Move Over Thailand!

Perhaps I don't get out much. I just made the comment that 70 grand was an extreme amount of money for SRS etc. 
Of course then I read a post about Serbia being a new hotbed of SRS surgery for several reasons- one of which of course was cost.

According to the New York Times

Nearly 100 foreigners and Serbs have undergone sex reassignment surgery in the past year, and the numbers are growing, according to theBelgrade Center for Genital Reconstructive Surgery, with candidates coming from France, Russia and Iran, and from as far away as the United States, South Africa, Singapore and Australia.

Dr. Marci Bowers, (right) a gynecologist in San Mateo, Calif., who has performed 1,100 sex reassignment operations over the past 10 years and is herself transgender, noted that in the United States, a global center for sex changes, only about five surgeons were performing the operation regularly. She said that social conservatism and a lack of surgical skills in many countries, combined with surgeons’ fears of potentially catastrophic complications, were promoting the growth of transgender tourism.
Here's my point on the cost:
Foreign patients say they are attracted to Serbia by the price tag of about $10,000 — compared with $50,000 or more at some clinics in the United States for the more expensive female-to-male procedure. So when you add other procedures I'm sure 70 grand is out of the question.
Finally, you may be asking "Why Serbia?"

Sociologists say the more accepting attitude toward transgender people in Serbia signals the first glimmers of a shift in a country where conservative currents still run deep.

“We are the children of two parents: one is the Orthodox Church, the other is communism,” said Dr. Dusan Stanojevic, a pioneer of sex reassignment surgery here.

He said transsexuality was so taboo in the former Yugoslavia that it was not even mentioned in medical textbooks. But a surgeon, Dr. Sava Perovic, began performing the operations in 1989 after being approached by a man suffering from gender identity disorder.

Follow the NY Times link above for more!

A 14 Month HRT Journey

From The Rocket News:
A pictorial journey of a young transgender woman.
Day one:
Notice the dosage.

 Ten Months:

Fourteen Months:

Go here for more! (Ignore the tomato)

Kara and 70 Large?

Some of you (rightfully so) questioned the ability of a few hair replacement products to mysteriously turn unwilling males into females.
I'm sure more than a couple folks have rushed out and purchased a generic brand if it is available on a retail shelves.
Here's another add on to another "story" which is floating around the cyber world.
Kara/Kody recently made headlines of sort by "going on the way" to emulate her idol Britney Spears-to the tune of 70 grand? Really?
That is a lot of cash and I'm sure you can spend that much on body modifications...but from some of the pictures she may have wanted to spend a little more on wigs...
Or less on cigarettes?

Or the lack of it....Kara and Britney.

"Horror Scope"

Libra (September 23- October 22) Getting ahead via another person is not going to work. Although you have the patience of a saint, you can’t wait for others to give you validation. Trust your power, you have it. In fact, others will only get in your way now, as they’ll distract you. Understand what you really want, then focus, and finally push and shove apologetically to get there. Move "Get Out Da Way"! I guess. That's mine, go get yours from theFrisky 

Maybe I got a little too involved with the "Dirty Diana" post!
(I have no patience! dammit!)

Trans Roller Girl!

If you are one of our British readers here in Cyrsti's Condo you have probably already heard of Dirty Diana.
She is a transgender female member of the London Roller Girls and is featured in the Pet Shop Boys new video.

Diana on left

I think back to times I have been taken to task for being a little too attached to my jeans and sports and love this!
I put the video in the "Entertainment Center" for your viewing pleasure.

Transgender Youth Fighting for her Future

A headmaster tried to ban a transgender schoolboy from sitting an exam dressed in girls' uniform - until the pupil slammed a copy of the Equality Act on his desk.
Ashlyn Parram, 16, wore girl's tights, a skirt and blazer to her first GCSE exam but was told she could not sit the paper, because she was not in correct uniform.
Incredibly, the furious teen had printed off a copy of the law governing discrimination in Britain and marched straight to head teacher Chris Wall's office for a showdown.
More from the "Huffington Post"

"Ashlyn pointed out the law to the gobsmacked head - a former Olympic diver - who then admitted he could not stop her taking the test.
But when Ashlyn reached the exam room she was forced to sit apart from the other pupils on the other side of the sports hall - in segregation.
The year 11 has openly lived as a girl at home for two years but has sensitively toned down her appearance at Giles Academy, Boston, Lincolnshire to avoid abuse.
Her mum Miranda Johnson on Monday publicly backed her gutsy daughter, who has officially been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
The family have lodged a formal complaint against Mr Walls, who they claim has failed to help protect Ashlyn - one of the youngest in Britain to begin sex-change treatment on the NHS.

