MY SEVENTY YEARS AS A MAN

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12609, 20 November 1926, Page 11

MY SEVENTY YEARS AS A MAN

Woman Doctor Tells the Amazing Story of Her Life

FOR more than seventy years I have lived as a man, and have been accepted as such without question, not even my colleagues who were among the greatest living authorities on anatomy and physiology ever having even a momentary suspicion of the truth.

I will not go into the story of how I came to discard the garb of my sex and to carry through this impersonation beyond saying that it was my parents who first started me in life under false colours because they wanted to protect their interests under a will.

in infancy I quitted my native England, and when I touched Amencan soil I had ceased to be a girl, and was henceforth brought up as a boy. It was with some diffidence that L faced my first school, because I dreaded discovery, but i soon iounu that it was easier to deceive people in this way than I thought. Eventually 1 became a doctor. IN LOVE WITH ME Probably my most embarrassing time came when in my late ’teens I wao thrown much into the society ot a young woman. We became inseparable companions, and 1 was deeply attached to her. One day I awoke to the fact that my friend had fallen in love with me, and was inclined to misunderstand the partiality I showed for her society, partiality born on my side entirely of our common interests and her value as a friend. 1 was not then free to reveal my secret, so I found it necessary to undertake the painful tusk of breaking to my friend that matrimony was not for me. TERRIBLE ORDEAL But a more terrible problem faced me later. Love was born in my hearf for a man who was associated with me in those early days, and I had the

ordeal of stifling my pension. The agony of those days comes back to me now. I had to listen while he told mo of his love affairs, and advise him how best to lay siege 10 the hearts of the girls who in turn appealed to him. And all tho while my own heart, was love hungry! There were days of anxiety and nervous tension when the dread of my secret being discovered was strong. I remember my first visit to the operating theatre, where 1 had to assist a keen, shrewd colleague in a very difficult operation in which the life of a prominent public man was at stake. I dreaded the ordeal, fearing that my nerve would give way and betray my secret. My colleague looked hard at me once or twice, and once I was sure he had guessed my secret, but if so he never said a word of his suspicions to me. Anyhow, I was glad when that ordeal was past. MORE OPPORTUNITIES Gradually I found that- being a man gave me greater opportunities for distinction in my profession, and opened tq me doors that would otherwise have been closed. Jt was then that I began to think that, after all, liiy parents might have served my interests better than I gave them credit for; There came a time when I was ill and I was moved to a nursing home. Discovery seemed inevitable, and I was on the point of taking a colleague into

my confidence. Something happened to delay the opportunity for doing so, and 1 then decided that 1 would nsic my chance of carrying the bluff through to the end. It seems incredible, but though 1 was in that nursing home for eeveu weeks, and part of the time was under anaesthetics, no suspicion of my secret crossed anyone's mind, though one of the consulting surgeons did jokingly say to his colleague and myself that were he not aware of my identity he would have thought be was handling the case of a woman. APPOINTMENT COMEDY After a time I really began to get enjoyment out of the pose I was koeping up. Some amusement has come to me from the frequency with which I have been consulted by lovesick friends, and most of all when X had to listen to fierce diatribes against my own sex, Once I was keen on securing an appointment that would have increase ed my usefulness to suffering humanity, a post 1 would have given almost anything to be allowed to fill. Before the examining board \ went and stated my nullifications and my wish to take up mis work in preference to uny other. After listening to all I had to say, the chairman calmly rose and told mo that, though I was undoubtedly the man for the job, there was a feeling that it would be better to have a woman for the post and therefore it would be re-advertised. It was on the point of my ton go» to tell them of the irony of the situation, and it was with difficulty J restrained. I cannot say I am glad my secret has come out. I would have preferred that it should die with me, but now that it is out there is nothing more to be said about it. Looking back now I cannot honestly say that I regret the past. There have been many compensations.

Miss M. V. Mayfield, the aged woman doctor, of Mena, near Hot Springs, Arkansas, who sue* cessfuily masqueraded sa a man since childhood and earned a great local reputation as a surgeon, tells her remarkable story below. . It was only when she became seriously ill about a month ago that Dr. Mayfield was discovered to be a woman.