Lalita Salve sex change saga: Here's what his surgery entailed

Lalita SalveAfter years of waiting Lalit Kumar Salve born as Lalita finally feels like a man inside and out Contrary to common perception Lalit has biologically always been a man but was born with underdeveloped genitals that appeared more like a vagina due to which he had been declared a woman on birth Yesterday doctors at St George Hospital excavated the penis buried under his skin and elongated it so he can finally urinate like a manmidday had first broken the story on November 17 2017 about the Beed constables struggle to make the transformation from Lalita to Lalit After months of back and forth with the state police the Chief Ministers Office and the high court she finally got permission from the office of the Beed SP earlier this month to go ahead with the surgery Yesterdays surgery was the first phase in a series of procedures that will go on for a year and half said Dr Rajat Kapur a renowned plastic surgeon who led the operating teamDr Kapur has so far performed over 70 genital reconstruction surgeries He was on the team of experts that conducted the first sex change surgery at JJ hospital years ago Lalit had first contacted him when he was still practising at JJ HospitalMan on the insideFor over a year Lalit underwent counselling for over a year along with a battery of tests such as Xray scan electrocardiography ECG examination and blood tests to establish fitness for surgery In fact it was one of these tests which revealed that Lalit was genetically male all along with XY sex chromosomes women have XX chromosomes Lalit had always maintained that he was a man on the inside but this is the first time he and his family realised that it was the literal truth Dr Kapur explained Lalit is actually a man but may have developed some complications in the womb that resulted in underdeveloped genital growthLalit is does not have any female genitalia and had therefore never menstruated either Tests have shown that he is genetically male as he has XY sex chromosome He was born with small external genitalia that his parents mistook for a females So they brought him up as a woman until he grew up and understood the difference So it is wrong to say that it is sex change surgery It is genital reconstruction surgery added Dr KapurThe procedureHis penis wasnt fully developed Only the upper part of the penis was visible outside and it looked like a vagina We exhumed the whole penis and with the help of tissues taken from the body we also elongated it The penis is now around 56 cm in length in a semierect state said Dr KapurLalit was in surgery for three hours apart from an hour spent preparing for the operation and another hour to recover from the anaesthesia before he was wheeled away for postoperative care The surgical team comprised 12 specialists with four experts each from the anaesthesia plastic surgery and general surgery departments The doctors constructed a conduit in his elongated penis that will help Lalit to urinate like a man for the first time in his life But for now they have kept the tube open it will be closed in the next phase Currently as his penis is underdeveloped he has to urinate from a hole in a seated position Once we construct the whole conduit we will connect the tube with the existing hole so that he can directly urinate through it like a man But until he recovers he will have to use a catheter said Dr KapurWhile the surgery has gone well healing remains a challenge as underdeveloped organs often have dead tissues that take time for recovery It will take over oneandahalf years for the entire procedure to be completed said Dr Santosh Gite an anaesthetic who was part of the teamHealing bondWhile time will play its role Dr Kapur had a big hand in Lalits emotional and pychological healing as well over the past year After intensive counselling sessions the doctor and patient have grown into close friends Its only because of this friendship that Lalit was able to open up about his feelings and requirements His family has placed a lot of trust in me He will always remain an extremely special case in my life said Dr Kapur