FTM Contributions to Medicine, Psychology, Science and Engineering

Who was the first doctor to perform a successful Caesarean section in history? An FTM.

Who was the only doctor to ever win the Congressional Medal of Honor? An FTM.

Dr. James Barry was born Miranda Stuart in 1795. The future Inspector-General of the British Army Medical Corps began to live as a young man at age ten in 1809 when he entered medical school. He graduated from Edinborough Medical College in 1812 and a year later became a doctor in the British army. He performed the first successful Caesarean section where both mother and child survived. He worked as a medical inspector in South Africa and as a medical officer in Jamaica, Saint Helena, Barbados, Antigua, Malta, Corfu, the Crimea, and Montreal. He was promoted to the rank of Inspector-General, with rank equivalent to major-general, in 1858 at sixty-four after forty-six years of army service. He died in London, where he had been born, on 26 July 1865. The revelation after his death that he was anatomically female was denied by his medical colleagues.

Dr. James Barry (born Miranda Stuart)

A book about James

James Serving as Inspector General

Dr. M. (Mary) Edwards Walker, Congressional Medal of Honor winner, (1832-1919), loved by Belva Lockwood, was known as "the most distinguished invert in the United States." The hero of the Civil War, Dr. Walker wore men's clothes and advocated for an end to laws that discriminated against trans men for wearing men's clothing.

Dr. M. Edwards Walker in male uniform with Congressional Medal of Honor

Dr. M. Edwards Walker portrayed in male uniform with Congressional Medal of Honor

Dr. M. Edwards Walker advocating the right to wear male attire, with Congressional Medal of Honor

Dr. Alan L. Hart 1890-1962 was the first FTM case recorded in the medical literature. Dr. Joshua Gilbert published Alan's case in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disorders in 1920. Alan, born as Alberta Lucille Hart, described identifying as a boy from earliest memory. Dr. Gilbert wrote, "...from a sociological and psychological standpoint she is a man." He transitioned in 1917 after graduating from medical school in Portland, Oregon. He had his surgery in 1918 and changed his name. Soon after, he married and started a medical practice. His second marriage in 1925 lasted until the end of his life. Alan published five books, including four novels and a text on his medical specialty (radiology). He had successful medical practices in Tacoma, Washington and Hartford, Connecticut. He lived as male successfully for many years without hormones till late in his life when male hormones became available.

Dr. Michael Laurence Dillon 1915-1962 transitioned in 1949 three years before the famous Christine Jorgensen case in 1952. Michael was born as Laura Maud Dillon in 1915 to an aristocratic English family. Michael preferred masculine clothing and activities and when he reached adolescence he bound his chest with a belt. During college at Oxford he started to dress socially as a man and go to men-only events. After graduating from Oxford he began taking testosterone. He had chest surgery in 1942. In 1944, at age 29, he officially had his birth certificate changed to read Michael Laurence Dillon, male. He also contacted Sir Harold Gillies and had phalloplasty surgery. He became a medical doctor and enjoyed 15 years living as a man. In 1958 a reporter noticed a discrepancy between the family's listing in Burke's Peerage, which listed him as Laura Maude, and in Debrett's peerage, which listed him as Michael Laurence. Soon the story was in newspapers across the English-speaking world. Michael went to India and became a Buddhist monk, writing books under his ordained name, Lobzang Jivaka. He died at age 47 in 1962.

Dr. Michael Laurence Dillon, Physician, Author and Buddhist Monk

Dr. Ben Barres, MD is a noted researcher on the brain.

Dr. Ben Barres, Physician, Stanford University

Blaine Paxton Hall works at Duke University.

Blaine Paxton Hall, Duke University

Therapists Jude Patton and Hawk River Stone with FTM honor student Alyn Libman at Southern Comfort Convention

Social Worker Masen Davis, MSW Founder FTM Alliance of Los Angeles, After and Before Transition

Masen in a magazine

Therapist Alexander Yoo with Social Worker Daniel Gould, MSW, Board Member FTM Alliance of Los Angeles

There are many physicians and counselors who are allies of the FTM community.

Becky Allison, MD

Marci Bowers, MD

Sara Becker, MD

Jamie Koufman, MD

Anne Vitale, PhD

Rosalyne Blumenstein, MSW

Tracy OKeefe, PhD

Becoming a Man | Our Gender | Our Transition | How We Transition without Hormones and Surgery | How We Transtition with Hormones and Surgery | How We Transition Legally | Our Lives During and After Transition | Our Families

Our Lives as Men | FTM Bodies | FTM Minds | FTM Spirits | FTM Family | FTM Community

Our Contributions | FTM HIStory | FTM Contributions to Art, Architecture and Photography | FTM Contributions to Literature and Journalism | FTM Contributions to Performing Arts, Music, Drama and Film | FTM Contributions to Medicine, Psychology and Science | FTM Contributions to Business, Government, the Military and Law | FTM Contributions to Education and Spirituality