A placebo is defined as
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo
>A placebo (pron.: /pl?'sibo?/ pl?-see-boh; Latin placebo, "I shall please"[2] from placeo, "I please") is a simulated or otherwise medically ineffectual treatment for a disease or other medical condition intended to deceive the recipient. Sometimes patients given a placebo treatment will have a perceived or actual improvement in a medical condition, a phenomenon commonly called the placebo effect.
>otherwise medically ineffectual treatment
If you need psychiatric counseling to handle transgenderism, both before and after gender reassignment surgery, then I would posit that in fact the only effective therapy is the psychiatric counseling, and that the gender reassignment surgery is an ineffectual, unnecessary and body mutilating cash grab by the medical industry. Aka, a placebo. Not to mention the fact that the hormones used in gender replacement and (also) hormone replacement therapy (although hormone replacement takes place late enough in life that the hrt practices are less problematic) are known carcinogens.
Note something Goliath himself said "We go to Thailand to get the surgeries done"
Why is that, exactly?
Couldn't be because Thailand has been cashing in on a controversial and generally very difficult to acquire surgery, could it? Nah of course not.
Oh wait.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2...-thailand.html
http://seattletimes.com/html/health/...xchange03.html
http://travel.cnn.com/bangkok/play/e...changes-379486
Its only been in the past three years that Thailand has changed its laws regarding transgender reassignment surgery to make it so you can't mutilate underage children without a parent's permission, and to require a year of therapy before you can receive treatment.
http://www.thailawforum.com/sex-chan...tions-law.html
Personally, I think people like Goliath here are being abused by psychiatric counselors who should lose their jobs and be prosecuted, and if he has undergone gender reassignment surgery as quickly as this thread implies, then he has also been abused by a less than professional medical practitioner who should lose their jobs and probably as well be prosecuted. There is not one other mental illness on the planet that people would suggest radical life threatening and body altering surgeries to cure. This is the modern day version of full frontal lobotomies, basically. When people were sticking ice picks in peoples heads and scrambling their brains, and giving them electroshock therapies, they thought they were giving them comprehensive treatment, and that it was the only way to deal with the issue as well. Turns out there just wasn't enough information on the disorders at the time to properly treat them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobotomy
Lobotomy (Greek: ????? - lobos: "lobe (of brain)"; ???? - tome: "cut/slice") is a neurosurgical procedure, a form of psychosurgery, also known as a leukotomy or leucotomy (from the Greek ?????? - leukos: "clear/white" and tome). Another name for this procedure is the "bilateral prefrontal lobotomy". [2] It consists of cutting the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex, the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain. While the procedure, initially termed a leucotomy, has been controversial since its inception in 1935, it was a mainstream procedure for more than two decades, prescribed for psychiatric (and occasionally other) conditions-this despite general recognition of frequent and serious side-effects
>it was a mainstream procedure for more than two decades, prescribed for psychiatric (and occassionally other) conditions - this despite general recognition of frequent and serious side-effects.
Sound familiar?
The vast majority of people who undergo full gender reassignment regret it, a very large amount of them go on to attempt or commit suicide, and virtually none of them live past their early 60s due to cancer, heart disease, stroke, etc. all brought on by use of hormones. Seems to me that you have a complex of issues beginning in depression and spreading outwards that compile to lead someone to want to so radically change their life that they desire to become a different gender. This should be treated entirely as a mental illness, and you can't fix a mental illness by hacking away at body parts.
