Before moving to Trinidad, Bowers practiced Obstetrics and Gynecology at the PolyClinic/Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. Dr. Marci Bowers: Quite arbitrary. AND THATS REFERRING TO SOME POINT IN THE FUTURE WHERE THESE HANG-UPS OF THE PRESENT AGE HAVE EVAPORATED?

Thats why people wait for her. This surgery is only one of several medical interventions that can be part of gender transition.

Bowers remains married to her wife. ON ANOTHER TOPIC, THEY DO GENITAL REASSIGNMENT SURGERIES IN OTHER PLACES IN THE WORLD THAT ARE SOMEWHAT RENOWNED FOR IT IM THINKING, OF COURSE, OF THAILAND. YOUR WORK AS A GYNECOLOGIST MUST HAVE HELPED YOU A LOT. Dr. Marci Bowers: Well, sure. Yet Bowers has accrued a four-year waiting list for her services. He was up there. So too, clitoral restoration surgery remains controversial with some doubting restoration of sensation to the clitoris.

Dr. Marci Bowers: Oh, theres always things like that that are happening. So, what they were saying was, this was a Medicare violation. It wasnt too hard. He spent most of his time in Portland, Oregon and then eventually Scottsdale, Arizona where hes still practicing. I WOULDNT WANT TO THINK ITS HAPPENING HERE . Were just doing a simple changing of the genitalia to match the gender.

Gender doesnt change in these individuals.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Its mostly getting enough skin to get a functional penis.

Please, let me know. They made it sound like they would have the votes to get rid of me, so I packed my bags and went into private practice, and did that for a couple of years and then ended up meeting Dr. Biber. It wasnt spelled out, but it was basically: pack your bags, youre in whats like a witness-relocation program.

There seems to be a bit of a bimodal distribution. NO, NO, WHAT I MEANT WAS, FOLKS COME TO YOU FOR LEGAL CONSULTATIONS, RIGHT? Bowers relocated from Trinidad, Colorado in December 2010, and currently performs sex reassignment surgery in San Mateo, California. I think its very rewarding.

She moved her practice to San Mateo, California in December 2010. Tune in Friday for an exclusive interview with Diane Sawyer. Well, I had surgery August 16th, 1983. She also started a surgical program in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Dr. Marci Bowers: Thats correct. Dr. Marci Bowers: He was very proud and very stoic.

However, her administrative contact information is still based in Colorado. The series was also shown on Channels 4's spin off channel, E4. Marci Lee Bowers (born January 18, 1958) is an American gynecologist and surgeon who specializes in gender confirmation surgeries. Dr. Marci Bowers: Uh-huh. Sometimes it has to do with unknown or idiopathic kinds of conditions.

