Dez Rivas

Several trips to the doctor and weeks of shooting hip pain revealed a harsh reality: with surgery comes risk for some transgender people.

Dez Rivas, 20, endured the sharp pain in her infected hip after her body rejected a liposuction treatment. She wanted to add feminine curves without artificial implants.

Instead, she lost 75 percent of the fat moved in the procedure.

“The pain is starting to going away progressively, but I was still in pain when I went back in August for work,” Dez said. “Even to this day I still get little pains where the scars are.”