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Georgina Beyer came into the world as George. To her it was a mistake that had to be rectified and here, in an extract from the book Change for the Better: The Story of Georgina Beyer, she tells of her quest to finally get the full sex-change operation done
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MY ULTIMATE goal was to undergo a complete sex change, but I didn't know how that was going to be achieved. I certainly didn't have any comprehensive information about how it was done or, indeed, where it was done and by whom. I only knew it was possible.
Once I had set my goal, though, I met with and talked to various people who could give me the information I needed. I soon realised that though the sex-change operation was available in New Zealand, it was still relatively new and wasn't terribly sophisticated.
In fact, there were only one or two surgeons in the country doing it. It became increasingly clear that if I was to have the most advanced surgery possible, I was going to have to travel.
I realised that several options were available. Everyone recommended England or Egypt for the most comprehensive, state-of- the-art surgery. For a quick, cheap, no-questions-asked job, Singapore was the favoured option.
I came to the conclusion that if I was going to have the operation done, money wouldn't be an issue. I was only going to have one shot at becoming a woman, and I wanted to become the best-functioning woman it was possible to be. I wanted the best surgeon with the most up-to-date operation. If that meant a long trip abroad, so be it.
I learned there were various operational procedures that could be undergone. You could have what they called a quick "cut and tuck", which actually didn't leave you with a vaginal orifice. That was not for me. I also discovered that it wasn't just the clinical screening process that had to be undergone for a sex-change operation. Every candidate has to undergo a strict process of assessment to ensure the irreversible corrective surgery is the right thing to do.
Just as there were few competent sex-change surgeons in New Zealand, so there seemed to be few psychologists competent to do the...