Leaving your place of familiarity was highly recommended. Even at age eighty he stood vertically upright. Actually, I was dropped off on the front steps of the YMCA. Members of Bay Area transgender community react to Bruce Jenner interview, Bruce Jenner story resonates with Bay Area family, Bruce Jenner concerned about family, what future holds, Translatina advocate brings life-saving work to SF after fleeing home, Trans March returns to SF after 2-year hiatus, SF's Gender Institute pioneering transgender surgery, NYC Pride March Grand Marshal is advocate for transgender athletes, Stanford doctor explains why people are getting hives post-COVID, Heat wave threatens much of US except the Bay Area, Google posts Doodle by girl killed in Uvalde school shooting, Officers shoot 15-foot pet snake wrapped around man's neck, Oakland police looking for man who tried to kidnap 2-year-old, Foster City approves plan to kill up to 100 Canada geese, Uvalde victims funerals paid in part by former athlete Bo Jackson, Mom speaks out about reporting son to police for mass shooting threat, SF inches closer to $4M graffiti removal pilot program, Jan. 6 hearing: Trump 'poured gasoline on fire' at Capitol, President Biden tests positive for COVID-19, US reports 1st polio case in nearly a decade, Track wildfires across CA with this interactive map, Bay Area Life; Sundays at 6:30 p.m. on ABC7, VIDEO: Members of Bay Area transgender community react to Bruce Jenner interview, READ MORE: SF transgender activist Theresa Sparks talks about Bruce Jenner interview. It takes a lot of money, courage and a certain amount of planning, I'm just glad I can help. Yep, no question. You had to really fit the part. ITS CALLED THE SEX-CHANGE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD. They were the highlights on these problems of making gender assignments too young. I mean, its not like a gall-bladder operation where you go in and the stitches and the suture places and things like that arent necessarily noticed. It was all psychiatric, and all they needed was more psychotherapy and meds. That was during the mid-1980s, I think. Kids were very important to me but I didnt feel at ease with my life as a him. See, see! Of course it hasnt been reproduced and in fact, if you look at the results, it proves their claim because it relied on self-reporting by the Transgender population who were felt to be crazy in the first place, so their results were not reliable. It was just word of mouth. She was born Mark Bowers 61 years ago in Oak Park, Illinois, at the same hospital that gave the world Ernest Hemingway. WELL, THERES NO PARTICULAR DETAILS I WAS LOOKING FOR I WAS JUST CURIOUS ABOUT THE POINT IN YOUR LIFE WHEN YOU MADE THE DECISION AND HOW YOU CHANGED, BESIDES THE OBVIOUS WAYS? Basically they were using surgery to treat a psychiatric condition. Yeah. No advertising.

I wasnt a pretty sight initially, but I found myself good at it. So yeah. Dr. Marci Bowers: Oh, I think so. For her patients, shes worth the wait. He had a swagger. To Bowers, Biber looked remarkably like her own father. No Internet.

Its one thing thats sort of changed. Maybe not even that much.

Sometimes it has to do with the receptors for hormones.

The transgender surgical fellowship at Mount Sinai is acknowledged as the first of its kind in the United States. In addition to sex reassignment surgeries, Bowers has performed more than 500 clitoral restoration procedures for victims of female genital mutilation. Your email address will not be published. I thought I could just set it aside and in fact I thought that the field of OB/GYN was a good field because I could use it to defray my own feelings by involving myself in the lives of women.

A visiting plastic surgeon from Seattle is shadowing the procedures, gleaning tips from one of the undisputed experts in the field. In Thailand, certainly theres this notion of a third gender and actually they have a little more of a Twenty-third Century viewpoint about gender in that if the child says theyre female, theyre female. Revenue generated in California may be ten times that figure.

Bowers is often asked about sex reassignment surgery on persons under the age of 18. Isnt there any capable doctors in or around New Jersey? Drew Bird. That same year, two pastors petitioned to have the clinic shut down, citing a study done by Johns Hopkins University that they claimed proved surgery was not successful in treating gender identity issues. With increasing societal acceptance and medical recognition, some transgender people are starting to gain better access to sex reassignment also known as gender confirmation surgery. I worked with Stanley Biber there, who was a general surgeon and had worked since 1969 doing genital reassignment. Dr. Marci Bowers: No, not really.

I didnt have any direction. Dr. Marci Bowers: Yeah. Required fields are marked *. Bowers countered that the church misrepresented the study data, explaining, "If you look at the actual study itself, the satisfaction rates and happiness rates after [surgeries] were overwhelmingly positive, their interpretation of the study was that the respondentsthe patients themselvescouldnt possibly be accurate about what they were feeling, because they were crazy in the first place. Copyright 2022 KGO-TV. HE EXTRAPOLATED THE PENILE-INVERSION PROCESS. Bowers says her surgeries bring an estimated $1.6 million (USD) per year to the hospital; she performs an average of 130 surgeries per year and charges $21,500 (USD) per MTF genital reassignment surgery, a substantial portion of which covers hospital costs. Dr. Marci Bowers: They come from all over the world for the reversal because there are only a handful of doctors who do this. HOW MUCH WOULD THIS COST SOMEBODY?

