a change in a person's physical sexual characteristics to those of the opposite sex, often achieved by surgery
b.
(as modifier)
a sex-change operation
sex change in American English
noun
the alteration, by surgery and hormone treatments, of a person's morphological sex characteristics to approximate those of the opposite sex
Word origin
[1975–80]This word is first recorded in the period 1975–80. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: bench press, methanogen, retrovirus, surrogate mother, videotex