History Main / EasySexChange

* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 3}}'': Discussed. Apparently the physical process of a sex change is as easy as stepping into a Quick-Change Station (the same stations you use to re-spec your skills and change your skins), but Lorelei notes that there's a lot more to it than that. Since she's in the middle of a war, she doesn't have time for all the stuff that would come after and therefore chooses not to get the sex change yet.

* ''VideoGame/IWasATeenageExocolonist'': Downplayed. On the one hand, befriending Tangent implies that the setting's gene therapy based process still takes a significant amount of time and spells out that her puberty is milder than that of someone born with a female body. On the other hand, the mere fact that the physical part of the process has been wrapped up by the time she's nine years old indicates that gender affirming care significantly progressed compared to the present day.

* In ''Literature/EightWorlds'', it's very easy to get one's body altered, sometimes dramatically, to the point that the default assumption is that everyone's at tried out another sex at least once, and anyone who spends their life as just one is considered a little weird; population control laws are "one person, one child". The lead of ''Steel Beach'' decides that after years of being a man, they want to be a woman again, and has various options to get it done quickly, including accepting pre-set configurations for various features and returning to the way they were born, but instead has a new body custom commissioned. At the end of the book, they choose to be feminine-null but keep their custom vagina on file for the next time they want one.

* ''Fanfic/TheArithmancer'': {{Downplayed|Trope}}. It's briefly noted in the sequel ''Lady Archimedes'' that Metamorphmagi can change their biological sex as part of their shapeshifting power, but it is more difficult than normal appearance alteration (such that "they can't do it on a whim") and it doesn't affect the Metamorphmagus' gender identity.
* ''Fanfic/DiscordsNewBusiness'': Discord makes Fancy sneeze his mustache off, which is the trigger for her turning female. He then puts the mustache on Fleur, which turns her male.

* ''FanFic/InThisWorldAndTheNext'': gender reassignment surgery is performed on an unconscious Ron without his knowledge and he wakes up a woman.

* In ''Webcomic/TheInvitation'', The Master, [[EldritchAbomination otherworldly being that she is]], does this often to those who fall into Her trap.

* ''Webcomic/ThinkingTooMuchToThinkPositively'': In [[https://comicsbyxan.com/comic/sexchange-student/ "Sexchange Student"]] Xan recounts how stories of gender affirming surgery she heard as a child were exagerrated in this fashion. Child Xan imagines a magical procedure called a "sex change operation" that apparently transforms men into women overnight.

* Comes up a lot, sometimes subverted, sometimes played straight, in ''Webcomic/UnicornJelly'' and other works by Creator/JenniferDianeReitz, who is herself transsexual. Played straight in ''Webcomic/ToSaveHer'', thanks to Kaye's Mover containing incredibly advanced medical technology. For a machine that can grant immortality and resurrect a dead [[HalfHumanHybrids human-crystal hybrid]] after an explosion tore her to pieces, something like a sex change is piece of cake.

* In the Linkin Park fanfiction ''[[http://www.lpfiction.com/story.php?id=15032 Does it Really Matter?]]'', "Chessi" Bennoda becomes a completely passing young woman with the help of a makeover in one day. The fic is loaded with pretty offensive misconceptions about being transgender. [[HilariousInHindsight Hilariously enough]], the writer is a trans man that wrote it before he identified as such.

* In this [[http://www.lpfiction.com/story.php?id=15032 Linkin Park fanfiction]], "Chessi" Bennoda becomes a completely passing young woman with the help of a makeover in one day. The fic is loaded with pretty offensive misconceptions about being transgender. Hilariously enough, the writer is a trans man that wrote it before he identified as such.

