Quality of life 15 years after sex reassignment surgery for transsexualism.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate quality of life and patients' satisfaction in transsexual patients (TS) after sex reassignment operation compared with healthy controls.

DESIGN

A case-control study.

SETTING

A tertiary referral center.

PATIENT(S): Patients after sex reassignment operation were compared with a similar group of healthy controls in respect to quality of life and general satisfaction.

INTERVENTION(S): For quality of life we used the King's Health Questionnaire, which was distributed to the patients and to the control group. Visual analogue scale was used for the determination of satisfaction.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Main outcome measures were quality of life and satisfaction.

RESULT(S): Fifty-five transsexuals participated in this study. Fifty-two were male-to-female and 3 female-to-male. Quality of life as determined by the King's Health Questionnaire was significantly lower in general health, personal, physical and role limitations. Patients' satisfaction was significantly lower compared with controls. Emotions, sleep, and incontinence impact as well as symptom severity is similar to controls. Overall satisfaction was statistically significant lower in TS compared with controls.

CONCLUSION(S): Fifteen years after sex reassignment operation quality of life is lower in the domains general health, role limitation, physical limitation, and personal limitation.