ABSTRACT
Post-operative romantic and sexual relationships are complex matters but ones in which a number of seemingly discrete life situations can be distinguished, and from which useful generalisations can be drawn. The first useful generalisation is that pre-operative relationships are rarely unaltered by gender reassignment surgery. Post-operative male-to-female patients find themselves making relationships in a number of possible contexts. GC was a secondary transsexual whose earlier relationships had always been characterised by her great dependency. GC began to attend lesbian venues, but found that her previous problems with relationships recurred. Successful, longer-term relationships in very convincing patients may be complicated not by the feelings of the parties concerned, but by a partner's decision to keep his or her wider family in ignorance of the patient's situation. Surgical nurses have often had to support patients whose boyfriends have dumped them immediately after gender reassignment surgery.