* The ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS9E1MrGarrisonsFancyNewVagina Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina]]" doesn't specify how much time passes from the operation to "her" first public outing (after which he went home to Mr. Slave the very same night), but it can't have been very long.
** As one might expect from such an overnight sex change, Garrison never really looks much like a woman, let alone a supermodel. He ''does'' somehow get curvy hips and a pair of breasts as part of his new configuration, even though developing those typically require years on hormones and/or other surgical procedures, and they don't come automatically with GRS.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Bend Her", Bender becomes a woman to cheat at the Olympics. The procedure involves changing out his male oil for female oil and snipping off his antenna. The operation also involves hitting his body with a hammer until it looks vaguely feminine. To be fair, Professor Farnsworth ''does'' give Bender some disclosure, about the danger of Bender's being "trapped forever between the ''already'' [[LampshadeHanging ill-defined robot sexes]]." Plus, y'know, he's a ''robot''.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In "Quagmire's Dad", Ida, the titular character, goes in for surgery, and comes out a few (onscreen) minutes later looking like a mannish woman. No time needed to heal, and ready to have sex with [[UnsettlingGenderReveal an unknowing Brian]] right away! Just before that, Peter proposes doing a CostumeTestMontage but with different genders instead of outfits, which (had it actually happened) would have involved Ida undergoing ''multiple sex reassignment surgeries in less than an hour''.

* In ''TabletopGame/{GURPS}} Bio-Tech'', gender reassignment is so straightforward and thorough by [[TechLevels TL10]] that it's considered reasonably normal for a married couple who want more than one child to take turns.

* One of the many possible modifications offered by [=GavCorps=] Diversity Engineering division in ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary''. Somewhat justified given the already established medical technology in the 31st century -quite a few characters have had new & different bodies regrown from just their severed heads. When Elf had her legs regrown, she got longer legs than before and a larger chest during the same procedure. The machine in question was military grade, with plans available on the hypernet and "fabbed" onboard. The doctor [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2011-12-28 here]] tells about how her third pass through "the can" shifted her from male to female, giving a brief synopsis of the process; the change happens on the ''genetic'' level as well as higher ones.

* ''Manga/WanderingSon'', which treats these types of issues more seriously in general, averts this. At one point, UsefulNotes/{{transgender}} CoolBigSis Yuki confides to Yoshino that her mother can't forgive her because she wanted to be a girl, "wanted it ''so'' bad", which can imply that Yuki went through all the proper processes. It's also showing signs with the protagonists, who are slowly transitioning (well, as much as teenagers with parents who aren't letting them go to therapists can).
* Averted in ''Manga/PrettyFace'': Dr. Manabe insists on giving Rando a sex change (since he has a girl's face), and acts like this trope is real. Rando, on the other hand, knows better and beats up Manabe whenever he brings it up.
* Semi-averted in ''Manga/TheDayOfRevolution'': Kei/Megumi's gender reassignment goes fairly easily since she's already genetically female and physically intersex. However, everyone agreed to go through with it far too quickly and for fairly dubious reasons.

* Marika from ''Manga/BokuraNoHentai'' averts this. She spends a while dressing up in private but eventually comes out to her mom after some friends tell her she should see a doctor. She spends a few weeks out of school, going to therapy and such, but ends up [[spoiler:going to school as a girl]]. Even after that she suffers from some PassFail moments and is shown to be insecure in femininity.
* Averted in ''Manga/{{Yuureitou}}''. Tetsuo still looks feminine, in a {{bishonen}} way, despite being on testosterone for a while. He casually implies once he wants surgery but doesn't have the money.

* ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'': {{Averted|Trope}} in the story "A Game of You". Wanda lives as a woman and appears to be taking hormones but won't get "the operation" because she's terrified of surgery. It later comes out that she was rejected and despised by her entire family, who all want to pretend that the whole "wanting to be a girl thing" never happened. Gender change appears to have been very hard for Wanda so trying to live as a man must have been even harder. [[spoiler:[[BittersweetEnding After her death, she's shown as a happy, beautiful woman in the afterlife]].]]

* Discussed and averted in a ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' fic entitled ''Fanfic/PrincessLaburnumSteelfang''; Kowalski, the resident MadScientist, quite easily ''could'' give Julien male anatomy, but they decide it's a bad idea because it would raise uncomfortable questions from the humans and because Kowalski's inventions have a tendency to go horribly wrong.

