The Living Experience of Sex Transformation: A Preliminary Study Under the Guidance of Parse's Humanbecoming Theory

Background:  Transsexualism is the most severe form of gender dysphoria.  The patients suffer from disharmony of body and soul,  and result in interpersonal, and occupational dysfunction. The first sex reassignment surgery (SRS) in Taiwan was performed in 1988, and currently there are 50 ~ 100 SRS performed each year. SRS is a way of empowerment of individuals with transexualism, and with SRS, they can be more assured of their own identity.   While innovative technology and diverse cultures are embraced as part of daily life, individuals with transexualism  are often rejected by the public, and stigma is still attached to individuals who receive SRS.  On the other hand, healthcare professionals do not have sufficient knowledge about the lived experience of individuals who receive SRS.

Purpose: The purposes of this study was to: (a) explicate the experience of persons who had undergone female to male (FTM) SRS¸ (b) contribute to the understanding of the lived experience of persons who had undergone FTM SRS, and (c) contribute to nursing’s extant body of knowledge by enhancing human becoming.

Method: A qualitative research was conducted, under the guidance of Parse’s Humanbecoming theory, to explore the lived experience of individuals undergone SRS.  The researcher used purposive sampling method to recruit persons who had undergone FTM SRS .  Participants who had completed all stages of SRS were recruited from a regional teaching hospital in Central Taiwan. Participants were asked to consent the audiotaping of the dialogue and volunteered to describe their living experience of FTM SRS. All participants met the researcher at a time and a convenient setting of their choice that was conducive to a private discussion. The participants were interviewed using semi-structured interview guide. Interviews were transcribed verbatim. The Parse research method was used to discover the meaning of living experience of SRS. It is a phenomenological-hermeneutic mode of inquiry used to explore the meaning of living experiences. The processes of the method are dialogical engagement, extraction synthesis, and heuristic interpretation.

Results:  With Parse's perspective, the lived experience of going through FTM SRS are (a) the validation of the meaning of sex transformation with the difficulty of gender identity, the pursue of support strength and the balance with the dilemma of commitment or giving up and that of change or preservation, and the future is optimistic and hopeful with the vision of life and realization of dream; (b) the comprehension of the significance of sex transformation from gender confusion, and become persevere to stand facing the difficulty, to achieve balance in the constant swing of “reform-rigidity”, and to step into the sunlight and stride toward the bright future, and (c) the vision on the revealing-concealing of powering

Conclusion: The findings of this study, as evolved and interpreted in light of the Parse research method, contribute new knowledge and understanding about the living experiences of going through FTM SRS. The findings enhance the unique body of nursing knowledge by expanding the humanbecoming school of thought and by providing insight for future research and practice. The challenge for future research is to continue to unleash the knowledge of the phenomenon of the common lived experience as experienced by persons undergo SRS, as well as to reach out to persons with unsatisfactory outcomes.