Georges Burou 6 September β 17 December was a French gynecologist who managed a clinic [ 1 ] in Casablanca, Morocco , and is widely credited with innovating modern sex reassignment surgery for trans women. Surgeons, including Stanley Biber , have credited Burou's methods as the basis for their techniques. Burou underwent medical training at the Algiers University of Medicine. From early onward Burou first served as a second lieutenant in the French Expeditionary Corps and eventually left North Africa as a military surgeon of the 2nd Moroccan Mountain Division to actively join battle at the French island of Corsica and the Italian river Garigliano and mountain of Cassino.
Early reports of sex reassignment surgery had been published in Germany in the s, but it was not until approximately three decades later that the practice became more generally known; early surgeries were performed mostly in Europe and Casablanca. Between and Burou independently developed the anteriorly pedicled penile skin flap inversion vaginoplasty in his clinic. In addition to sex-reassignment, he also performed more common obstetrics and gynecology practices from the clinic.
Contact with the outside world was initially discouraged for patients during the early days of their recovery from sex reassignment surgery. We were Greek, French, American, British.
Burou reported all of his vaginoplasty patients to have been prepared, to have undergone psychiatric care and hormonal therapy. Morris, who was one of Burou's most prominent trans female patients, recalled in her memoir Conundrum that he would do his rounds twice daily "dressed for the corniche and looking in general pretty devastating.
Burou had little interest in finance and did not like to discuss financial matters with his patients; Morris quotes him: "You know my fee? Ah well, perhaps you will discuss it with my receptionist; bien, au revoir, until this evening! The entire surgical procedure was done in one operation consisting of two successive parts which remains the prevailing methodology : 1 the creation of a space between the rectum and the prostate , and 2 the lining of this space with penile skin after the latter had been separated from its contents.
