11-30-2004, 02:07 AM
Two months ago, Marissa Dainton changed sex for the third time in 11 years. She started life as Mark Dainton in 1967. In 1992, a year before her first sex change operation, she took the name Patricia Vincent. Four years later, Patricia decided to go back to living as Mark. Now she has become a woman again. Sitting in the lounge of the small terrace house she shares with her wife, her eyes stray to the wedding photo on the mantelpiece. "What happened to me should be a lesson in the need to make sure you're really ready before changing gender," she says.
Once Dainton had a penis, then a vagina, now she has nothing. Soon after her first sex change, she joined an evangelical church and became convinced her operation was sinful. She stopped taking oestrogen and was prescribed testosterone. Her beard and body hair began to grow back, and her sex drive soared. Before getting married to another member of the congregation six years ago, she had her artificial vagina removed. This left her with smooth skin where her genitals once were.
"My wife said she'd feel more comfortable about having a physical relationship if I didn't have a vagina. You'd have thought I'd have realised it was a mistake because I wasn't bothered about not being a 'complete man'. I never missed what was taken away," she says, smiling sardonically.
Her sex change reversal was hailed as a miracle by her church. "I became their cause célèbre." In secret she was still cross-dressing, although it wasn't until last year that she decided she wanted to become a woman again. "My biggest fear was spending the rest of my life shuttling between genders. But I realised I was heading for a breakdown and couldn't go on denying my true feelings. I had to become a woman again."
Once Dainton had a penis, then a vagina, now she has nothing. Soon after her first sex change, she joined an evangelical church and became convinced her operation was sinful. She stopped taking oestrogen and was prescribed testosterone. Her beard and body hair began to grow back, and her sex drive soared. Before getting married to another member of the congregation six years ago, she had her artificial vagina removed. This left her with smooth skin where her genitals once were.
"My wife said she'd feel more comfortable about having a physical relationship if I didn't have a vagina. You'd have thought I'd have realised it was a mistake because I wasn't bothered about not being a 'complete man'. I never missed what was taken away," she says, smiling sardonically.
Her sex change reversal was hailed as a miracle by her church. "I became their cause célèbre." In secret she was still cross-dressing, although it wasn't until last year that she decided she wanted to become a woman again. "My biggest fear was spending the rest of my life shuttling between genders. But I realised I was heading for a breakdown and couldn't go on denying my true feelings. I had to become a woman again."