Sex reassignment surgery (initialized as SRS; also known as gender reassignment surgery, genital reconstruction surgery, sex affirmation surgery, sex realignment surgery or sex-change operation) is a term for the surgical procedures by which a person's physical appearance and function of their existing sexual characteristics are altered to resemble that of the other sex. It is part of a treatment for gender identity disorder/gender dysphoria in transsexual and transgender people. It may also be performed on intersex people, often in infancy and without their consent.
Other terms for SRS include sex reconstruction surgery, gender confirmation surgery, and more clinical terms, such as feminizing genitoplasty or penectomy, orchidectomy and vaginoplasty are used medically for trans women, with masculinizing genitoplasty or phalloplasty often similarly used for trans men.
People who pursue sex reassignment surgery are usually referred to as transsexual; "trans" - across, through, change; "sexual" - pertaining to the sexual characteristics (not sexual actions) of a person. More recently, people pursuing SRS often identify as transgender instead of transsexual.
Read more about Sex Reassignment Surgery: Scope and Procedures, Differences Between Trans Women and Trans Men SRS, Medical Considerations, Potential Future Advances, Standards of Care, History
Famous quotes containing the word surgery:
“It is difficult for me to imagine the same dedication to women’s rights on the part of the kind of man who lives in partnership with someone he likes and respects, and the kind of man who considers breast-augmentation surgery self-improvement.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)