Thiruvananthapuram, April 25: She had wanted to marry her lady love and had undergone a sex-change surgery, only to be allegedly dumped for another man.

Twenty-nine-year-old Kuttiyamma of Kottayam had wanted to live with 25-year-old friend Lora. Experts would call Kuttiyamma?s case that of female hermaphroditism ? a condition when a person has predominant female and partial male features.

Seeing this as an obstacle to their relationship, Kuttiyamma, who is a casual labourer in Pala, thought of undergoing the sex-change surgery to conceal her female features.

But when she emerged from a Kochi hospital as a man, she found that Lora, was engaged to another man. Her name now changed to Binu, Kuttiyamma took her case to police, alleging breach of trust by Lora. ?The surgery was our joint decision and she had agreed to marry me after the surgery,? Kuttiyamma alleged in her complaint.

But deputy superintendent of police K. Nirmalan said Lora had denied she ever consented to marry her friend and aunt. A small-time tailor, Lora is the daughter of Kuttiyamma?s elder brother.

?We had counselled him (Binu) about the impossibility of an inter-sex person becoming a full man through surgery and that he would never be able to have normal sex like men,? said Dr George P. Abraham, who performed the surgery.

But Kuttiyamma chose to go through the surgery. ?We reduced the breast, removed the uterus and enlarged the genital size? all intended to give the patient a better male look,? the doctor said.

A minute percentage (one out of every 15,000 newborns) of the population belongs to the inter-sex category, the doctor said.

The surgical corrections are aimed at lending them social acceptance, but they would have to live with their limitations, Dr Abraham said, adding that Kuttiyamma?s sex-change correction should have been done during childhood.

Kuttiyamma?s parents had brought her up like a woman but there were difficulties when it was time for marriage.

Her relatives pressed her to get married. However, she realised that she wouldn?t be able to lead a normal married life. ?The surgery was probably her sole option to continue her affair with Lora,? said Nirmalan.

The police said Kuttiyamma and Lora had grown up together in the neighbourhood and that she has not been able to reconcile to Lora?s desertion.

The man to whom Lora was engaged has also backed out after Kuttiyamma disclosed to him their relationship, Nirmalan said.

The police have warned Kuttiyamma against creating more problems for Lora as she had planned to publish her sex change case in a government gazette. She now wants to apply for a driver?s job with the state transport corporation under a special category.

Kuttiyamma?s case, however, is different from that of transsexuals, who have absolute gender features but belong psychologically to the opposite sex.

A transsexual woman in Chennai refused to leave her girlfriend, leaving her with the option of changing to a man and living with her love.

?Now they have an adopted child,? said Dr Abraham, citing the lone transsexual surgery case in the country.