Summer is here, it's hot and the beaches are filling up, and what for many people may seem like an easy association of ideas – I'm hot, I'm going to the beach – isn't always so for everyone. “When you're a trans woman and you haven't had surgery, going to the beach can be difficult,” explains Tina Recio, the founder of Ivaginarium, an organization that for ten years has been accompanying trans women who want to undergo a vaginoplasty process free of charge. “Before the operation, many of us use items to hide the genitals we were born with, such as a skirt or a sarong, but it's still an exposure that can be very unbearable for us; you feel exposed in a place surrounded by naked or semi-naked people. Many trans women don't go to the beach until they've had surgery or completed their transition. While you're transitioning, it's also complicated: you might still be wearing a wig, hairpieces, or makeup, and all of that, at the beach, becomes uncomfortable,” says Recio.