A five-year-old child from Beed underwent the first of many planned surgeries for genital reconstruction at St. George Hospital on Friday morning. Born Aiman Khan and raised as a girl, the child has now been renamed as Aman, his new male identity.
Medical superintendent Dr. Madhukar Gaikwad said the child underwent a procedure called orchiopexy. “Due to underdevelopment, his testes had not descended in the scrotal sac. On Friday, we carried out the surgery to move the undescended testes into the scrotal sac. The surgery on the left side will be done after a few weeks.” The later stages of surgery will involve creation of a conduit and the overall genitalia.
Dr. Gaikwad said due to the undescended testes, the child has also been put on hormone therapy to boost testosterone levels. “Aman is the youngest to undergo genital reconstruction at our hospital. We have 13 more people from various parts of the country who have inquired about the procedure and are at various stages of investigation,” he said.
In Aman’s case, his father Sayyad Khan was first told about his ambiguous genitalia and the possibility of the child being a male in 2016 when he had developed an infection. But Mr. Khan who was short of money did not seek further medical help.
Last year, he read about Beed constable Lalita Salve’s genital reconstruction surgery to become Lalit. Mr. Salve is posted at Majalgaon in Beed where the Khans live. “He guided us for the procedure,” Mr. Khan said.
Aman’s parents and relatives have started talking to him like a boy. When asked his name, he promptly replies, “Aman Khan”. “He is very young. He has always been like a boy. At times he would urinate in standing position but we would get angry at him. Now we have started to make changes in the conversation so that he starts identifying as a boy,” Mr. Khan said.
Plastic surgeon Dr. Rajat Kapoor and his team took Aman into the operation theatre at 9.30 a.m. and the surgery was completed around 11.30 a.m. Dr. Kapoor during medical investigations concluded that the minor had XY male chromosomes, presence of testes, a male reproductive organ, and absence of female organs.
But Aman’s surgery has angered activists from Sampoorna, a network of trans and intersex Indians. “We are taken aback that the child has been subjected to the first surgery already,” Satya Nagpaul, a member of the network, said.
“Sampoorna working group has been in touch with Dr. Kapoor. We have sent him and the hospital emails regarding the risks of such an unnecessary intervention. We are in the middle of coordinating a meeting to sensitise them in person, about the issues involved,” he said.