* ''Literature/IAmJ'' averts and discusses this. J is a seventeen-year-old trans boy who discovers early in the book about trans people and transitioning. He begins taking hormones partway through the book, but to his disappointment, he has to get a signed letter from his mother and go through therapy first. His friend Melissa doesn't quite understand what being transgender means until he thoroughly explains it. She heard that trans people "have surgery, and then they become the other gender", but J tells her otherwise.

* Averted in ''Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', when Hannibal says that the SerialKiller Buffalo Bill will probably be found to have been rejected by multiple gender reassignment clinics because he thinks he is a trans woman when he really just hates himself.
-->'''Lecter:''' Our Billy hates his own identity, you see. He always has, and he thinks that makes him a transsexual. But his pathology is a thousand times more savage and more terrifying. He wants to be reborn, you see.

* The ''Series/{{Psych}}'' episode "[[Recap/PsychS01E07WhoYaGonnaCall Who Ya Gonna Call]]" has [[spoiler:a man with three alternate personalities: a woman who wants to have SRS, a confused normal guy, and a psychopath who had murdered the doctor]] to prevent his imminent surgery, although he isn't taking hormones or undergoing any other precursors to SRS. Somewhat averted in that there's a psychologist involved, but the SRS process as presented is heavily compressed.
* Averted in ''Series/{{CSI}}'' in one episode, where they investigate the death of a woman and discover that she is a trans woman in the midst of transitioning to female, and has not yet had any genital surgery. They also meet a well-intentioned back-alley doctor who explains how this trope is nowhere close to true in real life, and how the length of the process (both from a medical and bureaucratic standpoint) makes people turn to people like him even though it puts them in danger.

* Addressed (and averted) in an episode of ''Series/PrivatePractice'', where a patient is told that their procedure will have to be delayed because Sheldon suspects that although the desire for the operation is genuine, there are psychological issues that need to be addressed to ensure everything goes smoothly. [[spoiler:He turns out to be right when the patient attempts suicide upon being given this news, and offers to help them get through these issues so she can complete the process of becoming a woman]].

* Averted in the ''Series/PicketFences'' episode "Pageantry". A schoolteacher is found to be transgender which causes problems with the townsfolk. Jill Brock defends the transgender individual's credibility by explaining that undergoing such a process involves a number of steps and is not something done on a whim.
* ''Series/TheLWord'': Averted with trans man Max (Moira formerly). The characterization was generally pretty awful, and much of the actual science was off - [[spoiler:being on testosterone for as long as he'd been, it would be damn near impossible to get pregnant, even with no birth control methods being used; also, "roid rage" is a myth, and as such couldn't possibly be exacerbated by having testosterone obtained illegally. Non-prescribed testosterone's risks are vastly associated with the substance either being doctored or effectively "overdosing" - after a certain point, testosterone reaches maximum saturation in the body and the remainder is converted into estrogen, which is why non-trans bodybuilders using it can experience shrinking of testicles and breast growth]]. But he did hold a benefit to pay for his chest surgery (breast reduction/chest masculinization), which meant he couldn't afford even the more basic and less expensive of the "sex change" surgeries. Just FTM chest surgery ranges run about $8k in reality, not including travel, time off work, etc.

* Nao from ''Series/KinpachiSensei'' averts this. He wants surgery now but is told by a doctor it's a long process. He's only fifteen and won't be allowed to go on hormones until age twenty, age eighteen with parental consent. It would take two to three years of hormones until he can get any surgery and even then he'd need a lot of therapy beforehand. Nao's understandably distraught.
* Averted in ''Series/{{Pose}}'', where Elektra, Angel, and Candy all want to transition. Angel is trying to save up money for it, while Candy has no hope of ever earning enough money for it. Elektra manages to steal enough money for surgery and undergoes GRS, but she spends a while in the hospital in great pain and faces the prospect of being abandoned by both her "children" (who are pissed because she raided Abundance's Christmas fund to make a down payment on the surgery) and her longtime lover, who was against her getting the surgery.
* ''Series/HitAndMiss'': Averted. Mia has to take hormone pills and use hormone cream; she starts to panic when she misses them for a single day. She's also still saving up for sex reassignment surgery.

