How Thailand became a global gender-change destination

[webfact]

How Thailand Became a Global Gender-Change Destination
by Jason Gale

BANGKOK: -- Beny and Yael Gangian spent more than $30,000 to help their transgender daughter Eimy complete her long-sought-for change of sexual identity. For the Israeli family, who used money saved for 18 years, borrowed from a bank and donated by family and friends, there was only one place they felt would give immediate, affordable and high-quality treatment: Thailand.

The Southeast Asian nation is at the forefront of the growing practice of transgender surgery, capitalizing on decades of know-how, low-cost health care, and a ready supply of surgeons trained to perform the male-to-female procedures.

“They have the best doctors here and I feel I can count on them,” Eimy said in an interview on the eve of her surgery in Bangkok in September. While the 18-year-old could have had the operation free in Israel, the surgeon wouldn’t have been as experienced and she probably would have had to wait years -- a delay her mother Yael says Eimy couldn’t have endured.

Full story: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-10-26/how-thailand-became-a-global-gender-change-destination

-- BloombergBusiness 2015-10-27

[dageurreotype]

Just yesterday I was being served by a 'tom' who was also serving a kateoy. I've been here so long I pay it no mind now. In fact, I usually head straight to a transgender as they usually speak better English and are more intelligent. But I do still wonder how it is there are so many here. On first arriving in Thailand someone said 'They should sort this place out and could start with their sexual identity issues'. In no way 'bashing', simply wondering 'why'?

[clockman]

Some say it is the plastic bag culture. The food is contaminated, and the plastic causes hormonal changes!

[ezzra]

This might be very well so, but it is pity the that transgender groups in Thailand are being treated

with disrespect and disdain by the authorities by not allowing them the rights of the chosen gender

and not the sex that they were born with.....

[ThaiKneeTim]

The transgender phenomenon has been around a lot longer than plastic bags!

A study at Hong Kong University concluded that efeminism is more likely the more children a couple has.

SE Asia and Hispanic nations have a higher instance of efeminism, so it's not surprising that the Philippines is particularly affected.

Whereas it has long been accepted in places like Thailand, the West went down a route of vilification resulting in gays and potential transgender having to hide their tendencies. In a climate of equality younger gays are able to be open about their sexual it, and transgender people get support and understanding from a younger age.

[Deli]

Enjoy Katoey

[HerbalEd]

The transgender phenomenon has been around a lot longer than plastic bags!

A study at Hong Kong University concluded that efeminism is more likely the more children a couple has.

SE Asia and Hispanic nations have a higher instance of efeminism, so it's not surprising that the Philippines is particularly affected.

Whereas it has long been accepted in places like Thailand, the West went down a route of vilification resulting in gays and potential transgender having to hide their tendencies. In a climate of equality younger gays are able to be open about their sexual it, and transgender people get support and understanding from a younger age.

It took a study at HK University to determine that? Actually, the more children a couple has the more likely they will have a child get cancer, or become a singer, or get bitten by a snake, or etc., etc., etc. The more people the more possibilities.

[Shaunduhpostman]

In my internet researches into the hazards of daily exposure to smoke from burning plastic, I found that some studies have found that animals and people switch gender roles under the influence of dioxin, which is the main carcinogen in smoke and ash from burning plastic and I would guess also present in the slow emanation of whatever it is you smell and taste around even sun warmed plastic. There are other totally bizarre effects from being exposed to burning plastic reguarly that you can find out for yourself with the flick of a Google search button. As Thailand deals with plastic waste mostly by burning it, one can only wonder if the high numbers of trans gender people might be at least in part caused by all of the dioxin in the air in most Thai rural areas.

[CarolJadzia]

People are born Transsexual or Intersexed. It is not a condition caused by burning plastic.

There is now plenty of evidence to show the condition starts in the womb where the brain develops a different way to the genitalia.

The reason why Thailand has become so popular is because it is cheap and non judgemental.

Surgery is a lot cheaper in Thailand and does not have the same stigma attached as in other countries.

Just a shame Thailand does not do more about a persons legal status as well.

[kiwikeith]

The transgender phenomenon has been around a lot longer than plastic bags!

A study at Hong Kong University concluded that efeminism is more likely the more children a couple has.

