Three years ago, Louth native Dr Sidhbh Gallagher started the Gender Affirmation Surgery Programme at Indiana University School of Medicine. She describes her work with the transgender community as the most gratifying she has ever done. Sidhbh spoke to Dave Fanning on The Ryan Tubridy Show about how she ended up taking this path in life despite knowing little about the transgender community beforehand.
"I fell in love with this field in a roundabout way… I was drawn first to the surgeries. I thought they were pretty cool, just being able to completely change somebody's anatomy but to keep it functional at the same time."
Sidhbh travelled to Serbia, Belgium and Australia to train in this specialized area of medicine and returned to Indiana where, crucially, insurance had begun to cover the surgeries so the demand for her work significantly increased. She explained to Dave why gender affirmation surgery is a better name for the operation rather than older terms such as "sex change".
"What we're beginning to realise now… is it's the patient's identity is the most important… We used to think that we would try and change the mind to fit the body and now we understand that the much more effective treatment and really the only treatment is with hormones and with surgeries where necessary to change the body to fit the identity… so that's where we get these terms 'gender affirmation' and gender 'confirmation'."
"It takes a village if you're transitioning," said Sidhbh of the long road an individual must walk before undergoing the surgery. By the time the patient comes to see her, they have been helped and assessed by psychiatrists, mental health professionals, hormone providers and they have lived for a full year in their chosen gender identity so they have been fully prepped for the operation. Sibhdh considers it a privilege to be able to help people emerge as their true selves.
"I really developed massive respect for the community very quickly because it's something, you know, I think all of us can identify with. It's very difficult to be your authentic self and to have the bravery to do it and my goodness there's nothing more brave than somebody who lives in rural Indiana, being able to come out to themselves, come out to their family and potentially risk losing their jobs, alienating family and even violence as well… It feels a privilege working with them."
Click here to listen to Sidhbh's interview in full