* [[AvertedTrope Consciously averted]] in ''Franchise/MagicTheGathering.'' The game's first openly transgender character, Alesha, is associated with the [[ColorCodedMagic mana colors]] of red, white, and black. The designers stated that [[WordOfGod they chose this]] because none of those colors have access to SexShifter magic, and they wanted to make the character more realistic.

* Averted and pointed out in ''Webcomic/KhaosKomix'', and the author would know, from personal experience. Though the pre-transition was unusually easy, and they pass very well.

* Averted with Aubrey in Webcomic/BoyMeetsBoy - Aubrey is identifying and presenting as a man but has not had "the surgery" (implied to be bottom surgery; there's also no mention of top surgery or hormones). Since he already worries a great deal about being seen as a "real man" and he pulled an OldFriendNewGender on the main cast of the comic, he angsts about how to reveal this to them, especially Aurora, though when he finally does:
--> Aurora: So you interrupted my long, fascinating story just to tell me that one little bitty detail?
--> Aubrey: ...Yes.
--> Aurora: Trust me, you count as a guy. Now, where was I...

* Averted in ''Literature/TheSalvationWar'' series. The character 'kitten' (small K, not a typo; it's complicated) is partly inspired by someone known to the author who went through the same process herself.

* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'':
** Averted with Generator. She did manage to get a fully successful transformation at one point with the [[TransformationRay BIT-Splicer]], but then later events reversed it, and at the same time made conventional SRS impossible in the future due to her new HealingFactor. Eventually, some doctors found a solution involving a less conventional surgical approach, but it remains to be seen how successful it will be.
** [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged]] with Grace Goodkind. While the [[AppliedPhlebotinum Devisor drug treatment]] she got was less intrusive and more effective than conventional SRS would have been, it still took several weeks, and included several additional rounds of plastic surgery to bring it to her desired form - which was not so much female but intersexed in any case. Furthermore, it came at the end of several years of gender therapy and secret use of hormone suppressants, and the treatment itself was ''incredibly'' dangerous. Grace has stated that the only reason she took such a drastic approach was that she knew how the family would react, and needed to do it as quickly and silently as possible to avoid them stopping her.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', Colonel Hunter Gathers' operation (and subsequent reversal, all part of XanatosSpeedChess plan) is Zig-Zagged. It's "quick" compared to real life, in that he just kidnaps a top plastic surgeon to perform it in an ancient temple. However, the work done is shown in the scars, stitches, and medical tape on Gather's body from all the incision sites, averting the "easy" portion for both doctor and patient. The reversal seemingly happens instantly with no lingering side effects. However, while not outright stated, many comments made by other characters throughout the series, as well as Hunters' consistent appearance in skintight outfits (particularly in Rusty's classic pink speed suit while impersonating him where Gathers appears to sport a camel toe), imply that he never "got" his male genitalia back. This would avert the trope and play it closer to reality, where reversing a male to female sex change is incredibly difficult and is one of the reasons why it is not "easy" to get one in real life.

* Played with in ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' with Xavin, who uses their Skrull physiology to take on a female form in order to woo the lesbian Karolina, but who soon suspects that mere cosmetic changes aren't going to be enough to keep Karolina happy in the long run.
* Played with in ''ComicBook/LeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen: Century'', where Orlando spontaneously changes gender every few years. While the transformation is faster than medical gender reassignment, it's still a slow process that takes several days and is implied to be deeply uncomfortable to Orlando.

