Gender-Affirming Surgery

Bustos S.S.; Bustos V.P.; Ciudad P.; Manrique O.J. · Textbook of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery: Basic Principles and New Perspectives (2022) · DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-82335-1_29

Resumen

Transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals encompass a wide range of individuals whose gender identities or roles do not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. This incongruence can generate significant distress, discomfort, and anxiety leading to gender dysphoria. With recent advances in healthcare and increasing advocacy, awareness, and support for transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals, adequate management has become newly available and has generated increased demand for gender-affirming care. The best outcomes for those with gender dysphoria are associated with a supportive environment and a comprehensive medical and surgical management, which includes endocrine therapy, psychological treatment, physical therapy, and gender-affirming surgery. Gender-affirming surgeries are medically necessary elements in the comprehensive treatment of gender dysphoria, and their goal is to give some transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals a new sense of congruence between their body and their true inner selves. Although gender is not a binary phenomenon, gender-affirming surgical techniques are typically categorized as transmasculine (female-to-male or masculinizing) and transfeminine (male-to-female or feminizing). However, gender non-conforming individuals, whose gender identity falls outside the binary categories of male and female, may also need these surgeries. This chapter presents an overview of the current surgical approaches for the treatment of gender dysphoria in transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022, corrected publication 2022.