Doctors disagree
Sir: As a general practitioner apd part-time writer I have been content until now to disagree in silence with most of your medical correspondent's opinions but his article in your issue for August 9 contains such a mixture of prejudice and inaccuracy that comment is necessary. Dr Linklater seems to be unaware that the transvestite, who obtains sexual gratification by dressing in women's clothing (and is usually not a homosexual) and the transsexual, who wants to become a woman are not the
same. The first condition is a sexual deviation, the second a mild psychosis. I agree with Dr Linklater that the result of a 'sex-change' operation is a castrated, emasculated male with an artificial vagina and breasts, his apparent femininity created only by the administration of exogenous oestrogen, but disagree with his statement that the law recognises "a change where none exists"; in the cases I have seen reported these People are not legally recognised as women and at least one 'marriage' has been annulled for this reason. Surgeons in this country, knowing the limitations of these mutilating operations, are reluctant to perform them and the most recent highly publicised operation was done abroad.
Dr Linklater's writings carry a strong impression that human sexuality is a recent invention to be regarded with suspicion and his observations lack the quality which is as necessary in dealing With sexual problems, contraception and abortion as in any other field of medicine — compassion.
J. C. Spence 68 Wylde Green Road, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands
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