Dr John to return as Dr Joanna, patients told
By Michael Fleet
A DOCTOR has told his patients that he is to take a leave of absence and then return to the surgery as a woman.
Dr John Browne has written to all his patients in Oxford to say that he is to become Dr Joanna Browne. He told them he had the support of his colleagues at the practice and hoped patients would also stand by him. The 46-year-old GP, who has five children aged from six to 19 but is now separated from his wife, left for a mountaineering holiday on Tuesday.
On the same day, letters were sent to the 15,000 patients on the lists of St Bartholomew’s Medical Centre in Cowley, where he has been a partner since 1984. He is expected to return from holiday while still a man but at the end of March will leave for several weeks while having a private operation to change his gender.
Within an hour of the surgery opening yesterday, a dozen patients had been in contact. One man said he would be asking to leave Dr Browne’s list but the others said they would be happy still to be treated by him.
The British Medical Association is helping Dr Browne and the other doctors at the surgery in what it called “this rarely performed procedure.” A spokesman for the BMA said the doctor had not been dressing as a woman but has become “more feminine” in his choice of clothes and colours and how he wears his hair.
One patient and supporter, Dr Seymour Spencer, a retired psychiatrist, said that in recent months Dr Browne had started wearing make-up and dying his hair. Dr Browne acknowledged in his letter that there had been speculation about his altered appearance and that he wanted to explain changes in his personal life.
He says that transexuality means a person’s “brain sex” is different from their physical sex and for a man it can be resolved by a transformation to the physical appearance of a female.
His letter continues: “For the next few weeks I shall be taking leave of absence and returning afterwards as Dr Joanna Browne.
“I shall be a more complete person as a result, but I shall not be a ’different’ person except in external appearances.”
Dr Roger Burne, senior partner at the practice, said Dr Browne had “become aware of a deep conviction that he should have been born a female”. He added: “This has meant facing some very difficult issues and, in consultation with medical advisers, he has been receiving treatment for some time.”
Dr Browne’s work will not change because of the transformation but anyone who wanted to move to a different doctor would be able to, he said.
Dr Browne’s wife, Shirley, said she and her husband were “still good friends” despite him changing from the “macho” man she married. The family had found it hard to understand her husband’s “gender dysphoria” but were “slowly coming to terms with it”.
The couple have been married for 22 years but separated since 1993. There was no third party involved. They are not divorced and Mrs Browne said her husband still retained regular contact with his family. “He was always a very dynamic, macho man and very creative,” said Mrs Browne, a 49-year-old science teacher. “He loves mountaineering and doing building work around the house.
“If I could press a magic button and could get back the man I married, I would. I think that John had no choice in doing what he has done. I do not think anyone would want to do this.”
She added that Dr Browne had gone on a mountaineering holiday to the north of England with two of his children. “It’s an action man holiday,” she said.
Mrs Browne, who refused to discuss how she first knew of her husband’s transexuality, added: “I feel as though I have been through a bereavement. I have suffered a loss. We were happily married with five wonderful children. Now here I am on my own.”
1 April 1996: Transsexual surgeon’s job is safe
15 January 1997: Bottomley accused of sex-swap hypocrisy
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