Your Gender Transition is More Than Just Surgery!

Dr. Z discusses the problem she's been seeing for a number of years with overemphasizing specifically surgical transition (not medical—she's referring to hormones, she's talking about overemphasizing surgical transition). She addresses the problems people experience when they fall in the trap of overemphasizing surgical transition, and especially overemphasizing what surgical outcomes are going to give them.

Before starting, Dr. Z is super clear: without a doubt, surgical gender care is life-saving care. She believes surgical gender care has to be a health right and has to be accessible to all adults. She will support anybody who decides, for numerous personal reasons, to step into a surgical gender transition. She has seen firsthand how incredibly beneficial it is in not only reducing gender dysphoria but making one feel more aligned to their gender and making one move forward and be liberated of gender dysphoria. By no means is this video intended to be gatekeeping.

However, we also have to talk about not falling into the trap of overemphasizing the importance of surgical transition. Without a doubt, for individuals who struggle especially with physical gender dysphoria (especially when they have very severe symptoms, even moderate symptoms), consideration for gender affirming surgery is going to be really important. But Dr. Z finds herself witnessing in today's world—especially on social media—so much overemphasis on gender affirming surgeries.

Watch this video as Dr. Z addresses the problems with overemphasizing surgery and the importance of internal integration alongside external changes.