Health Update: Sex-change problem

A BIZARRE problem for a man who underwent a sex change has shed light on the disease ulcerative colitis.

Vaginal reconstruction is usually made by using a section of the lower intestine called the sigmoid colon. A patient who had been given an artificial vagina in 1980 was admitted to hospital in 1990 having suffered rectal bleeding, abdominal pain and severe diarrhoea for two months: classic symptoms of ulcerative colitis. The 'vagina' was also inflamed and bleeding slightly.

Surgeons from the department of gastrointestinal surgery at Charing Cross Hospital, London, report this case in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. They believe that the inflammation and bleeding in the 'vagina' confirms the suggestion that ulcerative colitis is a disease that affects a person's whole body. The tissue of the colon reacts most dramatically - wherever it is. This suggests that ulcerative colitis is not just a response to changes in the gut.