And then he was a she

摘要

My husband and I recently received the exciting news that our friend Dominic (not his real name) wished to be known as Susannah from now on. After we'd emailed our surprised but supportive response (resisting the temptation to ask: 'Are you sure?'), we got a long reply explaining the situation. Dominic had realised 20 years ago - long before he married and had two daughters - that he had been born a woman in a man's body. He had struggled with his identity for years, then (through therapy) had realised he would be happier living as his 'true' gender, so had been taking hormones for several months. An operation (of which we didn't want details) was forthcoming, and his wife was sticking by him.