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IS IT CHOICE OR IS IT INBORN In conjunction with our belief that Harry Benjamin Syndrome is not a learned condition may we suggest the reader access the following link which gives credence to this contention: http://www.cirp.org/library/psych/diamond1/ ANOTHER ARTICLE IN SUPPORT OF THE CONTENTION HBS IS NOT CHOICE BY INBORN:
Some consider transsexualism as a choice of identity behavior. It is not! |
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[Terminology] [Standard of Care (SOC)] [Definition] |
We are not certain but believe Kathleen Redding originally presented this paper. 
If we are in error then we apologize to the author.
Harry Benjamin Syndrome is a clearly defined congenital condition treated by major teaching hospitals worldwide. Medical opinion is now that it is an organic (physical, biological) condition originating in the womb. Other congenital conditions include hair, eye, and skin color, and maximum height. It is thought not to be hereditary. 
Every baby of every mammal begins potentially female. During the second month of fetal development, hormones released within the fetus determine whether the baby will remain female or change to male. The tiny body and physical brain are very strongly influenced at this stage, overall sexual identity then being largely fixed. This is why all males have nipples and the scar remaining of their original female sex. 1, 3 The crucial period, when the genetic trigger activates the process to remain female or change to male are over very quickly. This information has been known for over 25 years. 
As with any part of fetal development, the process can go wrong. Baby may be born with the body of one sex but the brain and mind of the other, leaving it stranded across (trans) the sexes. Brain research has all but proven this ætiology.2 In autopsies carried out on HBS-born people, all had the brain sexing of the sex opposite that ascribed to them at birth. (In nature and medicine, if something is dimorphic this means it comes in two distinct types. In this instance, being dimorphic means the layout of parts of the brain, and the prioritizing of thoughts, differ between males and females.) 
Harry Benjamin Syndrome has no connection with transvestism. Transvestites are men who wear women's clothing for gratification but are glad to be male, are usually heterosexual and are proud of their masculinity. 
HBS is not a mental illness. Every sufferer of the syndrome who presents for treatment is assessed over years by psychiatrists and/or psychologists to ensure they are stable and sane. If psychotic deluded, mentally ill, unstable, "in a phase" or acting on a whim, they will receive no direct treatment for HBS until they are stable. They must be considerably more stable and saner than "average". 
HBS is not dressing up or going in drag. The person preparing for surgery, (we refer to it as Sex Affirmation Surgery, (SAS), must wear the clothing, and live exclusively as a member, of the apparently "opposite" sex - as a clinically necessary part of the treatment - for a minimum of one year before referral for surgery. 
It is not "a man wanting to become a woman", or vice versa. Before treatment, the individual is neither a man NOR a woman but is one who suffers from a biological condition called Harry Benjamin Syndrome, (HBS). Only a percentage of their body is of the sex erroneously ascribed to them at birth. Their brain, mind and therefore identity, are not of that sex. Referring to them as members of the sex ascribed to them at birth (he/him/his, or she/her), using only convenient parts of their body as a reference would be pure ignorance. HBS people have feelings too. 
The syndrome is not "curable" other than by sex affirmation surgery. Were it possible for the sufferer to "accept their body as it is", few would seek surgery. Indeed, were they able to accept their wrong body they would not be HBS in the first place. After sex affirmation the person no longer fits the clinical definition of "HBS" and is now simply a woman or a man. 
Completely unpredictable, HBS can arise in any family. You can never know that your child or grandchild is not born with HBS. The majority of sufferers spends several deeply unhappy decades trying to be of the sex everyone else insists they be and, if questioned, may strongly deny being anything other than of that sex. It may take the maturity of years for them to fully understand what is wrong, and then more years to pluck up the huge amount of courage needed to do something about it. Because nobody can "become" HBS, you can know that you, personally, are or are not, and be thankful if you are not. (There but for the grace of hormone receptor insensitivity ...) 
HBS is something to laugh about IF one laughs also at kidney failure, heart disease, diabetes, blindness and all other clinical conditions. It, and its treatment, is no more unusual or unnatural than the wearing of spectacles to correct a vision defect. No medical treatment is "natural" otherwise doctors, dentists and pharmacists would not be necessary. Congenital conditions cannot be "approved" or "disapproved" of. They are facts. 
In terms of choice, HBS is no different from ms. Untreated, it can - and too often does - result in premature death or insanity through intolerable anxieties and multiple frustrations because nobody can suppress their entire identity for life. Before sex affirmation over 80% of sufferers seriously contemplate, attempt or commit suicide. Postoperatively, this figure reduces to well under 1% - the same as for the rest of the population. The British Medical Association has estimated there may be over 25,000 HBS-born people in the UK at any time. In Britain, most are denied proper treatment or understanding although elsewhere in Europe they are not. 
Harry Benjamin Syndrome, (HBS), is no trivial matter. Typically, it costs the sufferer their family, home, friends, job, status, assets, savings and respect. Treatment additionally costs the sufferer approximately £9,000 - £15,000 (in 1998).