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General Discussion / Re: Bradley Manning
« on: August 24, 2013, 09:22:12 am »Not sure if sex changes should be covered in general. I suppose sex changes could, in exceptional cases, be argued absolutely critical to mental well-being, in which case I would tentatively be in favour of having the operation covered in those cases only. In general, I think elective procedures should not be covered in a social healthcare system.
It is my limited understanding that a MtF sex change where the testes are removed, would require a dependency on hormone therapy (i.e. estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, etc.) for the rest of their lives because it would result in a significant imbalance in hormones. They would not be able to naturally produce enough estrogen and testosterone since both males and females naturally produce both, just differs in amount... So something like a male menopause would occur.
I agree with the elective point of view. To me, a sex change could result in far too many possible complications for an elective operation, and should not to be covered.
Whereas just hormone therapy is much more reversible and less risky. It'd be different if Manning already had a sex change before all of this WL stuff.