The first man-made man

Description:

In the 1920s when Laura Dillon felt like a man trapped in a woman's body, there were no words to describe her condition; transsexuals had yet to enter common usage. And there was no known solution to being stuck between the sexes. Laura Dillon did all she could on her own: she cut her hair, dressed in men's clothing, bound her breasts with a belt. But in a desperate bid to feel comfortable in her own skin, she experimented with breakthrough technologies that ultimately transformed the human body and revolutionized medicine. From upper-class orphan girl to Oxford lesbian, from post-surgery romance with Roberta Cowell (an early male-to-female) to self-imposed exile in India, Michael Dillon's incredible story reveals the struggles of early transsexuals and challenges conventional notions of what gender really means.

subjects: Gender Identity,  Sex change,  Genitalia,  Transsexuals,  Transvestism,  Transsexualism,  Hormone Replacement Therapy,  Surgery,  History,  Biography,  History, 20th Century,  Female-to-male transsexuals,  New York Times reviewed,  Great britain, biography,  Gender transition,  Hormone therapy,  Gender reassignment surgery

People: Michael Dillon (1915-1962),  Roberta Cowell (1918-)

Places: Great Britain