* In ''Fanfic/FormerlyKnownAsHarryPotter'', trans witches and wizards can take a series of potions during puberty to stop puberty and induce the puberty they want. As adults, they can use magic to change themselves more completely than muggles can.
* In ''Fanfic/WhatTomorrowBrings'', Mertil reveals that several Andalites have used the morphing technology to do this via a ''Frolis manoeuvre'' (taking DNA from different Andalites to create a new body) if they feel genuinely uncomfortable in their original form.
* In the oneshot ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/127610 The Gender Ninja of Oz]]'', Ozma doesn't identify as completely male or female. They end up using the Magic Belt to change their appearance into something androgynous.
* ''Fanfic/TheWoundsStillBleeding'': There is only one way to physically transition and it is relatively easy in that it instantly changes you, however there's a huge catch: it can't be done on anyone over 20 because of how it strains the body, At 23, Kakashi is too old and can only transition socially.
* In ''Fanfic/ExcusesExcuses'', ponies transition using magic, however [[spoiler:it can't give you the ability to get pregnant or impregnate others]].
* ''Fanfic/ClairDeLune'': Equestria has magic that can permanently change a pony's anatomy.
* ''Fanfic/TheArithmancer'': It's briefly noted in the sequel ''Lady Archimedes'' that [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Metamorphmagi]] can change their biological sex as part of their power, though it is more difficult than normal appearance alteration (such that "they can't do it on a whim") and it doesn't affect the Metamorphmagus' gender identity.
* ''Fanfic/HollyPotterAndTheWitchingWorld'' features a few ways to get an EasySexChange, though most of them are noted to be temporary. The most successful permanent version, the Mulierarius Potion, is not widely known -- largely because the very sex-positive witching world is fine with people wanting to "experiment a little" with being a different sex, but (largely thanks to its skewed gender ratio) is far less accepting if anyone wants to make the change permanent.

* Members of ''Literature/TheCulture'' can change sex ''at will'', although it does take several months for the changes to gradually take place. Justified because they're ridiculously advanced transhuman post-scarcity beings who can also (for example) produce a variety of drugs and chemicals from specially tailored glands within their bodies simply by choosing to do so.
* Fairly easy sex changes (taking several months) are available to anyone who wants them in ''Literature/{{Aristoi}}'', using a "nanologic" package. Another nanotech procedure allows [[MisterSeahorse men to experience pregnancy]].
* Creator/TanithLee's ''Literature/BitingTheSun'' books describe an ultra-futuristic society with ''very'' easy sex and body changes. Officially, you are only supposed to change bodies once per month, but everybody flouts this rule all the time.

* In the books ''Literature/{{Accelerando}}'' and ''Literature/{{Glasshouse}}'' by Creator/CharlesStross, people living in post-Acceleration times have completely mutable bodies: They can get a new body of either sex (or both, or neither) in as little as a kilosec (just under 17 minutes) -- the time it takes an A-Gate to build it for them. This leads to phrases such as "I found myself in a female orthohuman body...".

* Creator/GeorgeAlecEffinger's ''Literature/MaridAudran'' series takes place in the Budayeen, a RedLightDistrict of a 23rd century {{Cyberpunk}} Muslim/Arab city. In this setting, sex changes while expensive are still easy and commonplace. Also quite effective, though not quite to the point of being a true GenderBender treatment. AttractiveBentGender is the norm, not the exception.
* Creator/NeilGaiman's short story ''Changes'' features a pill (originally created [[TheTopicOfCancer as a cancer cure]]) that has the "side effect" of causing a painless, perfect, permanent yet easily reversible (just pop another one) sex change overnight. The story follows the way society changes following that discovery, and towards its end years later, the very concept of gender has become completely ambiguous and the words used to describe it considered strange and outdated.
* ''Literature/KaneSeries'': This happens to [[spoiler:Mina Rush]] in "Deep in the Depths of Acme Warehouse". However, it was probably magic, as the object that caused the change was [[spoiler:a dildo modeled after the plaster cast of Jimi Hendrix's penis]] found in the said Acme Warehouse.

* The short story "Paradigms of Change" by Geoffrey A. Landis has an "X virus" accidentally developed from experimental gene therapy. Most of the people infected by it (at least that we see) are not volunteers, and the SecondLawOfGenderBending is very much averted, with frequent mention of the work to create a "Y virus" that will reverse the effects.

