Transgender Tourism: For $2,000 a New Life Begins

Thep Vechavisit uses local anesthetic and sedatives to block the pain from the two-hour surgery he performs in a cramped room in his Bangkok clinic. It’s possibly the cheapest sex-reassignment operation in the world.

For about 70,000 baht ($1,950), patients’ male genitalia can be reassigned female in a procedure Thep says he does once a week in his Pratunam Polyclinic, a solo practice in Bangkok’s low-rent garment district. By spurning general anesthetic, an anesthetist and hospital operating theater, the surgeon says he can save 40,000-to-50,000 baht in medical costs.