Five-year-old from Beed undergoes gender realignment surgery at Mumbai’s St George Hospital

Doctors at St George Hospital performed a gender realignment surgery on a five-year-old child from Beed whose case is similar to that of Lalit Salve — a constable from Beed district — who underwent gender reconstructive surgery in May.

Dr Madhukar Gaikwad, medical superintendent of the hospital said that doctors conducted the first round of the surgery on Friday. “Today, doctors operated on the right side of the testes and gave him testosterone injections,” he said.

“The doctor who helped deliver the child told us it was a girl. But, two years later, we noticed that the genitals looked different,” he said. A genetic test later confirmed the child was male. “Since 2014, we knew that he was a boy, but we didn’t have the courage to talk about it,” Khan said.

However, earlier this year, when Khan read about Salve’s operation, he immediately reached out to Salve. “Meeting Salve gave me the confidence to approach doctors at St George Hospital,” Khan added.

The child’s father, Mohammad Khan, 39, a truck driver said he was happy the surgery had begun.Doctors have asked him to bring his child for a follow-up surgery after three months.

First Published: Sep 08, 2018 01:52 IST