Apparently in this ep Dr. Woodard was still in denial over the sex change operation.
Was that surgery available in 1967 in the USA? Anyway, the intro to Miss Hoffman is one of my least fave aspects of DS. I love Grayson Hall, don't get me wrong, but the show went too weird from the time she came into the picture.
You like 'weird', admit it! One of the fascinating parts of DS for me as a kid was the idea of trying to treat a vampire medically. Julia might have been undermined later by the need to spin wheels and kill time while behind the scenes they were getting ready for later stories such as 1795. Contrived wheel-spinning and stalling tend to undermine drama and terror!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_JorgensenThe first famous case, Christine Jorgensen, happened in 1952, I was surprised to find out just now. Everything seems to go back further than I realize. It was known as the "Swedish operation" I think, but hers was done in Denmark. The film Myra Breckenridge was out in 1970.