I'm writing to add my thoughts to the debate about transsexuals and gender identity. I'm a transsexual women living in the United Kingdom. I'm very fortunate, people like me are generally well accepted here (in the UK) so I've been able to get qualifications and a job without any problems (I have a Masters degree and work as a scientist).

I know of many other transsexuals who have been very successful in their careers; there is a transsexual man for instance called Stephen Whittle who is a professor of law. At university, I made friends with two transsexuals, a biology researcher and a biology student. All that we need to be successful in the workplace are the same opportunities that non-transsexual people have. But sadly, in some countries discrimination prevents us from getting jobs and many of us are forced to become sex workers.

I've heard that Malaysia has proposed that transsexuals be forced to attend 'rehabilitation' programmes. Forcing transsexuals to live as members of the wrong sex is a tragedy. Most people don't realise how horrible that is for us and don't understand our situation. I would rather die than change back and I think most transsexuals feel the same. When someone is trapped in the wrong body, it's usually impossible for them to live a happy life.

I have been living as a woman and have been legally recognised as a woman for some time now in the UK without any problems at all. In the UK, transsexuals are granted full legal recognition as members of their adopted sex two years after they change (we get partial legal recognition straight away). Partial legal recognition means that all our identification documents (except the birth certificate) shows the new sex. Full legal recognition means the right to change the sex on our birth certificate and marry.

Some have voiced their concerns about transsexuals having to reveal their medial condition to doctors and that it may be a little embarrassing for some of us, but its not really a problem especially compared to living in the wrong body! There are many medial conditions that someone might be embarrassed about and in the UK most doctors are very understanding - they're used to such things.

Some also ask about whether transsexual women are considered female when receiving medical treatment. In most ways, men and women have the same biology, they both suffer from the same diseases and need the same treatment to recover from them. Some medical differences do exist though, and are caused by hormones. For instance because of testosterone, men can suffer from problems like prostate cancer; women have estrogen and as a result can suffer from breast cancer.

Medically, transsexual women are generally treated as women in the United Kingdom. We take estrogen hormone replacement therapy, just like biological women who are unable to produce estrogen. This means that our biochemistry is essentially female. The estrogen that we take causes extensive changes to our bodies - our skin for instance becomes soft like that of biological women. Because of the estrogen we take there is a risk that, like biological women, we can develop breast cancer rather than prostate cancer.

Some transsexual women may be unable to get the hormone replacement therapy they need, in which case a doctor could end up treating them for a 'male' condition. However, I think that's a separate issue from their legal status. In the UK, doctors prescribe according to what the patient needs regardless of their legal sex.