SRS: Should You or Shouldn’t You? (1993)
©1993, 2013 by Dallas Denny
Source: Dallas Denny. (1993). Sex reassignment surgery: Should you or shouldn’t you? XX: The Official Newsletter of the XX (Twenty) Club, Inc., pp. 1, 12. Also in Cross-Talk, March, 1993, 43, pp. 23-24, Phoenix Newsletter, August, 1993, TV-TS Confidential, June,1993, and in 2006 on the now defunct website GLBT World.
This article made one transwoman so uncomfortable that she told organizers of a transgender retreat she wouldn’t feel safe if I were to attend. Another transwoman wrote an article some three or four years later, after having a heart attack which brought her face-to-face with her mortality; in the emergency room, now knowing if she were going to make it, the article popped into her mind. She decided surgery was important for her and she would pursue it despite her medical condition. Here it is again, more than ten years later.
SRS
Should You or Shouldn’t You?
By Dallas Denny
Why Not to have SRS
If you’re over high-school age, not in the military, and can stay out of jail, you should be able to get through life without having to show your genitalia to anyone. Your genital region is ordinarily of concern only to yourself and to your potential lovers. Why? Because nobody sees it. They’re called private parts, after all! Think about it: of all the people you’ve ever known, how many have shown you their genitalia? Genitalia are a matter of faith—even for transsexual people. Perhaps you know some post-op transsexual people. Even considering the propensity of post-op male-to-females to show off their surgeries, I’ll wager some could be lying about their status, laughing about saving all that money.
If your presentation is convincing, people will take your genitalia as a matter of faith. Even if you are clocked, your genitalia will be assumed rather than inspected. Know it: your ability to function in the gender of choice is independent of your plumbing. As with everyone else, people will assume you have the proper genital equipment. The gender police are unlikely to order a panty check.
So why have reassignment surgery?
Good question. It’s expensive, hard to obtain, will be likely to result in complications or a need for additional surgeries, may negatively compromise your ability to achieve orgasm, and, depending upon your surgeon and the direction in which you are traveling, your optional add-on may never look or work like factory-installed equipment—and it will certainly require more upkeep. Surgery won’t make you pass better, cause you to be more popular (unless you become highly promiscuous), or make much of a difference in your life one way or another. And it’s irreversible. Once you have it, you’re stuck with it.
So again, you ask, why have surgery?
The answer is simple: you need not have it.
Sex reassignment surgery is an expensive and troublesome option—and that’s what it is: an option. No one has to have it.
If surgery is all that important to you, you should regard it as a warning sign, especially if you are early in transition. Why, exactly, do you want it? How do you think it will affect your life? What will you accomplish by having it? Is it a fetish—a fantasy? Are your expectations realistic? Do you want it for yourself, or for others to use as a sex toy?
Think about what good use you can put all that money to. Don’t have the surgery, and tell everybody you did.
Why to Have SRS
Sex reassignment surgery is the final step in the process of gender reassignment. It is a confirmation of everything that has gone before. It brings the body into consonance with the social role. It gets rid of an obvious badge of masculinity or femininity, or provides one with that badge.
Those who are living in a gender for which they do not have the expected genitalia will always have a fear of exposure. At any time, there it could be: the dreaded mandatory physical, the all-exposing trip to the emergency room, the overenthusiastic lover who comes face-to-face with the unexpected.
And then there’s the old love life. One gets tired of saying, “By the way, Monica—although I’m a politically correct lesbian, there’s a little something you need to know about me.” The lack of proper genitalia can cause disruption of lovemaking patterns, resulting in ongoing frustration.
Having surgery can uncomplicate one’s love life, cause an increased feeling of self-ease, and decrease the risk of accidental exposure.
And those are three good reasons to have SRS.