She was also named as one of "America's Best Physicians" for the 2002 to 2003 awards, and is a member-elect of the European Academy of Sciences. Sure and Im going next week to speak at the University of Kentucky Medical School. Her net worth has been growing significantly in 2020-2021. Dr. Marci Bowers: Just technical issues about the type of surgery but they have some advantages, the principle one being their cost structures. Working with local plastic surgeon, Abdullahi Adan, and others, this specific surgical venue is a first for Africa after the failed opening of the Pleasure Hospital in Bobo-Dioulasso. I always have the final judgment. WELL, MAYBE WE WONT HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL THE TWENTY-THIRD CENTURY FOR SOME OF THIS ENLIGHTENMENT TO SET IN.

From 2003 to 2010, she practiced in the town of Trinidad, Colorado, where she apprenticed under Stanley Biber, a general surgeon and father of international transgender surgery, until relinquishing these duties to Bowers in July 2003. AFTER YOU HAD THE SURGERY, YOU CONTINUED TO WORK AS AN OB/GYN . That kind of thing. It varies from person to person and can involve any combination of personal, medical, and legal steps self- acceptance, external expression, coming out to others, updating ones name and sex on legal documents, having hormone therapy, and electing surgery. Past generations would just drive people into the closet until they could gain the facts or the stamina or resources to get out of that situation. I was a pretty classic case [of denial], Id say.. Trinidad was directed by PJ Raval and Jay Hodges. Bowerss office administrator, Robin Lassiter, has held her position for 13 years. This is male-to-female, obviously.

Marci is an incredible human being, Lassiter says. So, I had to break into their headquarters to get my clothing.

Dr. Marci Bowers: Yeah, I think so. So the individual grows up and believes themselves to be not the gender they were assigned and a lot of them are pissed off. I SEE. I had one good friend who I took a trip with and experimented with getting out and testing out my new persona. So, around the country there were a few other surgeons but not very many. She has been a guest on US talk shows including The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Tyra Banks Show. Its very successful. The Internet was in its infancy. Bowers is also an international expert on functional clitoral restoration after Female Genital Mutilation/cutting (FGM/c). Dr. Marci Bowers: Uh-huh. Alumni, diversity, Health and medicine, women. Imagine that you grew up your whole life in, say, Atlanta and you had to move to Cleveland and start over with no history and no friends and no family.

Ive never seen a man walk more upright than he did. HE DID HIS FIRST SEX REASSIGNMENT SURGERY IN 1969 . DID YOU CALL IT A TWENTY-THIRD CENTURY VIEWPOINT? Tags: He wasnt a tall guy but he was very folksy and charming. She has stated, "I believe the surgery should be responsibly performed for the proper, carefully screened candidates, not at age 18, but at age 16 or 17, while still under the caring environment of home, allowing some social transition still in high school. She has spoken about her practice and other transgender topics in numerous documentaries, interviews, news reports, and articles. The film premiered in the US on the Showtime channel. Dr. Marci Bowers: Yeah its not an absolute but its strongly suggested. OKAY. Dr. Marci Bowers: Thats kind of an old, less PC term. HAVE THERE EVER BEEN INDIVIDUALS WHOVE COME TO YOU WHO YOU DID NOT FEEL WERE RIGHT FOR SURGERY? Sure. I think race is going to become irrelevant. ABOUT INTERSEX INDIVIDUALS WHAT IF SOMEBODY CAME TO YOU AND SAID, I WANT TO BECOME AN INTERSEX INDIVIDUAL? Even in 1978 when the world was a little bit more naive, it was still not an easy thing to do. YOU DONT THINK THATS A GOOD IDEA? YOU HITCH-HIKED TO CALIFORNIA WHAT DID YOU DO WHEN YOU GOT THERE?

Biber performed more than 2300 MTF genital reassignment surgeries and 1000 FTM surgeries and is credited for earning Trinidad the moniker, "Sex Change Capital of the World." After the birth of their third child, there was a lot of angst, she recalls.

