Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen, I am Kathy Anne Noble and I am Transsexual. I have been asked By Hans to talk to you about Transsexualism, my life and the group we have formed in Brisbane

This is a medical condition where Gender and Sex do not agree. There is no known cure for this situation, except to fetch the Sex into line with the Gender. People who suffer from this usually are aware of the fact from a very early age, and at some stage will try to rectify what they consider, no what they no is wrong. This can be either Male or Female who feel they are in the wrong body and then spend a life time in some cases trying not very successfully to come to terms with the feeling of wrongness.

You are Male as I was, and try to bury these innate feelings, by throwing yourself into everything that is Male. I was in the forces, married at 18, son at 21, mortgage, job and all the other Male things. I was good at sport, and even had trials for Arsenal when playing Soccer. How ever much I tried to deny these feelings, they were always with me, and I dreamt of becoming Female, because that was what my mind was telling me that I really was.

In 1953 when I first heard of Transsexuals I saw that I had at some stage to become a Woman. How? I had no idea. Costs were prohibitive, there was a lot of pain and the environment at that time was not conducive to change.

44 years later, in 1997, I was diagnosed with a pituitary problem and was pouring out Prolactin, a female hormone. My whole body started to change and of course my mind set was now really hitting the highs. I was slowly but surely being Feminised, just what I always wanted. I eventually told my partner what was happening and she supported me in about a 50/50 way. Who could expect otherwise, in fact I felt very lucky that she did accept in that amount. We some how lived with this situation with me living more and more as a woman, but in October 2000, my partner was killed in a car crash. I had retired from my business and now went full bore to become Kathy. I was assessed by an Endocrinologist and a Psychiatrist and put onto Hormones in order to enhance my secondary sexual side. This made me more feminine in as much as my breasts grew even more. My waist and hips became more Feminine, but I still had to have Electrolysis for beard removal.

I have given this outline so that you can understand me and what a transsexual is supposed to follow in order to be allowed to have Surgery. , many of the guidelines in the Standard of care are not being followed, indeed one would ask if they are known about in QLD.There is in place an International Standard of care via the Harry Benjamin foundation. This states that you must be assessed for up to 3 months by a Psychiatrist to ascertain if you are Transsexual. If at the end of that time it is considered that you are, then you are passed to the Endocrinologist so that he can put you on a regime of Drugs and Hormones. You are also asked to live in role for 3 to 12 months to see if you can cope. As there is still a great deal of discrimination out there it can prove very costly. Jobs can and are lost, families are split, homes and marriages fail, but the feeling is that you must progress. Now and then someone pulls back for their families sake, but how long that will last is unknown.

We proceed to the stage of meeting with a Surgeon and discussing Costs and what can be expected from our transition after the OP. There are at present only 3 Surgeons who are in this field and they are in NSW, Victoria and here on the Gold Coast. I was very fortunate in having the cash to cover the cost, so selected the Gold Coast for my OP. If you are in top private Medical benefits then there is a substantial saving, plus money back from Medicare and your private health fund.

Unfortunately, it is not just QLD that do not follow the standards, other states are equally to blame.

Before all of this takes place you are required to change your name by deed poll, and all of your legal items, such as licence, medicare card, bank accounts and so on. After the Op you then have to get letters from your surgeon so that you can change your Passport and central records at the Health Insurance Commission. OK, great, but we cannot change our Birth certificate. Rules vary all over OZ as it is not the federal Government that makes the legislation, this is down to each State. No wonder NZ is far in advance of us, they have just a central Government which make the rules. In Europe, it now appears that it is only UK and Eire that do not change certificates, the rest of the EU does, and are now pressuring these countries to change.

This has been about where we are, and where we are coming from. Progress is being made, and hopefully will speed up.