Toronto hospital first in Ontario to offer trans surgery

A Toronto hospital has become the first in Ontario to offer gender-reassignment surgery.

Doctor Yonah Krakowsky, a urologist and medical lead of the Transition-Related Surgery program at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto says offering the surgery can be life saving.

Janet Macbeth, 40, was the first patient to receive a vaginoplasty – making this not only a milestone for her, but for Canada.

Previously, the trans community had to travel to Montreal or abroad to receive surgery.

Macbeth was approved to travel to Montreal, but chosse to wait until the Toronto program was in place. Once the program was in effect, Toronto’s Women’s College Hospital was officially the only public hospital in Canada to offer the surgery.

While the program is still in its early days, Krakowsky says the teaching hospital’s multidisciplinary approach will help establish a model that can be adopted by medical institutions across the country.