Yeah. American politician; 46th president of the United States, Puerto Rican actor, singer and songwriter, American football player, defensive tackle. Versus the alternative, which is Homosexuality and that would be punishable by death. Bowers believes in the powers of visibility and education. I decided I would go back to Wisconsin. But you can tell someone who has their wheels on round.

AND YOURE PART OF THE VANGUARD OF THIS NEW ENLIGHTENMENT, ARENT YOU? But thats all it was. Youre leaving.

Thats what they say, a rolling stone gathers no moss and I think that was the case. Reflecting on her own journey, Bowers says, I dont identify as a transgender woman. So, in a sense, I kind of pulled their pants down, so to speak. Not really break in, but I mean I had to go through a basement window to get my stuff out.

Dr. Marci Bowers: Its probably in the mid-Forties right now.

Its very unique that way. Dr. Marci Bowers: We hope to get to work with local universities here, now that Im in California UCSF or Stanford and get a program set up so that future doctors can be trained, and this becomes a viable sub-specialty, and then more research added. IS THERE AN AVERAGE AGE OF THE FOLKS WHO GET THIS SURGERY?

You do it based on a life-long history of feeling that way. Every struggle is unique and different.

I cant even say Ive thought about that. IS THAT THE CASE? She has led medical missions to Burkina Faso (2014), Nairobi, Kenya (2017 and 2019). Bowers operates at Mills-Peninsula Hospital in Burlingame, California and San Mateo Surgery Center in San Mateo, California. In my generation, you didnt go to your parents and say Im a girl at age four or five years old which is when I was first feeling that way. Boosting happiness is a big deal.

So, that way their women are women and men are men. At 5-foot-4, Biber was a stubby figure, but he stood absolutely upright, Bowers recalls. Dr. Marci Bowers: That was where I happened to get my ride. Sex Change Hospital premiered on More4, and was rebroadcast on E4 in the UK and WE tv in the US. Dr. Marci Bowers: Well, sure. And patients who are lacking in the necessary letters, the necessary ingredients to fulfill the standards of care they are not necessarily allowed to. At 19, Bowers hitchhiked to San Diego in hopes of transitioning and expressing herself as a woman. After starting a transgender surgical program at Denver Health in Colorado, shes now helping to create a transgender fellowship for plastic surgeons at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. The documentary was titled "Sex Change Hospital" and featured her performing genital reassigments, as well as covering the back stories of the patients. Less than 24 hours earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court revived the Trump administrations ban on transgender people serving in the military. They had a very prestigious reputation in downtown Seattle. During her spare time, Bowers likes to play golf, read, cook and travel to Seattle to visit her children.

I thought I could outrun it. But her journey would be decades long.

So, the conclusion was that the patients werent happier.

DO THEY HAVE TO ABSTAIN? I think thats where the world is going. Gender reassignment doesnt really fit either. Dr. Marci Bowers: You want a person whos stable but, I mean, someone who smokes Pot or something we dont put them through a drug screening, lets put it that way. I dont really see myself that way anymore. So, when that happened, when a person gets successful, theres not really an incentive to change unless theres a threat from the outside or business is declining or whatever. I KNOW YOU CANT DISCUSS YOUR PATIENTS, BUT PERHAPS THERE HAVE BEEN SOME VIPS THROUGH YOUR OFFICE OVER THE YEARS? Dr. Marci Bowers: I stayed on. They had their own legion of patients who joined .

They were trying to involve me in a cult, I guess you could call it. That was the name, of course. Patients had to look impeccable.

Bowers is viewed as an innovator in gender confirmation/affirmation surgery, and is the first transgender woman to perform such surgeries. Their feelings of well-being were discounted and there were other external factors that were used to assess their well-being. She was also shown on a Discovery Health Channel one-hour LGBT-themed special about two trans women transitioning and their stories, "Switching Sexes: The Aftermath". I used to tour the wineries, and that was another way to test out and see how successful Id be with my new persona. Every surgeon does this. Dr. Marci Bowers: No, but were getting better. YOU WOULDNT RECOMMEND THAT TO SOMEBODY? Dr. Marci Bowers: Well, they hired someone who basically became politicized, and the politics of the day was that somebody didnt like it, even though the criteria for having the surgery back then were extremely strict. Next thing you know, Im in college, Im in medical school, and Im married. Dr. Marci Bowers: I knew of a couple of people. Because their eyes are open.

