It was 1980, and a blonde, good-looking young man, five feet seven, entered the office of Dr. Stanley Biber. The young man appeared healthy in every way, but he had one problem: he wanted to be a young woman.
You see, Dr. Biber specialized in transsexual surgery. His practice was in Trinidad, Colorado. Into his office walked this young fellow, age 24—we’re going to call him Jim—seeking a surgical answer to what he considered a lifelong problem.
Dr. Biber refused to accept patients without previous psychiatric evaluations, and Jim’s had been excellent, placing him well within the criteria established by the Benjamin Gender Dysphoria Association. Jim had been on hormones for two years, and all during that time, he had been dressing as a woman, living a female role, and actually working as a woman’s hairstylist.
But then Jim said to the doctor, “How good are you?”
Dr. Biber said he believed that he was quite good. His worldwide professional reputation suggested that he was something more than that, in fact. But Jim continued, “I don’t want this done unless it’s a really good job.”
Dr. Biber said that Jim’s should be a convincing transformation, including augmentation mammoplasty and even a nose job. The results, he said, ought to be marvelous.
But six months later, as Dr. Biber was to perform the final touches—a labiaplasty—Jim still seemed concerned. He did not want merely to become some half-man, half-woman freak. He said he wanted to become a real woman in every way.
“Well, how real do you want to be?” asked Dr. Biber.
The young man sighed. He said he would like Jim to disappear altogether. He’d like Jim to vanish and re-materialize in society as a woman so that no one would suspect his past, so that perhaps he might even marry someday.
Well, Dr. Biber said, “Hold it right there, Jim. Realize this: no matter how convincing a woman you might become, you will never be able to bear children.”
Yes, Jim had no illusions about that. When it came right down to it, though, he just didn’t want people laughing at him for the rest of his life. He wanted to live as normally as possible as a female. Now, could Dr. Biber help him?
Dr. Biber assured this young fellow that he would do his best. Now, Dr. Biber had a lot of patients, but this one was kind of special. They had checked on the case history very carefully.
The operations were performed as planned: the replacement of Jim’s male sex organs with brand new female ones, then breast reconstruction, then minor facial reconstruction. And after six months, the routine finishing touches. And that was that.
Well, as it turned out, Jim’s pre-operative anxiety was for nothing. As a matter of fact, Dr. Biber considered Jim—if he were an artist, he would say—his masterpiece.
Because six months after the last operation, Jim—the new, female Jim—started going to a gynecologist. That’s right. And after a while, Jim and the gynecologist fell in love and got married. And that professional gynecologist, who is Jim’s husband, after almost four years of marriage, to this day does not know what you’ve just learned.
The rest of the story.
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