Knowledge of and attitude toward transsexualism among college students

Transsexualism is characterized by, among other things, an aspiration for sex reassignment surgery. The aim of this review was to determine the extend of the knowledge and the approach of Lodz college students toward transsexualism and to find out what rights students would grant to transsexual persons. The questionnaire studies were carried out in a group of 300 students. The studied group consisted of 51% of men and 49% of women with the median age of 23.2 +/- 1.1 years. About 53.6% of questionnaired students gave correct answer to the question of the definition of transsexualism. Most of questionnaired students think that transsexuals should have the possibility of legal change of name (67%) or undergoing hormonal therapy (70%) and surgical treatment (63.5%). Most of respondents were against the refunding hormonal therapy (63.4%) and surgical treatment (65.6%) from social insurance. The knowledge of students from Lodz universities about transsexualism is comparable with that of their foreign counterparts. Student's attitude toward legal and surgical sex change in transsexuals is positive. Female students show greater understanding of transsexual needs than male students.