13-year-old becomes a boy after sex change operation

Father delighted at having another son to share his responsibities.

HAFIZABAD: A 13-year-old girl turned into a boy on Wednesday after a successful operation at the district headquarters (DHQ) hospital in Hafizabad.

The family have named the boy Usman (his name before the operation was Aisha).

The girl had been brought to the DHQ hospital complaining of chronic pain in her stomach. Dr Zahoor Ahmed, a urologist, examined her and told the family that her physiology was that of a male and not a female. He recommended a sex re-assignment surgery.

The family is a resident of Dhariwal village in Hafizabad. Usman’s father, Sharif, said that Usman had been suffering from the stomach ache for more than four years.

He said he took him to several herbal physicians in and around his village but the pain persisted.

“We’re happy that we have got another son,” said Sharif. “I had been weighed down by the responsibility for three daughters.

Thank God... The boy will share some of my responsibilities,” he added. He said that he and his wife could now grow old reassured in the knowledge that they had two sons to look after them. Sharif now has two daughters and two sons.

Usman underwent two operations at the DHQ hospital, Dr Zahoor Ahmed told The Express Tribune.

He said that he would operate on him for the third time in about three months.

Dr Zahoor said Usman had no signs of the development of biological traits specific to females.

“Female breasts normally start developing by this age but there was no sign of these in Usman,” he said. He added that Usman’s reproductive system was closer to that of males, although it was underdeveloped.

The first two operations, he said, were successful and the boy was healthy. He said that the third operation would be performed to repair his urine duct and connect it to the reproductive organ.

“This is a rare condition, though it is not for the first time such a case has been dealt with in Pakistan,” Dr Zahoor said.

He added that he had assisted Professor Nawaz Chugtai, in some similar cases at Mayo Hospital, Lahore.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2010.