One of the other major problems affecting the community, local LGBT activists say, is the lack of access to information about how to safely transition to another gender. In many developed countries, transgender men and women are able to access medical professionals who can advise them about which hormones to take to minimize health risks, or else opt for surgery. But in the Kingdom a combination of discrimination and lack of surgical options means that transgender people have little choice but to resort to dosing themselves with over-the-counter birth control pills. Little research has been done into the long-term side effects of the misuse of birth control and other hormone pills on transgender women. Some of them practice breast binding that could lead to cysts. Other options that are currently unavailable is mastectomy that Cambodian doctors are able to do it, but it falls outside societal norms.
Cambodia, where transgender women are relegated to the beauty and entertainment – including sex work – sectors and transgender men are relatively invisible, transgender people in Thailand work in many different industries.
