Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment had its origins in the advisory board meetings of the Henry Benjamin Foundation. In the earliest stages, it was discussed as a volume that would embody the findings of the research group working directly under the auspices of the Foundation. it soon became evident that such a limitation would make the book unnecessarily parochial. It would, for example, have excluded those patients who were treated and operated at the newly constituted John Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic and who were not also patients in the Harry Benjamin Foundation research study, as well as the important body of work being done elsewhere, especially in Europe.