Sex reassignment surgery
Sex reassignment surgery is legal in New Zealand. An individual is permitted to change their name and legal gender on official documents, including birth certificates, if they can provide medical evidence that they have "acquired a physical conformation that accords with their gender identity". Originally, this was only available to individuals who had undergone genital-reconstruction surgery. However, in June 2008, the Family Court ruled that full sex reassignment surgeries are not always necessary to meet this legal threshold.