Bowers has also been interviewed for a variety of magazines. It was a lot of negotiating with our clinic to allow them to accept me and to support me. Dr. Marci Bowers: No. Youre starting a new life. This is truly artwork.

Theres a lot of patients who come in between the ages of nineteen and twenty-five, I would say, who are supported by their parents and for the most part funded by their parents. But if it helps your story, Id be happy to talk about it. I cant speak to the quality of the kind of work they do, but they do allow that. It can involve physical changes to the body, such as hormone treatment or sex reassignment surgery. Bowers was featured in the 2008 documentary, Trinidad, which focused on transgender people who flock to Trinidad, Colorado to have gender reassignment surgery. WERE THERE PRACTICES THAT AROSE INDEPENDENTLY OF HIM? Dr. Marci Bowers: Well, you dont make that decision after just a short period of introspection. At that point, Bowers was a mid-career ob-gyn in Seattle, having delivered some 1,300 babies. Bowers is helping her patients to live authentically. Surgical costs can exceed $100,000, and until recent years, private insurance companies have been reluctant to cover them. I mean, that continues to sustain the work we do. AND YOU CONSULT ON LEGAL MATTERS, DO YOU NOT? Shes performed operations on immigrant victims at her practice, and in March, she partnered with the San Franciscobased nonprofit Clitoraid to travel to Kenya and offer her services to victims there while also training other surgeons. Bowers also offers restorative procedures for victims of female genital mutilation, whom she does not charge for surgery. Bowers graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1986, where she was president of both her class and the entire student body. Bruce Jenner won a gold medal for track at the 1976 Olympics. I hate to say it, but they were kind of good old boys who dont like to be embarrassed and that kind of thing. IS THAT A WAY AROUND PROHIBITIONS ON HOMOSEXUALITY? She has been critical of prohibitions against this in the WPATH Standards of Care. Dr. Biber at one point was credited with doing nearly two-thirds of all the worlds sex change operations. And the more severe the Hypospadias, the more the genitalia look like female genitalia. On this winter day in Burlingame, Bowers processes the latest headline. I think its gonna plateau at a certain finite percentage, which Im not sure I know what that is yet but I dont think its gonna be some fad. Dr. Marci Bowers: In my case, I suppressed those feelings and made an attempt to transition at age nineteen.

Yep. If they say theyre male, theyre male. He just flowed, kind of sing-song, and he was a very sweet man.

Its in the mid-Forties. WHAT HAPPENS? I WANT TO TELL YOU, I THINK ITS PRETTY COOL THAT YOU DO THAT. When they came to power in 2001, they started to make my life harder.

Dr. Marci Bowers: Not backward. NOT BAD.

Particularly when Intersex conditions at birth are so common.

But back then, there wasnt an Internet or anything where you could check things out. In 2018 and 2019, Bowers performed the first live surgical vaginoplasty surgeries in WPATH-sponsored surgical educational programs at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.

Ive been in private practice for twenty-one years.

They cited a Johns Hopkins University study that they claimed was proof that gender confirmation surgeries were an ineffective treatment for gender dysphoria. An activist is someone who speaks and stands up for what they believe, and thats what Im doing, Bowers says. Learn How rich is She in this year and how She spends money? Thats what its about. Here they think theyre men and theyve had their penis basically chopped off. Dr. Marci Bowers: We call it genital reassignment surgery, because its not about sex. While she did not feel at ease with others, she found that Bowers projects a special feeling of friendship and comfort. He had a waxy way of speaking. In Madison, the science-minded Bowers earned a degree in medical microbiology. All Rights Reserved. Where there is diversity, there is hope, she says. The petition was rejected.

Dr. Marci Bowers: No, this clientele doesnt litigate very often.