Robert Eads

Robert Eads (18 December 1945 - 17 January 1999 in Toccoa, Georgia) was an American transsexual man, whose life and death was the subject of the award-winning documentary Southern Comfort.

Transition

Eads began his transition past his forties, after a marriage to a man and after having borne two children. He later described being pregnant as "the best and the worst (time) in my life," as he was thrilled by the feeling of having another life grow inside him, but was also disgusted by the fact that his pregnancy made him (as a subsequently transgender man) feel even more "trapped" inside his female body. He divorced his husband after the birth of their second son, and presented himself for some time as a lesbian, though he would later point out that he always viewed his attraction to women as the product of being a heterosexual man rather than a homosexual woman.

Eads began transitioning in the late 1980s following a move to Florida. He began testosterone therapy and underwent a modified double mastectomy to create a male physique. However, given his age (early- to mid-40s) as well as the fact that he had already begun to show symptoms of menopause, Eads was counseled that he would not need to undergo a hysterectomy and oophorectomy as part of his sexual reassignment. Likewise, Eads never underwent phalloplasty, and retained external female genitalia throughout his entire life. After living in Florida for some time, and following the failure of his second marriage (to a female psychologist), Eads moved back to Georgia in 1996.

In 1996, after a severe bout of abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding, Eads sought emergency medical treatment, and received a diagnosis of ovarian cancer. However, more than two dozen doctors subsequently refused to treat Eads on the grounds that taking him on as a patient might harm their practice.

It was not until 1997 that he was finally accepted for treatment by the Medical College of Georgia hospital, where he underwent surgical, medical, and radiation therapy over the next year. At the time Southern Comfort was filmed in 1998, his cancer had metastasized to his uterus, cervix, and other abdominal organs, and his prognosis was poor. Despite aggressive treatment, Eads died at home in 1999 at the age of 53.

See also

• FTM International
• Southern Comfort Synopsis
• Interview with Maxwell from Southern Comfort

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