Russell Reid

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Russell Reid
Medical career
ProfessionConsultant Psychiatrist
Sub-specialties Gender Identity Disorder

Russell Reid is a retired consultant psychiatrist who specialized [1] in sexual and gender-related conditions. [2] [3] He is particularly known for his work with gender identity disorder patients. [4] Richard Curtis took over his practice after his retirement.[ citation needed ] Reid grew up in New Zealand and worked privately in the United Kingdom. Britain's best-known expert on gender reassignment, he was a member of the parliamentary forum on transsexualism.

In 2006–2007, Reid was investigated by the General Medical Council (GMC), [5] the regulatory body for doctors in the UK. A serious professional misconduct hearing opened following complaints brought by four doctors from the main NHS Gender Identity Clinic at Charing Cross hospital, west London, and some of his former patients. It is alleged that he breached international standards of care, set by the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA) by inappropriately prescribing cross-gender hormones to patients and referring them for sex reassignment surgery without adequate assessment. [4]

Britain's primary lobbying organization for transgender and transsexual people, Press for Change, was quoted as saying that Reid received support during the process from more than 150 patients as well as additional experts in the area. [6] Ultimately, the enquiry found Reid guilty of Serious Professional Misconduct, mostly for failing to communicate fully with patients GPs and not documenting his reasons for departing from the HBIGDA Standards of Care guidelines sufficiently. However, the panel "determined that it would be in the public interest as well as your own interests if you were to return to practice under strict conditions." [7] and allowed him to return to practice, subject to some restrictions on his practice and hormone prescriptions [8] for the next 12 months.

Reid was a member of an expert committee set up by the Royal College of Psychiatrists to draw up new UK care guidelines on the treatment of Gender identity disorder. He stepped down as a member of the group in the wake of the GMC inquiry. [9]

Reid was also interviewed as part of a BBC documentary, Complete Obsession, dealing with patients seeking limb amputations. [10] [11]

Related Research Articles

A person may be considered to be a transgender person if their gender identity is inconsistent or not culturally associated with the sex they were assigned at birth and consequently also with the gender role and social status that is typically associated with that sex. They may have, or may intend to establish, a new gender status that accords with their gender identity. Transsexual is generally considered a subset of transgender, but some transsexual people reject being labelled transgender.

Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person feels due to a mismatch between their gender identity and their sex assigned at birth. The diagnostic label gender identity disorder (GID) was used until 2013 with the release of the DSM-5. The condition was renamed to remove the stigma associated with the term disorder.

Sex reassignment surgery (SRS), also known as gender reassignment surgery (GRS) and several other names, is a surgical procedure by which a transgender person's physical appearance and function of their existing sexual characteristics are altered to resemble those socially associated with their identified gender. It is part of a treatment for gender dysphoria in transgender people.

Harry Benjamin German/American endocrinologist and sexologist

Harry Benjamin was a German-American endocrinologist and sexologist, widely known for his clinical work with transgender people.

The Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming People are international clinical protocols outlining the recommended assessment and treatment for gender non-conforming individuals across the lifespan or transgender or transsexual people who wish to undergo social, hormonal or surgical transition to the other sex. Clinicians' decisions regarding patients' treatment are often influenced by this standard of care (SOC). They are most widespread SOC used by professionals working with transsexual, transgender, or gender variant people. However, other sets of SOCs, protocols and guidelines do exist, especially outside the United States.

Sex reassignment therapy is the medical aspect of gender transitioning, that is, modifying one's sex characteristics to better suit one's gender identity. It can consist of hormone therapy to modify secondary sex characteristics, sex reassignment surgery to alter primary sex characteristics, and other procedures altering appearance, including permanent hair removal for trans women.

The following outline offers an overview and guide to transgender topics.

A trans man is a man who was assigned female at birth. The label of transgender man is not always interchangeable with that of transsexual man, although the two labels are often used in this way. Transgender is an umbrella term that includes different types of gender variant people. Many trans men choose to undergo surgical or hormonal transition, or both, to alter their appearance in a way that aligns with their gender identity or alleviates gender dysphoria.

Gender transitioning is the process of changing one's gender presentation and/or sex characteristics to accord with one's internal sense of gender identity – the idea of what it means to be a man or a woman, or to be non-binary or genderqueer. For transgender and transsexual people, this process commonly involves reassignment therapy, with their gender identity being opposite that of their birth-assigned sex and gender. Transitioning might involve medical treatment, but it does not always involve it. Cross-dressers, drag queens, and drag kings tend not to transition, since their variant gender presentations are (usually) only adopted temporarily.

