A Strange Life

There seems nothing in human behaviour, so incomprehensible as sex change. Most born as male or female are happy to be so, but a small number of males and females feel unhappy in their natal sex and want to change.

Statistics of such a rare syndrome are bound to be inaccurate, but it seems that three or four males to every one female want to change sex. The statistic for men ranges from one in 7,400 to 30,000.

This is not a life style choice. It is a deep seated malignancy of the psyche, which makes every minute lived in what they consider to be the wrong sex, a life of supreme disappointment and longing.

There is no cure. In the 1960s, aversion therapy, group therapy and other more violent therapies were tried. For those afflicted who are denied therapy to change, the result is often suicide.

This is my story. I am supremely happy as a female but lived a life of misery as a male. Every day spent as a male seemed to be a lie. I tried my best to be what I was supposed to be, but eventually I could continue no longer. By luck this coincided with a change in medical attitudes, otherwise I believe I would not have survived.