Fake penis under attack for staying limp

Irish Sun (IANS) Monday 10th November, 2008

Prosthetic penises that will be supplied free to eligible transsexual men next year are under attack for staying limp.

Authorities justified funding fake penises for aesthetic reasons rather than functionality because rules forbid expenditure on 'sexual aids,' according to an online Swedish publication The Local.

Starting Jan 1, transsexual men (females who undergo sex-change operations) will receive a free prosthetic penis from a plastic surgeon, The Local quoting Ottar, a publication, said.

While transsexual women have long been eligible for free breast implants, hair removal operations and wigs, transsexual men receive no such cosmetic help.

Sexologist Cecilia Dhejne at Karolinska Hospital, Sweden, although not opposed to distribution of fake penises, criticised the decision because they cannot be used to urinate or become erect.

'It's easy to think that it's pretty strange to approve prosthetics that can't get erect, because that is after all what penises do - get erections. It would be appropriate to pay for those as well,' she told Ottar.

Immanuel Brandemo, a lobbyist, felt transsexuals were getting a raw deal from the medical community.

'I know girls who even after the operation are met with resistance from their doctors who don't think that they should have a sex life at all. They should be happy to have a sex organ that looks good,' he explained.

'Transsexualism is seen as some sort of disability and 'handicapped' people are still not expected to have a sex life.'