* ''Literature/{{Digitesque}}'': One of the relics left behind by the ancients is the "geneforge," which allows for a person's body to be easily reshaped to their exact desires. It can be used for minor things like skin color, but also for full sex changes. While geneforges are pretty rare these days, using them is still considered a sacred right.
-->'''Ada:''' ''[reading the inscription]'' The lives we live need not be the lives we were given.
* ''Women's Need Calls Me'', a short story in the ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' setting, features the magic sword Need, generally believed to be GenderRestrictedGear, [[SupernaturallyValidatedTransPerson chooses a trans woman]] with intense dysphoria. In a later-set book Need is able to make small and greatly desired changes, day by day, to another character's body which add up to a clear difference several months later. Here, Need just dismantles an ominous locus of magic energy and uses it to completely transform Pol's body overnight, though doing so came with some risk of failure and drains the sword into 'sleeping' for decades.

* In the much-derided ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E23ProfitAndLace Profit and Lace]]", Quark is forced to pretend to be a woman and conduct a meeting with an important Ferengi businessman (on the subject of women's rights on Ferenginar) while his mother is out of commission. Apparently, 24th-Century technology allows them to [[WeWillNotUseStageMakeupInTheFuture perform a complete sex change operation]] on him in just a few hours and then change him ''back'' to a man the following day (presumably they kept his... male parts in bio-stasis or something). The only nod to reality is a quick gag at the very end where his hormones are temporarily out of balance, and it makes him emotional. Granted, this is ''Franchise/StarTrek'', where plastic surgery to make someone look like a different ''species'' is apparently an outpatient procedure.[[note]]This level of technology was demonstrated in the previous ''[=DS9=]'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E01ApocalypseRising Apocalypse Rising]]", in which the main characters were surgically altered to look like Klingons, who have pronounced ridges on their foreheads, in addition to noticeably darker skin tones than some of the characters who underwent the procedure.[[/note]]

* ''TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace'' includes this as part of the general high-biotech {{transhuman}}ist style of the setting and quite a lot of people are said to change, permanently or temporarily. However, it doesn't seem to come up much in the game beyond this mention.
* In ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' a sex change requires nothing more than twelve hours in a HealingVat. There's also a fairly inexpensive [[SexShifter Sex Switch]] biomod that allows one to change sexes at will, though it takes a week, at least you're out and about during the change.

* In ''TabletopGame/TeenagersFromOuterSpace'', the Boy-Girl Gun swaps your gender every time you get hit with it. It's available for $10.

* In the ScienceFantasy RPG TabletopGame/{{Starfinder}}, Serum of Sex Shift is a mass-produced magic item that instantly and permanently gives the imbiber a set of sexual characteristics of their choice.

* In ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'' it is stated in an audio log by Dr. Steinman that [[AppliedPhlebotinum Adam]] makes this easy.

* In ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'', alchemist Cagliostro simply uses alchemy to create a new female body and transfer her soul over from her former male body to her current female body.

* In the ''Webcomic/JetDream'' RemixComic, NATO scientists have re-engineered the bioweapon [[AppliedPhlebotinum Virus-X]] into a viable GenderBender. Unable to replicate the Western effort, Soviet scientists perfected the EasySexChange. While considered quite inferior and much more painful, this surgical process is much more widely available, and a powerful tool for the Reds in the "Cool War" to win over the world's teens.