Ashlyn and Mom (right)

They claim Ashlyn has been forced to ensure a string of bullying and discrimination by pupils - and even teachers.
Shockingly, during a series of meetings with school bosses to address failings alleged by Ashlyn's parents one senior teacher even told them gender dysphoria doesn't exist. The teacher said: "This is Lincolnshire - we are a very conservative county - we don't have things like that."




Really???? Follow the link for more!

Hero Worship in the Heartland

Transsexual 26 year Kara Hays was born Kody in Ohio and has decided to emulate pop-star Britney Spears.

As with any other young girl. Kara (pictured on the right above) had her idols.
She focused on Britney and Christina Aguilera for her inspiration.

 The 26-year-old says her new appearance, which has turned her into a lookalike of the pop singer who shot to fame with her debut album '...Baby One More Time' in 1999, has finally brought her happiness following years of anguish.
After shocking classmates by turning up at a Halloween dance, aged just 12, dressed in a red vinyl body suit in homage to Britney's costume in her 'Oops I did it again' video - he caused uproar in the town in Ohio, US, where he grew up.( In all fairness to my home state, I can see the possibility of a costume such as that being an attention getter in a lot of places!)
But at the age of 15, his parents allowed him to see a doctor and he was diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 1999 and began taking female hormones.
Over the next few years, he sprouted breasts, began to freely dress as a woman and changed her name to Kara. Eventually opting for SRS.


More importantly, what is Chris Crocker going to think? Chris used to be Britney's biggest fan!

300 Grand

Hits are just aren't friendly words.
We just passed 300,000 hits on Cyrsti's Condo.
 I prefer visits. So what!
The bottom line is I value your visits highly and "yall stop back soon"!

Defining "Transgender"

Imagine my surprise when I saw the story about the military gay pride march in San Diego. Sure, there a plenty of gay pride march stories which have absolutely no bearing on my life as a transgender woman. The surprise came when Yahoo News ran a supporting story on new transgender diagnostic terms.
I don't pretend to be any sort of an expert in psychiatric terminology- unlike a person such as Sherri Lynn but this article got my attention.
It seems to me the new diagnostic terms being debated could take the transgender community out from under the mental illness tag we have lived with. (That's was my first stop at the Veteran's Administration.)
Before I pass along a few excerpts from the article, I need to mention the nation's psychiatric establishment is  working to overhaul its diagnostic manual for the first time in almost two decades. This process just doesn't happen very often.
Being labeled mentally deficient is bad enough and that is only the beginning.  Read on:

"The most symbolic change under consideration so far for the manual's fifth edition, known as the DSM-V for short, is a new name for Gender Identity Disorder, the diagnosis now given to adults, adolescents and children with "a strong and persistent cross-gender identification." In the manual's next incarnation, individuals displaying "a marked incongruence between one's experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender" would be diagnosed instead with "Gender Dysphoria," a term that comes from the Greek word for emotional distress.

While the shift may seem purely semantic, switching the emphasis from a disorder that by definition all transgender people possess to a temporary mental state that only some might possess marks real progress, according to Dana Beyer, a retired eye surgeon who helped the Washington Psychiatric Society make recommendations for the chapter on "Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders."

"A right-winger can't go out and say all trans people are mentally ill because if you are not dysphoric, that can't be diagnosed from afar," Beyer said. "It no longer matters what your body looks like, what you want to do to it, all of that is irrelevant as far as the APA goes."

Historically, what is happening does resemble what the gay community went through years ago:

" But while there are parallels, achieving what the APA did for gays four decades ago is more complicated for people who identity as transgender, an umbrella term that encompasses transsexuals, cross-dressers and others whose self-concepts otherwise do not align with the male or female label they were given at birth. Unlike sexual orientation, the accepted protocols for treating many patients expressing profound discomfort with their given gender call for medical intervention."

I have taken you as far as I can on this extremely important and complex subject. For more go here.

One final comment.  A huge debt of gratitude to Dana Beyer and so many other transgender and transsexual men and women who did not go stealth and decided to make a difference!