Team DailyPedia
I went in for a hip and knee replacement or I faced life in a wheelchair. My doctor had said I should have the gender transformation operation, but I thought I was too old. But the surgeons wouldn’t have done it if they didn’t think I could go through with it. I am the oldest person to have it done,
said the former RAF navigator who made for himself a record to be the oldest person EVER in Britain to have a sex change surgery at the age of 81.
From James to Ruth Rose
At 9 years old, James longed to be a female. His long time wish was granted this summer, all thanks to NHS surgeons. He then changed his name to Ruth Rose.
“I’m now fully equipped. I’m enjoying the fact that I have made the transition. My main thing in life isn’t going around saying I am a lady now. But not a day had gone by since I was nine when I didn’t think I was in the wrong body. I always felt I was a woman.”
Life Before Surgery
Ruth Rose became a trainee in mechanical engineering at a very young age before she joined the RAF.
She got married in 1961 without her wife knowing about her secret longing for change. After 42 years, they decided to get a divorce.
The father of three and grandfather of four said she did not tell his wife about her feelings. She thought that if she got married, those feelings would go away. But it didn’t. “We are a close-knit family and they are tolerant. But my decision to go for gender realignment surgery came as a shock to them.”
Journey To Womanhood
According to Ruth Rose, she stopped going to events as a man four years ago. She said she was living a double life when she was married, “dressing up to see friends but a man at home.”
That year, she began a female hormone therapy. Then in July, Ruth Rose had her male organs removed.
The operation and treatment costs £4,000.
After The Surgery
For five days, Ruth Rose was inside the hospital for being in pain. Her wounds completely healed around six-eight weeks.
Ruth Rose said, “It would have been ridiculous for me to ask for a vagina so I could go sleeping around. It would be inappropriate. I was offered it, but turned it down. The intimate sides are as private as a woman would want. I don’t at my age expect to have a sexual partner and wouldn’t know what to do with it if I did. It’s not about having a sexual relationship. But it’s nice to feel you have sexuality. It’s nice to feel feminine.”
In defense to her decision for a sex change, she explained having lived a life full of emotional battle of hiding the truth from everybody who you really are.
“A lot of people think it’s just a case of chopping it off, but it’s much more than that. Some people are assessed for eight to ten years by psychiatrists. The rate of suicides for people waiting for transgender operations is seven times higher than normal. People are living lives of despair. The surgeons I have spoken to say they have saved hundreds of lives by stopping people from committing suicide. You get people who can’t keep slim or who smoke and have all the related health issues – but the NHS will still treat them. They would operate on someone who had a great bulge on their cheek. It might not be malignant, but it could cause embarrassment. Well, a transgender operation is similar to that.”
