Funding cut halts sex change man’s breast operation
By Paul Stokes
AN ART lecturer who has had six years of sex-change treatment on the National Health Service has been told that there are no funds to complete the process.
Steve Rowe, now known as Liz, decided after counselling sessions that he could no longer live the life of a man, despite having a wife and child. He has had hormone treatment and surgery at an estimated cost of £8,000 but has been told that the NHS will not foot the bill for a breast enhancement operation.
Ms Rowe, who lectures at the University of Northumbria, said that without the remaining £1,500 of treatment, which she cannot afford, she is unable to make the final psychological step from man to woman.
The problem has arisen because Newcastle and North Tyneside Health Authority has decided to cease all non-emergency cosmetic surgery to cut a growing waiting list. Ms Rowe, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, said: “The health authority has spent years of time and money on my treatment. They have been paying for changing me from a man to a woman but now they are digging their heels in over the breast enhancement work.
“I know the health authority has stopped cosmetic operations but I don’t regard the treatment I need as being of that vein. They have started a job here which they are not prepared to finish.”
As a six feet tall male, Steve Rowe, was considered “one of the lads”, playing for a local rugby team and enjoying an after-match drink. He met his wife, who already had one child, while in his early 20s. They were married for 12 years and had their own child, but all the time he secretly dressed as woman.
Ms Rowe said: “I knew from as young as three or four something was wrong. When I married I was a transvestite but my wife put up with it as long as I did it in private and away from the children. I never brought it home. In my mid-30s I hit crisis point and knew I had to do something about it. I won a trip to Berlin and went around as a woman over there, free from any restraints I had here. It was wonderful.”
His treatment began at the Charing Cross gender re-assignment clinic in London and he had to live as a woman for 20 months to convince doctors that he was serious about wanting to make the switch. His wife has since re-married and they no longer have any contact.
Ms Rowe had counselling and psychiatric tests and then two-years of hormone treatment before surgery began in January this year.
Dr Eugene Milne, consultant in public health for Newcastle and North Tyneside, said: “For the past 18 months we’ve had a new set of guidelines governing purely cosmetic operations. We have taken this step to free the resources of surgeons so they can spend more time dealing with cases such as head and neck cancers and congenital disorders.”
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