ALWAYS CHRISTINE
– DR. ANTONIO PERALTA SÁNCHEZ
MÉXICO
In my profession as a Gynecologist and Sexologist for so many years, I have been able to see stories from the first page, the outcome, the end and the epilogue; most of the time with the certainty that I was able to contribute some element that would make life peaceful, and with the gratification that from this humanistic profession one can always see the human being with the clarity of a May sky.
Two years ago a patient who had not seen for years came to the office, I remembered her for her frank smile, the sharpness of her gaze and because she always read my articles, -according to what she tells me- she liked the ones from the series of “ San Jeronimito” (a satire on politics in a town lost in our country).
As soon as Camelia entered, she trembled in tears that almost prevented her from speaking, she couldn’t put words together and of course she showed atrocious suffering.
“20 years ago you attended my last delivery, it was when Cristian was born, do you remember?
-Of course I remember you!, but the truth is I don’t have Cristian in mind-, I replied honestly, -but it doesn’t matter. What’s going on? calm down and tell me
With great effort and wiping away tears, she told me her story in a flash: “Cristian is the child we were expecting, for my husband the fact that we had two women first made him always think about the arrival of his child, that is why when he found out who was going to be a man made a party at every possible moment. From a very young age I discovered, but I didn’t want to give it importance, that he really liked to dress up like his sisters, and on more than one occasion I saw him wanting to put on his little sister’s skirt; I thought he was trying to look like her or that he found her women’s clothes funny. Over time there were more facts that I should have taken into account, like when at Halloween parties he liked to go to all of them and always dressed as a woman, knowing that it was a costume even he applauded him; my problem dr is that now that he has finished his university as an Electronic Engineer, he has confessed something to me that I do not understand, which makes me very unhappy”- The tears did not let her continue with her speech. I gave her time inviting her to take a deep breath, she finally added-:
“Mom, starting today I am no longer Cristian and I want you to call me CRISTINA, because I am convinced that I was born in the wrong body, I am a woman in all my essence and therefore from now on I will live as a woman” do you accept me? “His father, who was able to hear everything, was about to hit him, attacking him with strong words that made him immediately defend my son: -I accept him because I love him, if you don’t, you’d better go!” I told him with anger and resentment for seeing the hatred in his eyes. Indeed, a few days later he left, saying that it would be better to look for work in the United States and that later he would send me money for his children”.
Cristian is a transsexual and since he was a child he realized that he had to fight a thousand demons, hundreds of ravines and thousands of mighty rivers. Transsexuality is a gender incongruity, that is, feeling in the wrong body; since June 2018, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), it ceased to be a mental illness, remaining as a disorder due to the non-adaptation of body and gender that the person feels; This inadequacy requires professional support to reassign body and gender, which implies living the new role, hormonal treatment and finally surgical treatment. I explained to Camelia in detail each point and the paths that exist in Mexico to accompany these difficult life stories. She calmed down and went out ready to do battle.
Camelia recently returned radiant with victory, just to tell me all the paths she has walked.
“Cristina recently started working in a large company, and we are already planning for this year once she sells a little house that my father left me, so that they operate it in Canada, it is still hard for me but I love her like my other daughters. My husband sends us money but he never asks about Cristina. The fight was very difficult because in order to change the name of her documents we had to reach the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, and I drew strength even from stones but I was always with my daughter, and finally WE WON, now her documents they are in order, it is very clear to me that there are no guilty parties, that it is part of life and that she deserves to be happy. I am willing to continue fighting because the fight is not over yet, our family, the people; but what does it matter if Mi Cristi is happy, and her sisters adore her”.
Camelia left and I kept thinking about the greatness of mothers who never leave their children, who are capable of swimming all the seas to see the happiness on the faces of their offspring. Would parents do the same?
