphoria to their desired gender. This is intended for persons who harbor a conviction that they were born in the wrong body.
In a male-to-female sex reassignment surgery, the patient is offered a penile inversion vaginoplasty with neurovascular neoclitoris. During this procedure, some parts of the original penis were used to make a sensate neo-vagina. The testicle is removed, and the original skin from the scrotum is used in making the labia. On the other hand, the erectile tissue of the penis is used in making the neoclitoris. All of these changes are done while preserving the functionality of the urethra.
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