This book covers the whole transsexual experience from start to finish, giving the facts comprehensively as never published before. Written by Tracie O'Keefe, BA, Adv Dip Thp MCRAH, a transsexual and clinical hypnotherapist/psychotherapist at the London Medical Centre, Harley Street, and journalist Katrina Fox, it presents everything you ever wanted to know about transsexuals.

Included are the views of the experts, families, friends and partners of those who are compelled to undergo such a dramatic metamorphosis. Given is the kind of information that may now lead the world to reconsider that transsexuals are born and not, contrary to popular belief, made in Casablanca.

Guaranteed to change your mind about those whom you thought changed their sex, this book will give you a window into the fascinating world of those who change their bodies and not their minds.

WHY WE WROTE THE BOOK: TRANS-X-U-ALL: The Naked Difference

By Tracie O'Keefe, BA, Adv Dip Thp MCRAH & Katrina Fox BA (HONS)

Two years ago when I and my partner, Katrina Fox, decided to write the book it was because we felt that a great number of transsexuals were being misinformed. Having been a life-long transsexual myself and being a psychotherapist, clinical hypnotherapist and counsellor I knew that the universal standards of care were often of a very uneven standard. During our research for the book we met many truly humane, dedicated and well informed doctors, therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, plastic surgeons, social worker and lawyers. Along with these people we also met some badly informed, ignorant, prejudicial so-called professionals who had a "take the money and run" mentality.

There is no such thing as a "sex change" in the human equation and transsexuals themselves believe that they do not change their sex but simply bring their bodies cosmetically in line with their real identity. Making that decision is easier if they are well informed about all the aspects of the transformation they are going to undertake. In the book we provide a huge amount of information and considerations that can help guide any transsexual, their doctor, friends and family along that chosen course and beyond.

I never regretted one moment of the decision I made thirty years ago to undergo my life change. For me it has been wonderful to live as I am and I have been married to two different men and now live with my beautiful lesbian lover and co-author in London's colourful Soho. My Harley Street practice takes up much of my time nowadays, helping many transsexuals make the right decision for themselves. I never diagnose anyone as I believe that transsexualism is a self-diagnosing condition and the therapist's job is to help that person be sure. More than seventy percent of the people who apply for gender reassignment change their minds at some stage of the transformation. Making such a decision that affects the rest of your life in a such a fundamental way is best done with lots of help. Those who change their mind also may need help and guidance to choose the new route they may wish to take.

In the book we guide the interested parties through the diagnosing, treatment, medical, psychological, social, sociological, and legal issues that they will come up against. We talk about the kind of operations available and the procedures that are involved. We include stories from different transsexuals who have undergone or are undergoing treatment and from their families and friends too. There are also photographs of transmen and transwomen who walk amongst society as their destination sex unnoticed and undetected as doctors, lawyers, accountants, politicians and the man and woman next door.

We call for the change in the law in many countries to bring the rights of those who are transsexual in line with the rest of humanity. Far from just getting on our soap box, we give the practical reasons why society must now reconsider how and why it categorises minority sexes, genders and sexualities. Finally we take the leap of faith that identity may be inextricably intertwined with genetic make-up by presenting some of the latest findings in genetics. We hope you find it an "everything you need to know about transsexualism" experience. Knowledge, we think, is empowering:
READ AND ENJOY!

TRANS-X-U-ALL: THE NAKED DIFFERENCE is available from Extraordinary People Press, 1B Portman Mansions, Chiltern Street, London W1M 1PX, England. Tel. 0171 935 4490, Fax 0171 486 5998 Click here for an order form. It is also available in all good bookshops in the UK.

Where to find the book in different countries:

• USA
• Canada
• Australia

 

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