surgery

The Trans $5,000 Pursuit of Happiness
By Julia Naftulin
April 6, 2016 - 12:45am
SU's Trans Day of Liberation is April 6, but for many transgender twenty-somethings, the high costs of surgeries and hormone therapy mean liberation comes at a high price.

On the wooden-planked porch of an Ostrom Avenue home, a small group of students blows puffs of cigarette smoke into the freezing air, their happy banter bringing the otherwise silent street to life. In the huddle of knit beanies, worn jeans and black and khaki-colored coats stands Mateo Diaz, 21, house resident and the night’s host. He emerges from a dissipating cloud — dressed in his own black beanie, flannel-lined denim jacket, black jeans and black leather combat boots — and heads down the porch’s stairs, directing party-ready guests toward the back door.

Changing her body to match her gender
By Christine Rushton
October 29, 2014 - 3:58pm
Freshman Dez Rivas plans to undergo surgery to alter her male physical appearance to fit her female identity.

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.”