English to Spanish Other General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters conversation

This is part of an interview with a transexual:

I went to therapy a little over a year before I decided that I really wanted to do it. And I was on testosterone for just over a year by the time I had chest surgery. I never really seriously considered bottom surgery, mostly because the reason I wanted to transition "was to be a man in the world."

I'm confused on the last part. I don´t understand what he means. He didn´t consider genital surgery because he wanted to transition to be "a man in the world"? What´s that suppossed to be?