From silicone and hormone injecting to sex reassignment surgery: the precarious road to becoming female of transgender funeral performers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

This paper examines aspects of feminisation among a group of transwomen funeral performers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It highlights the health hazards faced by members of this vulnerable social group as the result of the use of non-medically prescribed hormone therapy, silicone injection and sex reassignment surgery in the absence of legal provision regulating these practices. The analysis is conducted against the backdrop of overlapping discourses of sex and gender identity, class, medicalisation and politics, both locally and globally.