Transgender rights in Iran

Before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the issue of transgender identity in Iran had never been officially addressed by the government. Beginning in the mid-1980s, however, transgender individuals were officially recognized by the government and allowed to undergo sex reassignment surgery. As of 2008, Iran carries out more sex change operations than any other nation in the world except Thailand. The government provides up to half the cost for those needing financial assistance, and a sex change is recognized on the birth certificate.

Transgender Gender identity that differs from sex assigned at birth

Transgender people have a gender identity or gender expression that differs from the sex that they were assigned at birth. Some transgender people who desire medical assistance to transition from one sex to another identify as transsexual. Transgender, often shortened as trans, is also an umbrella term; in addition to including people whose gender identity is the opposite of their assigned sex, it may include people who are not exclusively masculine or feminine. Other definitions of transgender also include people who belong to a third gender, or else conceptualize transgender people as a third gender. The term transgender may be defined very broadly to include cross-dressers.

Transsexual People experiencing a gender identity inconsistent with their assigned sex

Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance to help them align their body with their identified sex or gender.

The Baptist Medical Center sex reassignment surgery controversy occurred in 1977 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Surgeons at the Baptist Medical Center, a hospital owned by the Southern Baptist Convention, were prohibited from performing sex reassignment surgery.

Paul Allen Walker was an American social psychologist and founding president of HBIGDA, the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association now known as WPATH, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health in 1979. He also served as director of the Janus Information Facility.

Transgender hormone therapy, also sometimes called cross-sex hormone therapy, is a form of hormone therapy in which sex hormones and other hormonal medications are administered to transgender or gender nonconforming individuals for the purpose of more closely aligning their secondary sexual characteristics with their gender identity. This form of hormone therapy is given as one of two types, based on whether the goal of treatment is feminization or masculinization:

The real-life experience (RLE), sometimes called the real-life test (RLT), is a period of time in which transgender individuals live full-time in their identified (discovered) gender role. The purpose of the RLE is to confirm that a given transgender person can function successfully as a member of said gender in society, as well as to confirm that they are sure they want to live as said gender for the rest of their life. A documented RLE is a requirement of some physicians before prescribing hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and a requirement of most surgeons before performing genital reassignment surgery (GRS).

Transgender health care includes the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of physical and mental health conditions, as well as sex reassignment therapies, for transgender individuals. Questions implicated in transgender health care include gender variance, sex reassignment therapy, health risks, and access to healthcare for trans people in different countries around the world.

<i>Kavanagh v. Canada</i> (Attorney General)

Synthia Kavanagh is a transgender inmate serving time for second degree murder in Canada, who filed a human rights complaint on the basis of three claimed discriminatory actions. It was argued that Kavanagh’s incarceration in a male prison, her deprival of the hormone therapies that she had previously been taking, and the lack of surgical sex-reassignment options that were available to her all constituted violations of section 5 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. Ultimately the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that incarcerating Kavanagh in a male prison and barring her from seeking sex reassignment surgery violated her fundamental rights and freedoms.

Transgender rights in Australia enjoy legal recognition and protection under federal and state/territory laws, but the requirements for gender recognition vary depending on the jurisdiction. For example, birth certificates, recognised details certificates, and driver licences are regulated by the states and territories, while Medicare and passports are matters for the Commonwealth.

References

  1. ↑ Harper, Catherine (30 October 2007). Intersex. Berg Publishers. p. 11. ISBN   978-1-84520-183-8 . Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  2. ↑ Whittle, Stephen (17 September 2002). Respect and equality: transsexual and transgender rights. Psychology Press. pp. 173–. ISBN   978-1-85941-743-0 . Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  3. ↑ Rose, Lannie (20 October 2008). How To Change Your Sex: A Lighthearted Look at the Hardest Thing You'll Ever Do. Lulu.com. p. 104. ISBN   978-1-4357-5360-0 . Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  4. 1 2 Tatchell, Peter (6 October 2006). "Listening is not a crime". The Guardian . Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  5. ↑ Bird, Steve (18 October 2006). "Psychiatrist accused of rushing five patients into changing sex". The Times . Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  6. ↑ Batty, David (19 June 2004). "Inquiry into sex change specialist". The Guardian . Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  7. ↑ "Fitness to Practise Panel Hearing" (PDF). General Medical Council. 25 May 2007. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  8. ↑ "Sex change doctor avoids dismissal". Channel 4 . 25 May 2007. Archived from the original on 19 November 2008. Retrieved 7 March 2011.CS1 maint: unfit url (link)
  9. ↑ Batty, David (28 September 2004). "Accused doctor quits transsexualism committee". The Guardian . Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  10. ↑ "Complete Obsession (transcript)". BBC Online . 17 February 2000. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
  11. ↑ Kuhse, Helga; Singer, Peter (2006). Bioethics: an anthology. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 626. ISBN   978-1-4051-2947-3 . Retrieved 7 March 2011.
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