DENVER — When it comes to gender affirmation surgery, one woman helps train surgeons all around the world on the proper care and procedures. Work that wouldn't be possible without her time spent training and working here in Colorado.
"This isn't a threat to the gender binary. We're just regular people just trying to live our lives and do what's right for our families, do what's right for ourselves and exist in a world that's very complicated," said Dr. Marci Bowers, a reconstructive and gynecologic surgeon.
Bowers is a world-renowned surgeon, well-known for her gender affirming care.
But she started out her career years earlier in Seattle working as an OBGYN delivering babies.
"A couple of years later, I faced a little bit of I would call it discrimination in that most people were very supportive of me after my transition but there were a few that were not," Bowers said.
In the years following her own transition, she met Dr. Stanley Biber, a surgeon in Trinidad, Colorado. He'd been blazing his own path forward with his work on gender affirmation surgeries.
"Yeah, he was a general surgeon by training and he was self-trained in a way, also," Bowers said. "This is how it was back then, there wasn't a formal education or fellowship type of program."
Aaron Marcus with History Colorado said with few options available, for decades transgender people around the country made their way to Biber for care.
"But Trinidad was known as, and I'm going back to an older terminology here, the sex change capital of the world. And there's actually a saying, "going to Trinidad", and if you said you were going to Trinidad that meant you were going there for a gender affirmation surgery," said Aaron Marcus, Gill Foundation Associate Curator of LGBTQ History at History Colorado.
After making the trip to Trinidad herself to meet with Biber, Bowers realized a younger surgeon was needed here in Colorado, someone to study the procedures and learn the surgeries and techniques to help care for trans and gender diverse patients into the new millennium.
"And so I thought, well if there's going to be a next generation somebody had better step up," Bowers said. "So in a way I actually became the link from the past generation to the new generation of surgeons. And I've tried to be true to that by starting educational programs."
For years, Bowers made Trinidad her home as she and Biber offered this care to thousands.
Biber performed more than 2,300 surgeries in his time. Bowers surpassed his record last year.
After his passing in 2006, in the years that followed she decided to make the move to San Francisco. It wasn't an easy decision to leave Colorado. But, she said, it's made it easier for her patients to reach her and for her to travel to train surgeons around the world.
"She's now that person going out and training everyone. So, having Dr. Biber train her and now she is training the world honestly, it's amazing," Marcus said.
"Very proud of that," Bowers said. "Very proud of the program I started at Denver Health. The first program I started was in Israel actually and that's still going, University of Toronto, USC, Los Angeles Children's Hospital."
In a statement to 9NEWS, Dr. Liz Kvach, Medical Director of LGBTQ+ Health Services at Denver Health said, "Dr. Bowers made possible the creation of the gender affirming vaginoplasty program at Denver Health. Without her initial and ongoing support we would not be able to offer these medically necessary and life-saving services to transgender and nonbinary patients in Colorado, most especially those who are reliant upon Medicaid and face significant financial barriers to obtaining the surgery. We are eternally grateful that Dr. Bowers has returned to her early career roots in Colorado and prioritized establishing such a program in a county safety net health system to increase access for all transgender and nonbinary people across the state."
"Her impact is definitely still felt in Colorado and around the world," Marcus said.
Bowers said decades earlier, she never imagined gender affirmation surgeries would become her life's work. But, she said, she's glad she can provide this skilled care, work that's so fulfilling.
"Aligning one's body with what one feels is their soul is very, very important," Bowers said.
Bowers said her work in training other surgeons around the US and around the globe is critical. But, she stressed it's been concerning watching as states rush to ban gender affirming care for those under 18 years old.
She said the trans and gender diverse community is already at risk for mental health issues and suicidality. She believes more healthcare, particularly mental health care is needed for that community, not less.
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