Persons Seeking Sex Change: Psychiatric Management of Special Problems
RICHARD GREEN M.D.1
1 Assistant professor of psychiatry and director, Gender Identity Research and Treatment Clinic, University of California School of Medicine, 760 Westwood Pl., Los Angeles, Calif. 90024
Management of persons seeking sex reassignment includes exploring their motivation for sex change, facilitating a realistic appreciation of the limits of medical and surgical procedures, encouraging them to undergo reversible somatic changes with hormones during a trial period of living in the desired gender role prior to undertaking irreversible surgical steps, promoting a realistic anticipation of the future after sex reassignment, and, for those who undergo sex change, assisting in the postoperative adjustment.
