Re-examining the transgender explosion

Nearly two years ago, I wrote a column on what I called the Transgender Explosion and wondered how it was that so many boys and girls, young men, and young women, seemed obsessed with the idea of “transitioning” to the opposite sex.

I proffered that what we were witnessing has a lot in common with lobotomy, a procedure that enjoyed some prominence when it first appeared. From 1949 to 1952 — its heyday — some 50,000 prefrontal lobotomies were performed. It was seen by many as a medical miracle used to “cure” difficult patients. By the mid 1960s, and after some 60,000 lobotomies, the procedure had been completely discredited.

The “operation” (originally called a “leucotomy”) was invented by Egas Moniz, a Portuguese neurologist, who performed the very first such operation by drilling two holes in a patient’s skull and injecting pure alcohol through those holes into the frontal lobe of the patient’s brain, destroying tissue and nerves. Mr. Moniz was awarded a Nobel Prize in Medicine for his inventive procedure.

A year later, Dr. Walter Jackson Freeman, an American physician, began using the procedure and soon modified it. His method was less time-consuming but just as effective. He would insert an ice pick into the inside crease between the eye and the bridge of the nose of a patient, then slowly turn it as the device reached the brain, destroying tissues and nerves. His new “lobotomy” took 10 minutes, as opposed to the one-hour or more Moniz’s “leucotomy” took.

Lobotomy became so popular that Dr. Freeman toured psychiatric hospitals, demonstrating the remarkable results of the simple operation to crowds of astonished and gullible mental health professionals, ready and eager to try their hands at the procedure. With the birth and popularity of social media, something similar has taken place in the world of sexual instability.

Soothing descriptions of “gender affirming care” and “gender transition surgery” are given space to promote the “transitioning” process and offer positive reinforcement, and encouragement to confused and vulnerable youngsters.

According to a June 2019 report cited in the National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine from the American Society for Plastic Surgeons, sexreassignment surgery was the highest growing surgery in 20162017.

My column delved into a little history of “gender dysphoria” but stopped short of describing the actual “gender transition” operation and what is involved.

I’m doing that now because it’s increasingly difficult to find a social-media site that offers anything other than positive and transgender-affirming psychological advice.

Once on this transgender road, it is extremely difficult to get off. Powerful drugs and hormones, along with regular and frequent doctor visits, become a part of everyday existence for anyone who’s chosen to “transition,” even non-surgically.

Records indicate that up to 25% of people who identify as transgender eventually opt for the complete surgical route.

Because of that, here are the facts about surgeries offered to men and women looking to change genders.

The first thing one notices about so many of these sites is how soft the introductory language is. For example: “Transgender and intersex people follow many different paths to realize their gender expression (including chest reconstruction and facial feminization surgery),” reads a London hospital website that specializes in these kinds of surgeries. You’ll be advised that people in search of realizing their gender expression “may also decide that bottom surgery

DID YOU KNOW?

Bonnie Donovan