After a long struggle with depression, Betty Ann Archer, a former soldier, decided to travel to New Delhi to change sex, as many foreigners attracted by the prices in India for such operations.
This American 64 was called before Dale Archer. Always he felt prisoner of a body which was not identified, and during his childhood, secretly put the garments of her mother, much to the chagrin of his father, who was military.
"I tried to kill myself twice, did not love me. My body did not like anything. I could not be myself," says Archer, Arizona.
"In 2011 I was very sick and almost died," he adds, dressed in a blue sari and furbished with jewels that bought after his operation in New Delhi. "When I was convalescing, I concluded that I had to change or die."
A reduced number though in constantly increasing transgender people come to India because sex change operation in this conservative country is much cheaper, say the specialists.
Interestingly they prefer India, little tolerant with their community, to Thailand, the favorite destination for such operations and considered more open.
In November, Archer joined the Olmec Centre, a clinic north of New Delhi. The price was lower than the "too expensive" Thai establishments.
"Here the price is affordable. It is an option for some transgender people," said Archer, who paid $ 6,000, or a fifth of what it would have cost in the United States.
Shopping
For a maximum of $ 22,000, Olmec provides treatment and accommodation, transfers from the airport and postoperative follow-up, which includes days of shopping and sightseeing, and the Taj Mahal.
The founder of Olmec, the cosmetic surgeon Narendra Kaushik, claims to operate about 200 people per year, mostly Indians.
But increasingly reaching foreign to your query from Western countries (US, UK and Australia) looking for the best price, but also people from emerging countries who want more quality in medical care.
Each year operates twenty foreigners (previously five to ten). "This community [transgender] is well connected in the world. If you are happy with the services in India, spread the word," says Dr. Kaushik.
The Indian government is promoting medical tourism by granting specific visas with a validity of one year.
The sector, which moves 3,000 million dollars of revenue a year, plans to double this figure by 2020, according to a report of Indian employers published last year.
More than 250,000 foreign patients come every year to India, according to the US advisory cabinet Patients Beyond Borders.
A still modest figure when compared to Thailand which annually attracts two million foreigners, but the cabinet director, Josef Woodman, estimates that India will capture especially interested in transgender operations.
"I think it will still take three to five years," he says Woodman told AFP.
This swing surprising in a country where millions of transsexuals suffer discrimination. They are called "hijras" and often live on the margins of society, alms or prostitution.
"Wanted the best '"
Rosy Mica Kellett, a retired British violinist, decided to travel to India to become a woman on the recommendation of your surgeon. It cost 14,000 pounds (18,000 euros, 20,500 dollars), half that in the United Kingdom.
"It's much cheaper than here, and even more than in Thailand," he says 50 years is married off an appointment with Dr. Kaushik woman.
"What I told Thailand not looked so good," adds Rosy Mica Kellett, named Michael before. "I wanted the best and I succeeded."
Indian surgeons develop their own operating techniques, particularly for the female to male surgery, more complex, experts say.
Looking ahead, Shobha Mishra Ghosh, director of the employers' federation FICCI expects "a complete ecosystem" is created with the quick granting of visas, information kiosks at airports and interpreters to consolidate the booming sector.