Gender reassignment surgery has been available on the NHS for more than 17 years.
It’s a treatment for those experiencing gender dysphoria, whereby a person recognizes a discrepancy between their biological sex and their gender identity.
Gender identity clinics are in place throughout the UK to provide support to those feeling distressed by their gender - but what happens when a trans person undergoes surgery and later decides to revert back to their gender?
Is it possible? Is it safe? And is it available on the NHS?
These are not questions that are not easily-answered. Five phone calls and endless emails later, the details regarding what circumstances would allow for such a treatment to be carried out on the NHS remain muddled.
It's potentially why some of those seeking “reversal” surgeries are heading to a clinic in Serbia, where Professor Misoslav Djordjevic has been performing them for five years at the Belgrade Center for Genital Reconstructive Surgery.
A specialist in genital reconstruction with 20 years of experience, Prof Djordjevic began conducting the innovative procedures after a transgender patient who had undergone surgery to remove male genitalia requested a reversal.
However, his services aren't easily-accessed. Djordjevic will only treat patients who have undergone a full one-year-long psychiatric evaluation and he stresses the importance of post-surgery aftercare, revealing that he remains in contact with the majority of his patients.
It's not simply a case of people regretting their decision, explains James Morton, manager at the Scottish Trans Alliance, who told The Independent that a range of factors could catalyze the desire for a gender reversal including unusual surgical complications.
So far, Djordjevic has exclusively treated transgender females who have asked to recreate their male genitalia.
Known as phalloplasty, the procedure entails the construction of a penis from skin taken from the groin, abdomen or thigh. Though the surgery produces aesthetic results, many mistakenly assume that it will ultimately render one’s genitalia physically futile.
However, a 2013 study revealed that the introduction of penile stiffeners has allowed some plastic surgeons to create a fully functioning organ.
It is a much more risky procedure than its male to female counterpart, vaginoplasty, whereby the testicles are removed and the skin of the penis is used to artificially create a vagina.
A proposed study to explore why transsexual people may want to “detransition” was reportedly shut down by Bath Spa University so as “not to offend people.” “The fundamental reason given was that it might cause criticism of the research on social media and criticism of the research would be criticism of the university and they also added it was better not to offend people,” James Caspian, the psychotherapist behind the proposed research, told BBC Radio 4.
He confessed to being “astonished” at the university’s decision.
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