An increasing number of people are seeking sex-change operations in China, but the restrictions patients must surmount in a conservative country are intense.
While sex-change operations are performed in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, according to Shanghai No 9 People's Hospital physician Dr Sun Boshan, they only accept a small minority of the people who seek their help.
'It's very difficult for a prospective patient to get approval for surgery. They must get a certificate of approval from the police, the parents must consent, and numerous doctors must agree before we can proceed,' Dr Sun said.
A police officer at the Hongqiao Road Public Security Bureau in Shanghai said that potential patients had to present police with a written petition detailing their reasons for wanting to change their sex. Intensive background checks are then conducted to ensure that applicants are not trying to alter their appearance to evade the law.
'We have performed a few male-to-female and female-to-male sex-change operations. But these are only in cases where, for example, an individual looks and appears in every way like a woman, but happens to have male sex organs,' said a doctor from Beijing Hospital.
Both doctors agreed that male-to-female operations are less complicated and time consuming than female-to-male, given the difficulty of constructing artificial male sex organs. Patients must remain in the hospital for about three months to recover.