SE Asia and Hispanic nations have a higher instance of efeminism, so it's not surprising that the Philippines is particularly affected.

Whereas it has long been accepted in places like Thailand, the West went down a route of vilification resulting in gays and potential transgender having to hide their tendencies. In a climate of equality younger gays are able to be open about their sexual it, and transgender people get support and understanding from a younger age.

We don't hear much about women changes as they don't require surgery they can buy add on.

[CarolJadzia]

We don't hear much about women changes as they don't require surgery they can buy add on.

Actually you are wrong. The reason you don't hear of as many going the other way is far more complex.

The world is far more accepting of Tom Boys.

The surgery options are far more complex, the genital reconstructions have poor outcomes "it's a lot harder to make a pole than a hole"!

In a male dominated world F2M's are not as news worthy as M2F's

[BlindMagician]

The transgender phenomenon has been around a lot longer than plastic bags!

A study at Hong Kong University concluded that efeminism is more likely the more children a couple has.

SE Asia and Hispanic nations have a higher instance of efeminism, so it's not surprising that the Philippines is particularly affected.

Whereas it has long been accepted in places like Thailand, the West went down a route of vilification resulting in gays and potential transgender having to hide their tendencies. In a climate of equality younger gays are able to be open about their sexual it, and transgender people get support and understanding from a younger age.

It took a study at HK University to determine that? Actually, the more children a couple has the more likely they will have a child get cancer, or become a singer, or get bitten by a snake, or etc., etc., etc. The more people the more possibilities.

HerbalEd ... your logic is astounding - well done. Oh hang on a minute, maybe you should think again. I see an alternative interpretation of what was meant. What can that be?

[arrowsdawdle]

Just yesterday I was being served by a 'tom' who was also serving a kateoy. I've been here so long I pay it no mind now. In fact, I usually head straight to a transgender as they usually speak better English and are more intelligent. But I do still wonder how it is there are so many here. On first arriving in Thailand someone said 'They should sort this place out and could start with their sexual identity issues'. In no way 'bashing', simply wondering 'why'?

Until chromosome reversal is available there is no transgender, only a daisy chain of fraud encompassing patients and physicians.

As for LOS being the hub of sexual identity aberrations, it may have something to do with:

• Making kids sleep with their parents till adulthood
• Segregating male kids with males and females with females in group environments
• Making hand holding or any other physical contact between kids of opposite sex socially unacceptable
• Making physical contact among kids of the same sex socially acceptable
• Avoiding male genitalia humiliation from women in keeping with the superior ethnicity myth
• Reinforcing the institutionalized inequality of women myth

[granuaile]

The transgender phenomenon has been around a lot longer than plastic bags!

A study at Hong Kong University concluded that efeminism is more likely the more children a couple has.

SE Asia and Hispanic nations have a higher instance of efeminism, so it's not surprising that the Philippines is particularly affected.

Whereas it has long been accepted in places like Thailand, the West went down a route of vilification resulting in gays and potential transgender having to hide their tendencies. In a climate of equality younger gays are able to be open about their sexual it, and transgender people get support and understanding from a younger age.

We don't hear much about women changes as they don't require surgery they can buy add on.

Firstly, most tomboys are not transgendered or transsexual. Some are, but I've had some very butch friends say "I'm a woman". And most kathoey are also not transsexual. It is a role that society pushes many gay men into.

Regarding, FTMs, Ii's much more complex than you make it seem, involving more extensive surgery than going from male to female in gender affirmation surgery. At a minimum they have to normally have to have a mastectomy and a hysterectomy, along with taking testosterone which has many consequences. The testosterone causes the clitoris to enlarge and it can function to some degree as a penis (at least so I've been told by FTM friends), though some opt to have surgery to create a penis using muscle tissue from elsewhere. FTM surgeries are done over a course of time and are much more expensive.

[CarolJadzia]

Until chromosome reversal is available there is no transgender, only a daisy chain of fraud encompassing patients and physicians.

Really? Where have you been for the last 20 years?

http://www.isna.org/faq/y_chromosome

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20032-transsexual-differences-caught-on-brain-scan/

[NickJ]

Yeah.....I think those 1/4 , 1/2 and full page adds in the BKK Post that list the prices of all the proceadures helped as well.......