Transgender surgery pioneer: Burlingame is base for world-renowned doctor

“There’s just a couple of us, two, three of us probably in California,” Bowers said. “Four maybe, I guess there’s another minor player, but we’re by far the most popular. The problem with that is it’s very difficult for people to wait that long. And the other thing is that what they do is they end up settling for something that’s not as quality. So if they settle for poor care, they’re going to have problems.”

In total, Bowers performs nearly 200 surgeries annually. In addition to her popularity in patients seeking sex reassignment, she is also in demand for her skills in reconstructive surgery for victims of female genital mutilation in Africa, which she performs pro bono, and continues to perform general pelvic surgery. For Bowers, her popularity is a sign her skills need to be proliferated.

“There needs to be sharing of technique and there needs to be teaching on how to do things properly, and cultural competence, which is lacking often in many places,” Bowers said.

Arrival here, teaching

Bowers says her decision to move her practice to the Bay Area in 2010 made a lot of sense, both geographically and politically. Proximity to the airport is an advantage for international clients and Bowers herself, who travels regularly for training and surgery. Although she faced some initial worry about being accepted in her new community, having encountered controversy at her former location in a conservative Colorado town, she soon realized there was little to worry about.

“What you realize is that the people here, they’re just the love children of the 1960s, you know, the summer of love, and when they had their kids they all came down here,” Bowers said.

Bowers had hoped to satiate her drive to teach locally at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, but found the funding wasn’t there to support it. She notes, in general, there is a dearth of training in transgender care in medical schools due to the structure of medical board examinations and the fact that transgender medicine is nowhere to be found on them.

“I wanted a teaching program,” Bowers said. “I’ve been pushing for a teaching program. There’s so much demand. We have almost a three-year waiting list now for surgery.”

In March, Bowers’ desire to teach was realized when Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City launched the first transgender teaching program in U.S. history, with Bowers as its first and only teacher. In addition, she is in the preliminary stages of planning a trip to Kenya and continuing her work there with a nonprofit focused on reversing female genital mutilation.

Bowers’ perspective as a transgender woman in the field of transgender medicine has contributed to her popularity and media attention, but her unique skill set is the result of dedication to her practice and work with innovators in the field. She was trained in gender confirmation surgery by Stanley Biber, who was a pioneer in the technique as early as 1969, and learned to reverse female genital mutilation from Pierre Foldès, who was one of the inventors of the restorative surgery.

Own realization, journey

When Bowers realized she was transgender in her teens, there was no word for it. She knew how she felt and experimented with embracing it, but ultimately switched her focus.

“I was very androgynous anyway in that era,” Bowers said. “Once my hair was long, I could pretty well go any way. But I didn’t have it and I didn’t know how to do it, so I kind of put it aside, and then I thought I could outrun it.”

As one of the top students and student body president at the University of Minnesota Medical School, she had considered going into cardiology. However, she was drawn to OB-GYN, partially in hopes of rechanneling her feelings about gender. She met her spouse and had three children, something about which she has no regrets, but ultimately had to come to terms with her gender identity.

“We had our kids, we did all the things you’re supposed to do, and I just realized that, once my son was conceived, it was something I had to do,” Bowers said.

Although transitioning later in life worked out and led to the birth of her children, Bowers sees openness to gender fluidity as something fundamentally necessary to people’s well-being.

“You don’t hold bright, creative people back, and you don’t hold back the human spirit,” Bowers said. “The human spirit includes gender diversity. That’s just part of the fabric of who we are. I think this time period will be looked back upon as one where the world really does begin to mature.”

Important addition

Local urologist Andy Rosenberg, who advocated for Bowers to get surgery rights at Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame during his time as chief of staff, notes that her expertise was an important addition to the hospital.

“It’s a true diagnosis and there’s a real need,” Rosenberg said. “You want someone who takes care of the whole patient properly. I was always very impressed with her.”

Despite her ambitious travel plans, Bowers, 58, plans to stay at her Burlingame office and continue operating at Mills-Peninsula. Although she could retire, she said that makes no sense right now, given how many people are in need of her care and training.

“There’s a saying in medicine: see one, do one teach one,” Bowers said. “This is much more difficult than that, so it’s going to take a lot more time. But it will succeed.”