There a three main surgeries and therapies that can help transgender or cross-dressing people be more like women. If you are a cross-dresser who is happy the way she is, then the first two therapies are not at all for you. But if you do want to change your gender, then you have to learn more about these medical interventions. Let me just tell you about these three.
What is sex assignment surgery (SRS)?
Sex assignment surgery (SRS) or gender assignment surgery (GRS) is a part of a treatment for transsexuals and transgenders. It mainly involves creating a vagina in a transgender male who would like to change his appearance to that of a woman in a procedure called vaginoplasty. It may also involve chest reconstruction and facial feminizing surgery. While the former is meant to reconstruct a breast, the latter is meant for feminizing the features of a male so he looks more like a woman.
What is hormone replacement therapy (HRT)?
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in transgender people changes the balance of the sex hormones in the body, making them more feminine. The purpose of the surgery is to develop secondary sex characteristics of a female in a male to female transgender. Hormone therapy usually involves a combination of estrogen, progesterone, and anti-androgens. It helps in the development of breasts, redistribution of fat to give a more feminine figure, and thinning of the skin.
What is voice therapy?
Voice therapy involves training your voice so it sounds more feminine and makes it easier to pass off as a woman in public. Formally, a speech pathologist can help train your voice to sound more feminine. You can also use self-help resources, including audio or video tapes, courses, and books available on the Internet to feminize your voice. Trans women, such as Lynn Conway, the American computer scientist, have actually managed to feminize their voice without any assistance.
Voice therapy addresses issues such as breathing patterns, recognizing where and how to produce sound, how to resonate sound, and gender-related non-verbal communication. Voice feminization therapy includes five components, respiration, phonation, resonance, articulation, and prosody.
