Gender-affirming surgery ‘significantly improves quality of life’, study says (VIA NBC NEWS)
Approximately 75 percent of transgender women showed an improved quality of life after surgery, a study out of Germany found.
By Vanessa Guillen Matheus, NBCNEWS, April 2018
Before her surgery, Sydney Walther, 21, said she had been terrified of going out in public and being stared at by unknown faces. But today, she said those fears have dissipated, and it’s “as if a weight has been lifted” off her shoulders.
The Virginia resident traveled to New York City last year for what she described as a “life-changing,” gender-affirmation surgery at NYU Langone Health.
“It is the first time in my life that I can be myself,” she told NBC News. “I can go to the store and not worry about, ‘Are people trying to figure out who I am?’”
Walther’s parents even noticed a difference in their daughter following the procedure, and they shared their emotional reaction in a video posted online.
“Since the surgery has taken place,” her mother said tearfully, “she felt comfortable in being who she was, and that was really touching as a mother to see that transformation, to know she wasn’t struggling.”
Walther is one of many transgender people who has shared their personal stories regarding life improvements following gender-affirming surgery, but a new study now corroborates what trans people have long known anecdotally: “Gender surgery significantly improves quality of life for the majority of patients.”
A team at University Hospital in Essen, Germany, followed 158 transgender women patients for a median of more than six years after their surgery. They found approximately 75 percent of patients showed improved quality of life after their procedure. The results were unveiled last month at the annual European Association of Urology Conference in Copenhagen.
Dr. Jochen Hess, senior physician at the Department of Urology, Pediatric Urology and Uro-Oncology University Hospital Essen, Germany at the annual meeting of the European Association of Urology in Copenhagen.Thomas Parkhill
“It’s very important that we have good data on quality of life (QOL) in transgender people,” Dr. Jochen Hess, the study’s lead author, told NBC News. “They generally suffer from a worse QOL than non-transgender population, with higher rates of stress and mental illness, so it’s good that surgery can change this, but also that we can now show that it has a positive effect.”
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