In this episode of "Wired for Sex," we profile transgender individuals and the doctors who help them through the difficult process of becoming another sex. Today, modern medical science allows people to change their gender using the latest in plastic and reconstructive surgery. This advanced technology has raised cultural and philosophical questions about what constitutes our identity and whether surgery can change it.

'I'm not really a man, but I play one in real life'

Jaeson Post was born a she, but mentally and emotionally grew up otherwise. Born with the name "Lisa," Jaeson grew up attracted to other girls. But she didn't see herself as a lesbian. "I didn't feel gay, really. When I watched a movie, I wanted to be the guy kissing the girl," he says. "I didn't want to watch two women kissing, so that I could feel like I was with my people."

Given that Jaeson (then Lisa) was not yet aware of the concept of "transgender," he assumed that he must be a lesbian.

That all changed when Monika Treut's controversial film Female Misbehavior, a collection of four shorts about sexually charged women, came out. Lisa was deeply affected by its last segment, which followed "Max," a woman who was undergoing a female-to-male (FTM) transformation.

"I was just spellbound, from the minute he started to talk," Jaeson remembers. "It was the scariest thing, and yet it was the most wonderful thing. And it was almost like I walked around for days afterward feeling like I've got a secret, I've got a secret. I finally knew what had been off."

Jaeson began going to meetings with other FTMs as part of a long-term self-awareness process before actually undergoing the testosterone loading and subsequent plastic surgery.

Featured guest
Jaeson Post

Playing God

Deciding to physically becoming a member of the opposite sex is a profound experience. But deciding isn't enough. You must also find a surgeon who can help you make the transformation.

Dr. Gary Alter is one of only three physicians in the United States who is board certified in both urology and plastic surgery, and he has performed numerous gender reassignment surgeries over the past 10 years.

Dr. Alter takes his job as "transformer" very seriously, advocating and insisting that prospective clients live as the opposite sex for a year while taking hormones, joining support groups, and having psychological evaluations.

Of course, the "cutting-edge" medical technology of today makes gender reassignment easier and more realistic, but the procedure has existed since the early days of the 20th century. It first drew publicity in the 1950s with the transformation of George Jorgensen into Christine.

Featured guest
Dr. Gary Alter, plastic surgeon, gender reassignment specialist

'I'm kind of a girl and kind of a boy, but I'm not from Mars'

"Intersex are people who are somewhere in between male and female in their development," Hida Villoria says. She was born in Queens, New York, in the late 1960s. The daughter of two South American immigrants, she grew up feisty and strong. Maybe a little too feisty and strong. At least for a young girl.

When she was about 11 years old, Hida began to realize that her parents had been keeping something from her. She was going to the doctor for estrogen therapy, which her father explained was important for her growth, but Hida found that odd considering that she was already tall for her age. She also noticed that her mother wasn't enthusiastic about these visits to the doctor.

Virtually disowned by her father, Hida had to drop out of the private university she was attending and continue her education at a later time.

"In 1995, when I was 27, I saw this article in a free local newspaper [about intersex]. And I read it and thought, 'Oh my God, maybe this is me. Maybe I'm intersexed.' But the article was all about surgery. So I was a little confused, and my final analysis was, 'Well, I must not be intersexed or they would have removed my clitoris like all these other intersexed people.' So I didn't really do much with that information until a year later," she says. "It took me a year to finally say, 'OK, well, let me check.'"

The Intersexuality FAQ explains a lot, Villoria says.

Featured guest
Hida Villoria, writer and inhabitant of an intersex body

'Oh, I'm all woman, honey, just not down there'

Sofia Santos is a 20-something from South America. She looks like a woman, but she has something most females don't: a penis.

Sofia is a man who has had breast augmentation surgery. Although many people assume her next step is to "86" her penis, she has no plans to do so. She's completely comfortable dancing on the male/female edge. "You have to keep a little bit of everything. You know, all extremes are not good," she says.

"What is interesting is that in both cases, male-to-female or female-to-male, you do have a subset of people who are choosing to stay in that in-between state. And they're really defying all the known rules of gender," says Richard Kadrey, futurist and writer. "That's why gender right now is so interesting. It's breaking down. And it's becoming something with a whole spectrum, not just A and B anymore. I think it will make a more interesting, a better world, to not have everything in just those opposites."

Featured guest
Sofia Santos