SKIN – a fantasy set in realityJust for a moment, imagine you are a normal human being, living a relatively satisfactory existence as one of the two genders that form our race. You think you are content inside your own skin.Now imagine being sentenced to live in the skin of the opposite gender for the rest of your life. There is no parole and no early release for good behaviour. You must serve the sentence.There is only one escape: -• It involves physical pain in the form of surgery.• It involves emotional pain in the form of family conflict and aggression.• It involves social pain in the form of unemployment and isolation.• It involves mental pain in the form of depression, anxiety and stress. • It involves spiritual pain in the form of uncertainty, doubt and guilt.• It involves financial pain in the form of expensive drugs and many different treatments, operations and procedures.My name was Edward Abbott; it isn’t any more. I thought I was normal, but then I realised that I was different. Now I am what I should have been.After many harsh experiences in my life, I met a man.This man forced me to answer a question, “…Surgery aside, what is the main thing that prevents you from going for the existing procedure?” I thought about it for a moment.“I suppose having to live in the body of a male, trying to look like a woman just to prove that I’m able to do it. I’d be terrified of being discovered.”The man also said,“…My research has reached that point whereby I believe it possible to change gender without the surgeon and his scalpel.”“In theory, right?”“No, the theory time is passed. I believe that it can be done for real.”“So what’s the catch?” I asked.Is there a catch, or can it really be done?Join me as I found out.