* Presented mostly realistic for ''Webcomic/VenusEnvy'' (by a transgender author). Though Zoe has been on hormone treatment for months she has yet to develop any substantial breasts and wears a padded bra instead. Plus the rest of her "equipment" is still intact, which occasionally causes problems...
** In fact [[CerebusSyndrome back when there were jokes]], the common gag was for Zoe to be hit with a ball in her new developments and her [[GroinAttack original equipment]], reacting to both with realistic (and comedic) levels of pain.
* In ''Webcomic/UmlautHouse'' Rick invented a gender bender ray that changes someone's sex instantly and implied to be completely, judging by his "28 days" comment when Voltair accidentally used it. It's later shown that he made it to help his "colleague" Dr. Peggy Seus (born as "James")
* ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'':
** Tedd long ago invented a device that allows him to change a person's biological sex (and other features) essentially at will. In fact, his obsession with transforming himself and his friends into the opposite sex could have been seen as somewhat creepy... until it's revealed that he's genderfluid, and was using the tech to help him wrestle with his own gender identity. He actually used the change ray to walk around school as a girl for several days, but [[DudeLooksLikeALady he was already so effeminate as a guy]] that no one noticed.
** [[spoiler:Magus]] demonstrates a darker side of this trope. In his world, magic is commonplace, including gender-bending magic. This means that gender equality lags far behind our world; if a woman wants to become a soldier, she's allowed, but she's expected to become a man first.

* Downplayed in ''Webcomic/NextSoundOfTheFuture''. Body mods are common among the RidiculouslyHumanRobots of the setting, which includes things like breast modifications, but they still cost money. However, voice modifications are illegal, which means any trans android would have to either risk going to an unlicensed doctor or voice train to alter their voices.
** Gumiya was able to get surgery to flatten his chest fairly quickly and painlessly, but only once he had saved up enough money for it and convinced the surgeon to actually flatten his chest and not just give him a reduction. His facial structure is also noticeably more masculine in the present, which implies he was able to get other surgeries as well.

* In the ''Website/SCPFoundation'' provides a few examples:
** [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-113 SCP-113]] is a stone that upon coming into direct contact with the flesh of an organism possessing sex chromosomes will transform the organism's physical sex characteristics in a way that usually results in reversing the organism's biological sex. It takes about a minute and is excruciatingly painful.
** [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-6113 SCP-6113]] is an entity that goes around finding transgender people at their lowest point and provides these to help them.
** The [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/goc-hub-page GOC]] exaggerates, inverts, and zig-zags this trope in this [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/goc-tale-comeintomyparlor tale]]. Given the number of [[{{BlueCollarWarlock}} thaumaturges]] in their ranks, it's only natural that the process involves 3-D modeling a new body down to the fingerprints, forging a symbolic sword and chalice with a dwarf, and undergoing a ritual that ''retcons the universe'' into having always been the other gender.

* ''WesternAnimation/UglyAmericans'':
** Callie gets a sex change to get a job as New York Ambassador to {{Atlantis}}. At the end of the episode, just as suddenly as she changed into a man, she's mostly back to normal, but, in bed, Mark mentions her needing "a few more surgeries." From then on out, though, [[RetCon she's back to normal]].
** An older episode had Mark himself transformed into looking like his roommate's ex-girlfriend, hoping to help him get over her. Unfortunately for Mark, seeing how his change was a curse [[spoiler:that made him rapidly age until he had sex with a man]], [[{{Squick}} he didn't turn back so easily.]] The initial easiness is explained by [[AWizardDidIt Leonard Did It]].

* Averted in ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', when Hannibal says that the SerialKiller Buffalo Bill will probably be found to have been rejected by multiple gender reassignment clinics because he thinks he is a trans woman when he really just hates himself.
-->'''Lecter''': Our Billy hates his own identity, you see. He always has, and he thinks that makes him a transsexual. But his pathology is a thousand times more savage and more terrifying. He wants to be reborn, you see.

* Members of Literature/TheCulture can change sex ''at will'', although it does take several months for the changes to gradually take place. Justified because they're ridiculously advanced transhuman post-scarcity beings who can also (for example) produce a variety of drugs and chemicals from specially-tailored glands within their bodies simply by choosing to do so.
* Fairly easy sex changes (taking several months) are available to anyone who wants them in Creator/WalterJonWilliams' ''Aristoi'', using a "nanologic" package. Another nanotech procedure allows [[MisterSeahorse men to experience pregnancy]].

