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Increasingly safe surgeries allow trans people to begin seeking surgical care.

1850s

QT
MED

As new access to anesthesia and a growing understanding of antisepsis makes surgery increasingly less dangerous, a small number of trans people begin consulting doctors for surgeries as a form of medical transition. It will be more than a century before gender-affirming surgical care becomes more widely available.

While this marks an important step for trans bodily autonomy, it also brings the process of gender transition into the medical sphere. Trans historian Susan Stryker (2017) notes: "medical science has always been a two-edged sword— its representatives’ willingness to intervene has gone hand in hand with their power to define and judge."