Jennifer Bobbi, a transgender patient, said she knew she was a girl when she was 5 years old.
Now at 49, Bobbi said during a news conference on Thursday, she is in a body that matches her identity thanks to Northwell Health’s Center for Transgender Care.
Breast augmentation surgery, performed by Dr. Adam Perry on Feb. 28 at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, was only one piece of the transitional journey Bobbi began in March 2015 with hormone replacement therapy.
“It makes me very happy to know that every day I’m getting closer and closer to feeling right about myself,” Bobbi said. “It’s a wonderful feeling when your body matches your brain.”
Perry said about 0.3 percent of the United States population, or about 1 million people, reportedly identify as transgender.
Though statistics were not kept by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons before 2016 about the number of gender confirmation surgeries, they have seen a year-over-year increase of about 20 percent with about 3,000 surgeries performed in 2017.
Perry said the increase of surgeries in New York partly coincides with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 2014 initiative to have all state healthcare plans cover gender confirmation surgeries.
“Gender confirming surgeries allow transgender patients to live healthy and authentic lives,” Perry said. “We know the rates of suicide attempts in transgender teenagers are up to 40 percent versus 1.6 percent for the general population. We also know there is a higher use of alcohol and substances among the transgender population, and we know getting access to healthcare is more difficult. As we learn more about this population and are able to serve them adequately, hopefully these numbers will come down and dovetail with the numbers of the overall population.”
Perry said Northwell Health is the only option for transgender patients seeking surgeries on Long Island, and Bobbi said Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in Manhattan, where she originally began her transition, cannot provide services to the entire area’s population.
Bobbi, who has worked in human services for over 25 years, currently serves as an executive assistant to the president of a large nonprofit agency on Long Island that provides services to thousands of people with developmental and intellectual disabilities, as well as individuals living with mental illness.
Emphasizing that “gender dysphoria is not a choice,” Bobbi said that she had an important message to members of the transgender community who were considering gender confirming surgery or simply beginning to transition.
“I want you all to know that there is hope,” she said. “Please know that it is possible to be yourself.”
