Comments on: Ramblings on self-injury

By: Ronald

Ronald — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:30:10 +0000

With reference to transexuals, while surgery is performed, the net result is still missing one thing, that is the ability to reproduce as a member of new gender. This is not an original thought from me, somebody else is due the credit. The result leaves something out, still a missing function but perfection is not the goal. I feel though, that the medical profession will have a hard time performing surgery of last resort as the primary treatment.

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:25:01 +0000

Well, the thing is, if surgery is recognised as a viable treatment option, it means that no other options are currently working. I read an academic paper recently which said something to the effect that “it’s easier to fix the body than to fix the brain map” of transsexuals, and most transsexuals do have to go through a couple years of jumping through hoops before they can get surgery. But surgery *is* an option, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel (if you can afford it). We don’t even have *that* much. I would not feel so despondent if someone told me “in 24 months, you’ll get what you need, if you jump through the following hoops before then”. I’d jump through those hoops. Heck, I *have*. Therapy of all ilks, medication, “real life test”, I’ve done it all… I’m not the only one either. Ready as ever.

By: Ronald

Ronald — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:13:40 +0000

My point precisely. Even if surgery was considered as a prescribed treatment for BIID, I wonder how many years one would be required to suffer while other options are persued?

By: Jen

Jen — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 21:52:18 +0000

I knew a guy whose foot and ankle had been crushed in a motorcycle accident. The doctors did everything to keep from amputating. He didn’t want them to amputate. But in the end, nothing could cure his pain and the doctors were actually getting annoyed at him for continuing to be in pain.

When he finally decided on amputation, he was greatly relieved and it worked. The pain went away, but he suffered for years while the doctors tried to “save” his leg.

By: Ronald

Ronald — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 02:17:55 +0000

I found something interesting. In the preamble to an article about amputation, the comment was made that an amputation is viewed as a medical failure, amputations are one of the oldest medical procedures, and quite often performed by the least experienced surgeons. The implication is of course that amputations are somewhere on the evolutionary scale of medicine with leaches. Seems like something that is to be avoided at all possible costs. I wonder if this rationale is getting in the way of treating BIID?

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:36:26 +0000

Hey Ronald,

I am also fine with BIID, and I accept it. So I guess I don’t suffer from BIID. I suffer from the fact that there is no recourse for me to align my body image to my physical body. So I suffer because society/the medical establishment won’t treat me for my BIID in the only way shown to work. It’s a subtle, but important difference. But also one that most people would miss completely. It is more efficient to say “I suffer from BIID”. {shrug}

By: Ronald

Ronald — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:29:11 +0000

Thank you, Sean. Very interesting reading.

I question myself, as I do not consider myself to “suffer” from or with BIID. I am fine with it, I accept it, I live with it. Hooray for me!

Obviously, I can not feel or know how another individual suffers, I certainly do not claim to be able to do so. If some individuals lives are a living hell, then yes, surgery, if the only cure available, should be made available. And, so what if it is irreversible. How many limbs were hacked off years ago that today are saved by drugs or advanced surgery, arterial grafts, etc. Nobody insisted these patients wait thirty years for medical breakthroughs.

It seems in the case of amputation, the medical profession views it only a last resort. There seems to be so many surgical options that MUST be tried, even if a person will require years of recovery and therapy to perhaps even approach normal use of a limb, rather than amputation and prosthetics.

I do question the ethics of repeated elective plastic surgery. When it is obsession driven, “No” should be the answer, and certainly not for teenagers. Is plastic surgery, breast augmentation really about how a person feels inside or is one simply trying to please others?

But, I do see the medical communities reluctance at this point, since there is so little understanding of BIID. Remember, if the medical community acts simply on the demands of a few based upon what is anecdotal evidence, will they not also be required to perform every whacko, off the wall procedure somebody heard or read about in some far off place that does not practice Western medecine?

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 04:22:46 +0000

I can understand the whole ethics thing, but what about the doctors who go out on a limb to help folks like me to obtain Sex Reassignment Surgery? Many of them take risks, and while transsexualism is much more well known, it is still not accepted widely enough to even be a covered service in 99.999% of insurance companies.

As a group, doctors can be —holes. As individuals, they can be great. Personally, I would invite my doctor to my home. But I doubt he would ever perform a surgical procedure on me to permanently paralyze me. He’s just too compassionate and he knows the bad things that happen from paralysis. I guess if I were a doctor, I would work hard to seek out experts to help me to help my patients as much as possible. I think this doesn’t happen with many doctors… too many.

By: Sean

Sean — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 02:08:17 +0000

Ronald, the thing is, I don’t think that the ethical argument has a leg to stand on (pun intended). And I’m not the only one. Bayne & Levy, among others, agree.

And what of the “ethics” of providing repeated plastic surgeries to people who are “addicted” to them? The whole dialectic of plastic bodies/plastic surgery is an interesting one. Nikki Sullivan and John Jordan have written interesting stuff about that.

By: Ronald

Ronald — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 00:30:18 +0000

I do not feel comfortable blaming the medical profession when people take matters into their own hands.

Ethically, they can not give us what we want.
We can not blame them, nor should we expect somebody to sacrifice themselves professionally just to start blazing our trail.

By: Sophie

Sophie — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 01:54:00 +0000

there are a lot of journalists and documentary makers that have come and gone, they are yet to prove that what they want to do will help us rather than make them money.

By: Gordo

Gordo — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 07:43:06 +0000

It’s situations like these when I wish BIID had more exposure to the public. If people are more aware of this, then there’d at least be some research done, allowing us to finally progress in our cause. Right now, we’re very obviously stuck in a rut. It’s too bad there isn’t a filmmaker or journalist amongst us, otherwise I can see some exposure via a documentary or some extended featured article.

The downside of publicity is there seems to be a tendency for people to use BIID as a “shock value” thing so they can make money (ie. for a movie). I wonder if that sentiment would ever go away though; I mean, even something widely known like self-harm (ie. cutting oneself to relieve emotional pain) is still being used for shock value in some films and TV shows.

Sigh… Yet another reason why my BIID novel-in-progress would have a slim chance of getting noticed outside the BIID community…