Switching genders requires more than surgery

chicagotribune.com – By Nancy A. Simon, Special to the Tribune

Dr. Loren Schechter thinks the surgery he performs to help people change genders is much more than a medical procedure.

It’s the final result of a person’s often torturous and years-long effort to have his or her body conform to the gender he or she feels, he said.

The work he does is really “gender confirmation” surgery, said Schechter. “We are not readjusting anything, really. We are making the body congruent with who they know they are,” he said.