[Porsche-O-Phile]

I work in a relatively small architectural office (approx. 10 people) and have a co-worker who has been battling with "gender identity" issues for some time. She is biologically female but for whatever reason, sees herself as a guy. As such, she's been looking into "transgender" options for some time. She claims she's been grappling with this her entire life and it's not just a rash decision.

Well, in the last couple of weeks she's decided it's time to take the first steps towards abandoning her female persona. She cut her hair very guy-looking now, wears male clothing and is now legally pursuing her name to a name that is clearly male (she has a name currently that is quite clearly female - no option to have one of them "either-or" names).

How do I deal with this in a professional setting? I have to have her potentially deal with clients, consultants, etc. but they all know her by her female name and obviously some of them might be quite shocked by this transformation. Especially if she pursues the surgery options to physically complete the transformation, which she's planning on doing (yes, she knows it'll be long, painful and require hormone injections for life and all that - I'm not getting involved with her decision - I'm making the assumption that she knows what she's getting into).

Anyway, have any of you had to deal with something like this in a workplace setting? How in the heck do I deal with it? Personally I think the whole thing is nuts and indicative of some serious underlying psychological problem, but it's not my place to be judgemental (not to mention the potential liability issues). As such, I need to know the "correct" professional way to deal with this.

Any advice?