In order to undergo gender reassignment surgery in China, one must take a series of tests, answer more than a thousand questions, and get the approval from direct family members for the life-changing operation. For 72-year-old Xin Yue of Beijing, all of that was worth the effort in order to become the woman she always wanted to be.
Now, two months after a breast implant and vaginal reconstruction surgery, Xin’s seven-decade dream has finally come to fruition. Xin’s daughter and wife, Leng Rui, supported Xin’s decision, with their daughter reportedly joking that now she has two mothers.
“I didn’t think too much [about Xin’s decision]. All I wanted was for her to be happy,” Leng, Xin’s wife of 47 years, told the Southern Metropolis Daily.
It’s what Xin has wanted since she was a child and her parents, who already had two older boys, dressed her like a girl and braided her hair. Xin said she liked it, but after entering school, she had to cut her hair and dress like a boy, style changes that made her unhappy.
Eventually, Xin met Leng. They got married and had a daughter, because, as Xin explained, her “traditional beliefs” and “family pressure” compelled them to start a family.
After retiring in 2000, Xin began surfing online and discovered forums for transgender people. Without Leng knowing, Xin began taking hormones to increase her estrogen levels, but she didn’t feel healthy with that choice and eventually told Leng she wanted gender reassignment surgery. In 2015, Xin had her testicles removed, and though her mood improved, she decided on undergoing the entire gender reassignment surgery.
“I have completed my wish to become a woman,” she told local media after the surgery, via China Daily.
It wasn’t an easy task.
As the Atlantic points out, the Chinese government made new guidelines in 2009 that forced those who want gender reassignment surgery to apply to police to change the gender on their official registration, to undergo therapy, to be older than 20, and to inform their immediate family.
Xin also had to pass a psychological test. But now that the surgery is over, she’s looking forward to a bright future.
“In the future, my wife and I can use the term ‘sister’ to call each other. We will still live together,” she said. “My skin is still soft and white like a woman in her 20s. I feel I’m only in my 30s and I can live to 100 years old.”
H/T Mashable