* In Creator/JohnVarley's ''Literature/EightWorlds'' series, sex changes are so commonplace that anyone who spends their life as just one is considered a little weird, and population control laws are: "one person, one child."
* In the books ''Literature/{{Accelerando}}'' and ''Literature/GlassHouse'' by Creator/CharlesStross, people living in post-Acceleration times have completely mutable bodies: They can get a new body of either sex (or both, or neither) in as little as a kilosec (just under 17 minutes) - the time it takes an A-Gate to build it for them. This leads to phrases such as "I found myself in a female orthohuman body...".

* In ''Literature/EightWorlds'' it's very easy to get one's body altered, sometimes dramatically, to the point where the default assumption is that everyone's at tried out another sex at least once. The lead of ''Steel Beach'' decides that after years of being a man they want to be a woman again and has various options to get it done quickly, including accepting pre-set configurations for various features and returning to the way they were born, but instead has a new body custom commissioned. At the end of the book, they choose to be feminine-null but keep their custom vagina on file for the next time they want one.

* ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' set themselves up to sidestep this whole part of the issue by putting Adam in [[TeenGenius Grade 11 at age fifteen]], meaning he's on schedule to graduate from HighSchool and therefore the show before he turns 18 and can begin physical transitioning. He was retconned into a sophomore in the second half of Season 10 and then [[spoiler:killed off while he was still pre-hormones]].

* After a patch to ''VideoGame/TheSims4'', partially or even fully changing a Sim's sex - to the tune of dramatic body and voice changes and adding/removing the ability to become pregnant and impregnate others - can be done at a mirror or dresser by any teenage-or-older Sim at any time.
* Before that, ''Videogame/MySims'' did it by simply not assigning a gender variable.

** This is also true for many [[MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame MMO games]], where sex and race changes require simply paying some sort of nominal fee.

Often followed by OldFriendNewGender. Not to be confused with GenderBender, which involves sex changes that (usually) are even ''easier'', and driven by magic or AppliedPhlebotinum. This trope is more about idealized (occasionally ''highly'' idealized) versions of RealLife SRS.

In RealLife, the process of transition for UsefulNotes/{{transgender}} people is often a long, complicated process, which may or may not involve numerous different procedures including psychological counseling, hormone replacement therapy, and a variety of plastic surgeries. The exact path the transition takes is different for every individual, and so are the results, but the process tends to occur gradually over the course of several years.

* The ''Series/{{Psych}}'' episode "Who Ya Gonna Call" had [[spoiler:a man with three alternate personalities: a woman who wanted to have SRS, a confused normal guy, and a psychopath who had murdered the doctor]] to prevent his imminent surgery, although he wasn't taking hormones or undergoing any other precursors to SRS. Somewhat averted in that there was a psychologist involved, but the SRS process as presented was heavily compressed.

* In the much-derided ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Profit and Lace", Quark is forced to pretend to be a woman and conduct a meeting with an important Ferengi businessman (on the subject of women's rights on Ferenginar) while his mother is out of commission. Apparently, 24th-Century technology allows them to [[WeWillNotUseStageMakeupInTheFuture perform a complete sex change operation]] on him in just a few hours and then change him ''back'' to a man the following day (presumably they kept his... male parts in bio-stasis or something). The only nod to reality is a quick gag at the very end where his hormones are temporarily out of balance and it makes him emotional. Granted, this is ''Franchise/StarTrek'', where plastic surgery to make someone look like a different ''species'' is apparently an outpatient procedure. [[note]] This level of technology was demonstrated in previous episode of ''DS9'' where the main characters were surgically altered to look like Klingons, who have pronounced ridges on their foreheads, in addition to noticeably darker skin tones than some of the characters who underwent the procedure. [[/note]]
* In the ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' episode "Greeks Bearing Gifts", Jack claims that he started paying closer attention to his co-workers after a male colleague began "acting strange" right before going on several weeks leave and returning as a woman named Vanessa. Since Jack only mentions this in passing, it's possible that [[GenderBender sex changes are handled differently]] in the 51st century, and it's always possible that Jack is ''[[CaptainOblivious just that oblivious.]]''