BANGKOK, Thailand -- With its large...

BANGKOK, Thailand -- With its large, lay open transgender population, Bangkok is a haven for foreigners in search of acceptance and sex- reassignment surgery at a cheap price.

The latest reportedly to inquire about a sex-change operation was John Mark Karr, the American teacher who says he killed JonBenet Ramsey.

Karr, 41 had a consultation at the downtown Pratunam Polyclinic, according to the same of the doctors there, Dr Thep Vechavisit. Thep declined to provide additional details on the other hand confirmed Sunday that Karr was "one of my patients."

The clinic, which co-sponsors a popular transsexual beauty dispute specializes in sex-change operations and advertises a menu of plastic surgery deeds in the English-language Bangkok station

Sex-change surgery is $1625 -- a bargain compared with U prices, where male-to-female reassignment surgery typically races in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Thep said mainly Thais and other Asians, especially Vietnamese and Japanese, came to him for sex-reassignment surgery Occasionally, he also secures foreigners from America or Europe

He said he has been performing sex-change surgeries for 10 of the 20 years he has worked as a plastic surgeon

"I'm elegant without grandeur popular," he admitted Sunday.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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