'Woman' finds her true identity ... as a man

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

After years of confusion and desperation, Suratno finally discovered his true identity -- he is a man.

This fact came out in the open only after the 24-year-old resident of Bungkus hamlet, Parangtritis, Kretek, Bantul, some 30 kilometers south of Yogyakarta, had lived all of his life as a female.

Suratno was born on Dec. 7, 1978, with the help of a traditional midwife. At the time, his father Nakidi and his mother Warinem were told they were having a baby girl.

Soon the baby's ears were pierced, like other newborn girls, and was named Suratini, referring to Sura, the first month of the Javanese calendar and the month of the baby's birth.

His mother did find it strange that the baby's vagina was darker than those of other baby girls, but did not really think much of it.

So Suratno grew up as Suratini, or Tini to her friends, an ordinary village girl who wore skirts and cooked and washed like any other girl.

As time went by, things became more and more complicated for young Tini. While other girls began to develop into women, Tini did not. Her breasts did not grow and by the time she graduated from high school and entered the Yogyakarta State University's Elementary School Teacher Training Program, she still had not got her period.

"I was so confused at that time. I felt I was incomplete as a girl," Suratno told The Jakarta Post.

However, Tini kept her confusion to herself, sharing it with no one, not even her parents.

She also said nothing when her Adam's apple grew when she was at university and her voice began to change.

The confused Tini often went to the nearby Parangtritis Beach, sitting and staring out at the water for hours. It still never crossed her mind that she might be a man. What worried her was that she might be an abnormal girl.

"She was a very reclusive girl. She always kept her problems to herself," Warinem said.

Suratno's parents said they were also confused and worried. Their neighbors used to jokingly ask whether Tini was a girl or a boy, because she did things like riding a bicycle while carrying a heavy load on her shoulders, like a boy.

A medical examination at the Yogyakarta Sardjito Hospital after winning an athletic championship for junior high school students in Bantul regency seemed to confirm that Tini was a girl.

"We felt quite relieved after that," said Nakidi.

Still, Tini did not develop a feminine side. When her mother bought her a bra, she only wore it once. She also never put on face powder, lipstick or other cosmetics.

"I just used hand and body lotion for my hands and legs. That's all," said Suratno.

He won three gold medals as a female student-athlete during a national sports competition for university students in October, 2002.

Despite their concerns, Tini's parents did nothing.

"I was afraid that if we decided to ask her to have a sex change operation, there would be a mistake," Nakidi said. He was referring to a television program about a baby who was born with two sets of genitals, had the male genitals removed but later showed more signs of being male than female.

"We didn't want anything like that to happen to our child," Nakidi said.

Only when his wife came to him and talked honestly about Tini did they both agree to take her to a specialist.

On May 5 of this year, Nakidi visited Sungsang Rahadi, an urologist at Yogyakarta PKU Muhammadiyah Hospital. He was asked to bring his daughter to the hospital.

When Nakidi brought Tini to the hospital on May 14, he was surprised when the surgeon showed him a some three-centimeter long penis coming from Tini's genitals.

"He is a man, why did you give him a woman's name?" Nakidi quoted the surgeon as saying.

The surgeon recommended surgery, telling the family that their son's penis had grown normally but was hidden under the skin. There was a scrotum and testes, but the scrotum was cut through. Once the tissue was cleared and the scrotum fixed, the penis would function normally.

The big day -- the day Tini gained a new identity as a man -- was May 21. After spending 10 days at the hospital, he was allowed to leave, but will have to go in for regular checkups for the next year.

The first thing Suratini, whose name was later changed to Suratno Adi Legowo, did upon arriving back home was to get his shoulder-length hair cut. He also gave away all his dresses.

His parents were elated, and prepared a thanksgiving ceremony and aqiqoh ritual to publicly announce their son's identity and name.

"It feels like we just had a new child. We now have two sons and no daughter," Warinem said.