More Hongkongers seek sex-change surgery and report gender identity disorder
Acting health minister says 22 of the 40 surgeries performed in the past five years were male-to-female operations
The number of people receiving sex-change surgery in the city has risen fourfold in the past five years and the number of those seeking treatment for gender identity disorder has doubled from four years ago, the acting health minister said.
In a written reply to lawmaker Raymond Chan Chi-chuen, Sophia Chan Siu-chee told the Legislative Council that the annual number of patients receiving sex reassignment surgery increased from four in 2010-2011 to 16 in the period spanning last year to this year.
Male-to-female surgeries, numbering 22, took up more than half of the 40 surgeries performed in the past five years.
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People who underwent surgeries were among those suffering from gender identity disorder – a condition in which people feel distressed with the sex they were assigned at birth.
In addition, more people with the disorder sought treatment from the Hospital Authority’s psychiatric specialist outpatient clinics. The number increased steadily from 58 in 2010-2011 to 133 in the period spanning last year to this year.
With the retirement in October of Dr Albert Yuen Wai-cheong, a sex reassignment surgery specialist at Ruttonjee Hospital in Wan Chai, the authority planned to centralise services for patients with the disorder at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin from next year.
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Chan said the authority would ensure sufficient manpower was available at the Sha Tin hospital to cater to the patients’ needs. In the present financial year, three surgeons with the hospital received overseas training in gender reassignment surgery.
Meanwhile, an interdepartmental working group on gender recognition established in January last year and chaired by the Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung was working on a first-stage consultation paper.
The paper was to offer a public review of legal issues involving the rights of transsexual people.
