For more than two decades, Dr. Toby Meltzer has led the Meltzer Clinic, PC, as president. Through this Arizona-based practice, he performs plastic and reconstructive surgery procedures for patients undergoing gender confirmation surgery. Over the years, Dr.Toby Meltzer has performed thousands of surgeries for trans patients.

As more and more trans people come out to society, some people are confusing the terms “transsexual” and “transgender.” The most inclusive term is transgender since it’s an umbrella term. Not only does it include transsexual individuals, it is also used to describe people whose identities are challenged by the socially-perceived divide between the male and female genders and the expression of these genders. This includes people who are intersex, bigender, genderqueer, and transvestite, among others.

The term transgender also encompasses people who are transsexual. However, while the two terms have similar meanings, they are different. Transsexual is not an umbrella term and is instead used only in reference to people who either have had or seek medical intervention to realign their gender and sex. This intervention may involve hormone therapy, surgeries, or other methods of permanently altering the body to better fit a person’s gender. Making this change reduces the feelings of dysphoria a person has since it more closely matches their sex to their gender.