A former firefighter and truck driver who knew from an early age she was trapped in the wrong body has undergone gender confirmation surgery at the age of 80.<\/p>\n
Devout churchgoer Isobel Jeffery, who began transitioning to female in October 2021 at the age of 79 after living her life as a woman for six years, says it has enabled her to finally find peace.<\/p>\n
After beginning hormone therapy a year ago, she had the operation at the private Spire Yale Hospital in Wrexham in January this year under Consultant Urologist Christian Seipp.<\/p>\n
Isobel said: \u201cI cannot tell you how much it has meant to me; the peace, the calm and the contentment that has been brought over me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople ask me what I am smiling about, and someone asked recently why I was walking taller! Everything has just fallen into place – it was meant to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I just want to spread the good news and help others. I feel like 25 \u2013 not nearly 81!\u201d<\/p>\n
Isobel, who received the full blessing of Margaret, her beloved wife of almost 60 years, a few years before undergoing the surgery, said she wanted to give hope to other transpeople in their twilight years that it\u2019s never too late to transition.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many people ask why I left it so long but around 10 to 15 years ago, it was becoming more accepted. The changing attitudes in society gave me more confidence to be who I am,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not to be undertaken lightly, of course, but I am proof that you\u2019re never too old. As long as you\u2019re physically able to undertake the surgery, then it can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The three-hour procedure, which has been offered at Spire Yale for the past three years, takes place under general anesthetic.<\/p>\n
Mr Seipp, 56, who completed his urological and surgical training in Germany, South Wales and London, said: \u201cI was extremely touched by Isobel\u2019s story. It\u2019s amazing how somebody lived their life for such a long time hiding their real identity, it was very emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe majority of patients are in their 20s or 30s but quite a few patients wish to complete their transition with gender affirming surgery in their 50s or 60s.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is really a story about what it means to be transgender. We are living in a more liberal society now compared to a time when people like Isobel were growing up.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut discrimination and barriers still exist. For many people with gender dysphoria, life is filled with anxiety, depression, pain, and a struggle for acceptance, belonging and equality.<\/p>\n
\u201cGender incongruence is not a choice – being born with a body that is not aligned with what your mind perceives as your true identity is scary and makes you question your space in society.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has taken Isobel almost eight decades to get to the point where she mustered up the courage to express and reveal her real identity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born and raised in Marshfield, South Gloucestershire, Isobel grew up as a boy called Andrew Jeffery, alongside four brothers and a sister and now lives in Winsford, in Cheshire.<\/p>\n
It was around the age of 10 that she first realised she felt different.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a young child, I always played with my sister and her dolls and pushed her pram. Seventy years ago, boys didn\u2019t push dolls\u2019 prams around. It was already starting to show then in hindsight,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would\u2019ve been bullied badly had I not had a twin brother who stuck up for me. My brother was in a different class to me, and we weren\u2019t always together, but I only had to say so and so has been on at me again and he would sort them out!<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t understand it, I just seemed to feel different. I was dressing up in women\u2019s clothing probably from around 10 or 12. I learned to hide it and was the quiet child at the back normally.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the next 40 years, Isobel took on a variety of \u2018physical\u2019 jobs to convince the outside world of her masculinity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sailed around the world out of Liverpool or London with the merchant navy and did two 18-month voyages. When I came back, I became a firefighter for Bristol City Fire Service as it was known then,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I went into heavy goods driving and oversized loads. I did everything I could to \u2018prove\u2019 I was a man with \u2018manly\u2019 jobs but all the time I had a niggling feeling in the back of my mind. I would come home at the end of the day and get into a nightdress! I can laugh about it now, but I was living two lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was after returning from a voyage that Isobel, a practicing Christian who attends St Andrew\u2019s Methodist Church in Winsford, met her wife Margaret at their local church.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne day, as the choir came out during a service, a young lady caught my eye and I winked at her. That was Margaret and I\u2019m still married to Margaret. It\u2019ll be 60 years in September,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was always very supportive. When she was buying clothes, she would say \u2018I\u2019m buying it a bit bigger so you can wear it\u2019. I wore a nightdress for a great many years, she loved me in the true sense of the word.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple had two children, a son and a daughter, and moved to Winsford in 1967 while Isobel was employed as a truck driver for a Bristol firm.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was when Alzheimer\u2019s began to take hold and she was slipping away that I realised I couldn\u2019t go on living how I was. We talked before the Alzheimer\u2019s took over completely and she said to do what you need to do, she wanted me to live and live happily,\u201d said Isobel, who volunteers with Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were so lucky we met – our differences coincided. I\u2019ve been mentally ill a couple of times in my life, and I couldn\u2019t have got through if it wasn\u2019t for Margaret and a few others. Margaret will be 81 in July, there\u2019s just 24 days between us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Margaret, who has advanced dementia, now lives in a care home in Winsford.<\/p>\n
Seven years ago, Isobel told her family and close friends she wanted to transition, the majority of whom were very supportive. She also began to openly dress as female and changed her name by deed poll.<\/p>\n
Isobel talked to her GP and received support from the Cheshire and Merseyside Adult Gender Identity Collaborative (CMAGIC) which provides gender dysphoria services including assessment for and diagnosis of gender incongruence, hormone\/voice therapy and psychological therapy for individuals transitioning.<\/p>\n
With only three hospitals in the UK providing gender affirming surgery on the NHS (two in London and one in Brighton) – and waiting times of more than five years – Isobel decided to use redundancy money she had put aside when she was 50 for private treatment at Spire Yale Hospital.<\/p>\n
She had already completed psychological assessments while waiting for treatment on the NHS and met the necessary fitness criteria for surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is still a procedure which needs to be considered very carefully but knowing how motivated Isobel was, I wasn\u2019t surprised that she literally sailed through post-op recovery and was out of hospital in no time. Everything went really well,\u201d said Mr Seipp, who lives in Macclesfield and feels passionate about transgender healthcare and reconstructive urological surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsobel\u2019s greatest desire was to make her body the way she wanted it to be. Even in the shower, she wouldn\u2019t take off her underwear because she couldn\u2019t look at her male body.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s cruel enough for younger patients to face many years before surgery with hormone treatment in between, it\u2019s even more distressing for someone of Isobel\u2019s age who has dreamt of this her whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Isobel added: \u201cI cannot thank Mr Seipp enough, he really is a lovely gentleman. From the first consultation, I don\u2019t know why but when he went to shake my hand I just put my arms around his shoulders and gave him a hug.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpire took a lot of pressure off me, and I was really pleased with the service I received. It means that if I end up in hospital or in a care home or some other place, I will be cared for as a female.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are sadly lot of unhappy transpeople out there and I feel so lucky to have finally found happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n