I recently spoke to a female psychologist who worked, as part of her post-graduate training, with a gender-reassignment team back in 2008. These are her experiences. (thread)

She was brought in to counsel the patients pre-op. First thing she noticed is that the patients presented completely differently, depending on whether the surgeon was there or not.

The atmosphere in the clinic was full of buzz and excitement about the surgery, and patients often presented extremely enthusiastically. However, when the surgeon wasn't there, and the psychologist would ask them how they felt, often they would burst into tears.

It transpired that the surgeon as well as a psychiatrist who worked with him, claimed that all their psychological problems would disappear as soon as the surgery was done. They often made wild claims such as that they will be completely functional as the opposite sex.

However, and this refers to mostly female trans ppl, post-op they presented depressed and bewildered, asking why their psychological symptoms remain the same. Often, they would get deeply depressed in the coming months.

Each time this psychologist received a referral of a patient that was a "certain surgery, as soon as possible" within a couple of appointments, the patients completely changed their mind. All she ever did was question them about their feelings, past histories and expectations.

She was sent to a conference a couple of times, and she noticed that the behaviour of these male clinicians could be consistent with being gay and still in the closet. They could also be quite homophobic and very gung-ho about surgical and medical solutions.

She was offered a lot of money and quick PhD opportunity, for research that would have to support the prevailing ethos in these clinics ie. that surgery resolves dysphoria, that it is perfectly safe, that there is such a thing as "brain sex" and "born in the wrong body".

There being no scientific evidence for any of these claims, in fact quite the opposite - she noticed wilful neglect of patient's psychological needs, unethical behaviour by the clinicians and negative impact of the surgery on many patients - she felt that she could not do that.

She tried to share her findings, but nobody there was interested. It became clear that for one reason or another, these doctors were not offering best medical care to vulnerable patients and doing them a disservice. This wasn't a precedent. We all know how surgeons can be.

Cosmetic surgeons operating on healthy women to the point of disfigurement, gastric surgeons taking advantage of misogynistic beauty standards and performing expensive and unnecessary gastric banding operations, there are many examples.

So she left, someone willingly took her place and made a career out of it and we are where we are now. I think most people know this is another medical scandal in the making. It has the elements of all the previous medical scandals - misogyny, homophobia, eugenics, maverick men.

Whether trans people want to hear this or not, surgery doesn't solve psychological problems, but it can make them worse. Key to health and happiness is accepting our bodies, not pretending that they are an identity that can be discarded. Sex can't be changed. Take care xx

ADD: Here's a link to analysis of a survey of detransitioners. It shows that most were not given adequate counselling, and it clarifies what goes on inside gender clinics further. Couple that with universities banning research into detransition and THINK. http://guideonragingstars.tumblr.com/post/149877706175/female-detransition-and-reidentification-survey