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February 98
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Vol 1. No 5. Febraury, 1998
Sex Change Clinic a First
by Peter Weekes
One of Thailand's leading plastic surgeons will soon be teaching the art of sex change surgery to doctors from around the world if his plan to establish Asia's first sex reassignment clinic in Bangkok proves a success. Dr Preecha Tiewtranon, a plastic surgeon at Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital and president of Thailand's Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, said the centre would also generate much-needed foreign exchange for the country.
He said he was approached with the sex-change-for-foreign-exchange concept by the Department of Export Promotion.
But the centre's focus will be patient care, not a fast buck, when the clinic opens in March. It will be staffed by Dr Preecha, a psychologist and other medical specialists, and will also offer a range of services, including counselling for parents.
"I started doing sexual reassignment surgery because patients were asking me to. I think it is better than having people contemplate suicide - that is no way to live," he said.
When he began operating on the occasional patient 20 years ago, most were locals. However, today business is booming and he estimates that he has done about 650 operations and averages between one or two a week with about 70% travelling to Bangkok from as far afield as the United States.
Pink Ink caught up with Dr Preecha a week after he operated on Terrilynn, a 38-year-old computer technician from Silicon Valley in California. And when he returns from a week's holiday, three more patients from Iran will be waiting for reconstructive surgery to repair the damage from a botched operations in Tehran.
Terrilynn was skeptical when first told of Dr Preecha's work. Although he had a perfect track record in regard to successful surgery, Terrilynn thought, "he was just too cheap". But after she saw the doctor's work on a friend, the computer technician booked her flight to Bangkok. "This is the happiest night of my life," she said afterward.
Believing that it is a person's right to choose if they want a sex change and the medical profession's duty to ensure it can be done safely, Dr Preecha says he is also planning to establish a training programme in his procedures at the centre for overseas doctors.
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