Not a bone , a blood filled sponge . Tsssk tssssk . <| sep |> instead of doctors just giving out sex reassignment surgery left right and centre should we not be counselling people to let them know that it doesn ' t matter whats going on downstairs , you can simply do whatever you want regardless ? I respect that your take on this is born out of a desire to see everyone happy , as at peace with themselves as possible , not out of a rejection of the basic idea of transgenderism or selfdetermination . I ' m going to answer you in the same spirit . The thing is , what you ' re describing is not really how counseling works , or how transgenderism works . You can ' t really counsel someone that they need to believe or do a certain thing . I mean , you can , but then it ' s the everyday meaning of counsel and not real psychological counseling . What you ' re describing is basically the transgender equivalent of gay conversion therapy , right ? Except instead of trying to persuade the person that they don ' t have to be transgendergay , you would be trying to persuade them to remain a preop rather than a postop transgender person . But just suppress the desire is not a good answer to a desire it tends not to work . People have certain desires that commonly crop the desire to be permanently recognized as a member of the opposite sex is one , it seems to occur in one or two percent of the population , but that doesn ' t mean it ' s unnatural , and even if it were , that wouldn ' t make it bad . Keep in mind that plenty of transgender people basically do feel the same way that you do the question you ' re trying to answer is , how should those people be treated who don ' t ? The bottom line is , the desire to undergo sex reassignment therapy is real , it occurs relatively often in the human population , and when it occurs , it ' s not some halfserious , misguided thing that would go away with help from a good therapist . If you go in to visit a real therapist , they don ' t tell you what to think . They might supply you with factual information , but even if you reject that information outright , they ' ll do their best to find a common footing with you , a common language and agreedupon priorities that help you weigh and consider decisions and outcomes together . Edit made a few edits to the middle paragraphs to finish my thought I posted this prematurely by accidentally pressing CtrlP