Kenshin Lei, Andre Santos

ENE 13.05i

Safety of Transsexual Medical Treatments: The Health Risks of

Gender Surgery and Hormone Therapy to Filipino Juveniles

In the fictional short story ​Waiting for the Rain​, the process of transalienation
alludes to the real-life practice of sex reassignment surgery. In the text, transalienation
is depicted in a rather gruesome way. Towards the end of the story, Adryan Marchese
started to experience peculiar growths around his body, and a change in his emotions.
These may hint at the real dangers of sex reassignment surgery; especially for the
youth.

According to a survey done by Statista in 2016, over 61% of the 700 Philippine
residents they interviewed admitted to knowing a gay, lesbian, or bisexual person
(“Familiarity with the LGBT Community in the Philippines as of 2016”). Though not
mentioned, it is possible that some of the LGBTQ individuals the respondents knew are
young in age. This statistic shows the prevalence of individuals with a transgender
sexual orientation in the Philippines, and proves the relevance of our topic in the
Philippine setting.

This study plans to present the possible ramifications of taking sex reassignment
surgery and hormones at a young age. This paper will do this by first defining both sex
reassignment surgery and hormone therapy. Afterwards, this paper will ascertain the
safety and long-term feasibility of these treatments in the Philippine context using
pertinent studies. These two forms of treatment may have irreversible or even
dangerous effects to juveniles. As such, it is vital that this topic be immediately
addressed.
 Tentative Bibliography:
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337-350. ​NCBI,​ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4771004/
Kaltiala-Heino, Riittakerttu, et al. “Gender Dysphoria in Adolescence: Current
Perspectives.” ​Adolescent Health, Medicine and Therapeutics​, Volume 9, 2 Mar.
2018, pp. 31–41. ​NCBI​, doi:10.2147/ahmt.s135432.
Lambrese, Jason. “Suppression of Puberty in Transgender Children.” ​AMA Journal of
Ethics​, vol. 12, no. 8, 1 Aug. 2010, pp. 645–649. ​AMA Journal of Ethics,​
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Magsambol, Bonz. “'Tolerated, but Not Accepted': Filipino LGBTQ Speak up vs
Discrimination.” ​Rappler,​ Rappler, 11 June 2019,
https://www.rappler.com/move-ph/232766-filipino-lgbtq-community-speak-vs-disc
rimination.
Olson-Kennedy, Johanna, et al. “Impact of Early Medical Treatment for Transgender
Youth: Protocol for the Longitudinal, Observational Trans Youth Care Study.”
JMIR Research Protocols​, vol. 8, no. 7, 9 July 2019, pp. 1–9. ​ResearchGate​,
doi:10.2196/14434.
Statista Research Department. “Familiarity with the LGBT Community in the Philippines
as of 2016.” ​Statista​, Statista, 9 Aug. 2019,
https://www.statista.com/statistics/719899/familiarity-with-the-lgbt-community-in-p
hilippines/.
Unger, Cécile A. “Hormone Therapy for Transgender Patients.” ​Translational Andrology
and Urology,​ vol. 5, no. 6, Dec. 2016, pp. 877–884. ​NCBI​,
doi:10.21037/tau.2016.09.04.