Eads began transitioning in the late 1980s following a move to
Florida. He began
testosterone therapy and underwent
top surgery, in which breast tissue is removed. However, given his age (early- to mid-40s) as well as the fact that he had already begun to show symptoms of
menopause, Eads was counseled that he would not need to undergo a
hysterectomy and
oophorectomy as part of his sexual reassignment. Likewise, Eads never underwent
phalloplasty. After living in Florida for some time, and following the failure of his second marriage (to a female psychologist), Eads moved back to Georgia in 1996. In 1996, after a severe bout of abdominal pain and
vaginal bleeding, Eads sought
emergency medical treatment, and received a diagnosis of
ovarian cancer. However, more than a dozen doctors subsequently refused to treat Eads on the grounds that taking him on as a patient might harm their practice. It was not until 1997 that Eads was finally accepted for treatment by the
Medical College of Georgia hospital, where he underwent
surgical,
medical, and
radiation therapy over the next year. By the time
Southern Comfort was filmed in 1998, the cancer had metastasized to the
uterus,
cervix, and other abdominal organs, and his prognosis was poor. Despite aggressive treatment, Eads died in a nursing home in
Toccoa, Georgia, in 1999 at the age of 53. ==References==