Friday 28 March 2008

Caught napping (part 1)

Tough action awaits any back-alley medical clinics which continue removing the testicles of young Thai men who are under-age.

They are likely to lose their operating licence, and the owner could be fined up to B20,000 baht and/or jailed for a year.

A craze among young Thai kathoey (boys who want to be girls) to get their testicles removed came to light when gay activists revealed that parents of teens who had undergone the procedure contacted them to complain.

Back-alley clinics have advertised on the internet claiming that castration is a cheaper and effective alternative to gender re-assignment surgery for young teen males who want to become women. Most teens who get their testicles removed are just 15 or 16.

The gay activists called on the Medical Council yesterday to demand it stop clinics performing the procedure. Under law, someone must be 18 before he can undergo surgery without his parents' consent.

Thai gay activist Natee Teerarojjanapong, who led a delegation of 10 activists to present their demands to the Medical Council yesterday, believes that as many as eight out of 10 kathoey may have had the procedure done.

He says the procedure can potentially destroy lives, as it is irreversible, and can lead to premature senility and even mental retardation. He decided to come forward after worried parents in Chiang Mai contacted him.

Their son was pressuring them to consent to the procedure - though many other under-age kathoey had undergone castration without telling anyone.

Quack surgeons offering the service do not bother to inform their young patients about the potential consequences. Now do they do not ask if they have their parents' consent.

They offer the service for as little as B5-7000 baht, compared to the B100,000 needed for gender re-assignment surgery. No wonder it is seen as an appealing alternative to full surgery.

The Medical Registration Division of the Ministry of Public Health, which inspects clinics once a year to make sure they comply with the terms of their operating licence, says it does not know how many clinics perform castration on demand for under-age teens. Some clinics which advertise the service on websites leave just a contact number.

It had never received any complaints from the public, as the teens who usually seek out the service do so furtively.

Supachai Kunarattanpreuk, Medical Services Support Department director-general, said hospitals and clinics had been warned not to perform castration unless a medical condition requires it.

The furore could also have repercussions for the way gender re-assignment surgery is done. The Medical Council is working on tougher regulations covering gender re-assignment surgery and castration. It has invited the gay activists to supply them with information about the castration trend among young teens.

now, see part 2

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