Bangladeshi undergoes sex change surgery in India

A cook by profession from Bangladesh became the first foreigner to undergo sex change surgery in India's Vadodara, reports Times of India.

After he got in touch through social media with doctors and patients who had earlier undergone sex change, the 26-year-old patient chose a city-based hospital for sex reassignment surgery (SRS).

With this, Vadodara not only opened a new chapter in SRS on patients from abroad, but also created another first record by fat grafting on the patient for breasts, the Indian newspaper says.

“We first consulted p;hysicians in Bangladesh but they said they do not SRS facilities there. They also advised us that such surgeries are done properly in India,” said Ikbal, brother of the patient, who underwent SRS.

According to the brother, they are in salon business, but his brother was uncomfortable as a male and had often expressed the desire to undergo sex change.

“We have done 10 to 12 such operations successfully, but it is for the first time that we have conducted surgery on a patient from abroad,” said Sanjiv Shah, urologist and andrologist who along with plastic surgeon Umesh Shah, physiatrist Gautam Amin and medico-legal expert Vijay Shah, who handled the case.

“We had the option of silicone breast implant which we have done in earlier cases. But in this case, since the patient had fat, we opted for fat grafting, which is emerging as a new breast reconstruction technique,” said the plastic surgeon.

“While the patient has undergone fat grafting surgery and removal of testis first, the hormone therapy and the final surgery for vaginal reconstruction will be done now,” the urologist explained.

“Before deciding on SRS, we have to ascertain whether such a person is suffering from gender dysphoria, which is the distress a person feels due to their birth-assigned sex and gender not matching their gender identity. This surgery is irreversible and hence psychiatric counselling becomes more important,” said Amin.