Chaz Bono, transgender son of Cher and Sonny Bono, has announced
that he is saving up for genital surgery to complete his gender
reassignment process.
The TV personality, who recently appeared on America's Dancing
with the Stars, is reportedly planning to have a procedure which
would give the appearance and sensation of a penis.
The unusual candidness comes in an interview with U.S. magazine
Rolling Stone.
"[Bono] is pretty sure that within a short while, he will finally
be able to afford to get himself a penis," it says.
According to the feature, Bono went into considerable detail about
the options available to him. He said: "I could get a phalloplasty,
which builds the phallus from a donor site on your body, but I'm
currently leaning more towards a metoidioplasty.
"It's a process that uses what you already have down there, which
has grown larger from the testosterone."
However, he confessed that fiancee Jennifer Elia is against him
getting the surgery.
"I think Jen wished I wouldn't get the bottom done, but she
understood my need to," he told the magazine.
"You have to understand - for me the life transformation has
already happened. Testosterone has definitely changed things. I've
pretty much lost the ability to have more than one orgasm at a time
- but the ones I do have feel more intense."
According to reports, the operation would cost circa $35,000.
