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 A
38-year-old woman who underwent a sex change
operation to become a man has been registered by
the General Medical Council as a general
practitioner.
Dr Richard Curtis, as he is now known, is the
first post-operative transsexual to be recognised
by the GMC under terms laid out by the Gender
Recognition Act, which came into force in
April.
"My patients have been very supportive," said Dr
Curtis. "Because I had been dressing quite
androgynously for some time, 99.9 per cent of them
didn't even comment. One of them asked me if I'd
had a haircut."
Dr Curtis, who trained at St Bart's and the
Royal London School of Medicine, was working
until recently as a locum at the Paradise Road
General Practice in Richmond, south-west
London.
Although he was born Vanda Zadorozny, a miner's
daughter from Pontefract, West Yorkshire, Dr Curtis
felt that he was "a gay man trapped in a woman's
body".
He underwent two years of "gender-specific"
counselling and, in January, decided to have a
hysterectomy followed by a mastectomy six months
later. Dr Curtis, who has paid for his own medical
treatment, has also been taking testosterone since
March which has lowered his voice, developed his
muscle tone and ensured that he now has to shave
every day.
"I haven't always known that I was like this but
over a number of years, I eventually realised what
was happening," he said.
"I've never been particularly in touch with my
emotional side. I've never wanted children, or a
white wedding like most women dream of, or a man to
take care of me. Instead, you were more likely to
find me fitting a kitchen or tiling the
bathroom.
"People have said to me, well if you can sleep
with a man anyway, why bother? But it's all about
trying to appear on the outside as you feel on the
inside. It's to stop people being confused about
who and what you are."
Although Dr Curtis has never married, he has had
three serious heterosexual relationships in his
past life as Vanda.
"They were emotionally and physically poor
relationships. On a practical level, I suppose we
did a lot of things together - we sailed a lot,
renovated houses and had a busy social life. To
some degree, I spent my life doing stuff rather
than thinking deep inside."
It was only last week, however, that Dr Curtis
told his 80-year-old father, a Polish immigrant who
came to England after the Second World War, about
his transsexual surgery.
"He said, 'Oh yes. I thought you sounded
different the last time we spoke. It's one of those
things luvvie.' It was a relief to tell him.
''He said that after having been in a forced
labour camp under the Nazis when he was 16, nothing
could really get to him."
Dr Curtis has also told his younger twin
brothers, who are 37 and live in Russia and Sweden.
Both of them have been similarly supportive. His
mother died two years ago.
"I want to be open about it because I think I've
got to the point where I have no choice," Dr Curtis
said. "I am worried about my employment prospects,
particularly locally. I don't think it's going to
be easy but I am so much happier as I am. When
people started calling me sir, I felt so
pleased.
"It would be nice to get to the point where I
don't have to think about it any more. People slip
up all the time and refer to me as 'she'. I've even
done it once in a bar when a friend introduced me
to someone and I said, 'Hi, I'm Vanda. Oh no I'm
not. I'm Richard'. "
— Elizabeth Day
The
Telegraph UK, 9 October 2005
UK Gender Trust Press Release
http://www.gendertrust.org.uk/welcome.php
Dr Richard Curtis has announced his availability
to the community for the provision of medical
services to gender dysphoric, transgender,
transsexual, and transvestite people. He is in the
process of purchasing the premises at Earls Court
currently occupied by Dr. Russell Reid. He has been
mentored by Dr. Reid for some time now and he has
been preparing him to take on Dr. Reid’s
caseload as he plans to wind down over the coming
months.
From December 2005 he will see all new patients
and some follow-ups in London. Dr. Reid will
continue to see follow-ups for a while. In addition
starting in January, Dr Curtis will do a monthly
clinic in Altrincham, Manchester at the premises of
Cristianos - the well known laser hair removal
specialists.
In addition to assessing, diagnosing and
prescribing hormones for patients, he intends to
develop the services to include general practice
and sexual health, greater counselling provision,
increase the hair removal side / aesthetic
treatments, voice coaching, image consultancy and a
meeting venue. In short a ‘one stop tranny
shop’. He intend to call this TRANSHEALTH.
Some details will be available shortly on his
website at www.transhealth.co.uk
He is very excited to be involved in this area.
He qualified as a doctor in 1991, training at
London at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital (Barts).
He has mostly worked as a General Practitioner (GP)
but developed a special interest in Sexual Health 2
years ago. He currently works as a sexual health
physician (genitourinary medicine physician), and
GP for the NHS. He intends to practise according to
the Harry Benjamin Guidelines but will treat
each case sensitively and advise according to an
individual’s specific circumstances much in
the same way as Dr. Reid has done.
Some may have seen the coverage of him recently
in the press as the newly outed transsexual doctor.
This wasn’t something he had planned but was
forced upon him secondary to being hounded by the
press. An untrue and damaging article was going to
be published by a tabloid so he had to proactively
release the true version. The coverage became
rather more than he anticipated as pictures of him
were distributed without his consent. However, he
remains philosophical about the events and he did
consider that a sensitively written article may
help the community as a whole and indeed he has had
feedback from people that it was beneficial for
them.
Because of his own circumstances he is known at
the FTM London group. He is also a member of the
FTM network and GENDYS. He has been approached to
be on the government working party for transgender
issues in the provision of healthcare recently.
This committee is in the early stages of it’s
remit but will no doubt be an important element to
improving NHS services. He is in the process of
writing for medical journals and will be proactive
in educating healthcare professionals about this
field. He understands the importance of increasing
the knowledge of general practitioners to
facilitate wider acceptance of patient’s
agendas.
Citation
— Day, E. (2005). First transsexual GP. The
Telegraph UK, 9 October 2005.
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