A transgender woman in Australia chemically burned her penis in order to undergo gender-affirming surgery, according to a case report from the Department of Urology, Royal North Shore Hospital in St Leonards.
Researchers from the North Shore Urology Research Group at Royal North Shore Hospital on Wednesday published a report on ScienceDirect.com, which detailed a recent case they had involving a 57-year-old woman who was assigned male at birth and wanted gender-assignment surgery. The transgender woman was not identified in the report, but it noted that the researchers received consent from her to publish it.
"We present a case of self-inflicted chemical penile burn requiring emergency penectomy in a trans-feminine patient," the report said. "This case highlights challenges of balancing adequate resection of non-viable necrotic tissue whilst allowing for adequate cosmesis for future gender-affirming surgery (GAS) in a quaternary facility that does not provide gender reassignment services."
The report comes as a number of U.S. states have sought to pass legislation that would ban transgender care for minors. According to Human Rights Campaign, in addition to banning transgender medical care for minors," some states, such as Oklahoma, Texas, and South Carolina, have considered banning care for transgender people up to 26 years of age."
The report did not give an exact date of the incident but said the woman arrived at a local hospital emergency department seven days after a suffering from a chemical burn on her penis. She was transferred to the Royal North Shore Hospital for further treatment shortly after.
The study also noted that the surgery is "not offered under Australia's national public health insurance."
Prior to the woman's surgery, the report noted that she had been receiving androgen deprivation therapy, which is used to reduce hormones in a body. However, according to the report, the woman stopped using the therapy after moving to a more rural area, where access was limited.
"Our aim was to highlight the surgical challenges of partial penectomy and neo-meatus formation to allow for future GAS [gender-affirming surgery] and highlight the lack of infrastructure within the public healthcare system for management of gender dysphoria both in rural and metropolitan settings," the report said.
Newsweek reached out to one of the report's researchers, Paul Kim, via email for comment.
