Hyderabad’s Osmania General Hospital strengthens gender-affirming surgical care for transgender people

The Osmania General Hospital (OGH) in Hyderabad has established a dedicated gender-affirming surgery service in the government healthcare sector in Telangana, marking a step towards improving access to specialised healthcare for transgender persons.

The Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery has introduced the service through a multidisciplinary team of specialists from plastic surgery, anaesthesiology, endocrinology, urology, gynaecology and psychiatry, along with nursing staff and other healthcare professionals. The initiative has been developed over the past eight months, said doctors.

The team has successfully performed several procedures for transgender people, including frontal bossing reduction, autologous fat grafting for breast augmentation, breast augmentation using implants, penile inversion vaginoplasty and bilateral nipple-areola complex-sparing mastectomy. Breast implants have also been facilitated through letters of credit under the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF).

The initiative aims to provide safe, accessible and affordable gender-affirming surgical care within the public healthcare system, particularly for individuals who face financial and logistical barriers to accessing specialised procedures.

The service follows a multidisciplinary approach, with emphasis on patient evaluation, individualised surgical planning, perioperative care and post-operative follow-up. The hospital has also received support from the Queer Badhu Parents Association, whose president, Mukunda Mala, helped facilitate the renovation of a three-bed ward for transgender patients recovering from surgery, said Dr P. Lakshmi, Professor and Head of Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

The hospital plans to expand the range of gender-affirming procedures offered and further strengthen the multidisciplinary programme. The initiative is expected to help more transgender people access specialised surgical care through the government healthcare system while promoting inclusive, dignified and comprehensive healthcare.