Brassard Questions! Freaking Out! Please help!

[Vanessa C.]

Okay, this is my first ever post and I joined because I need some experienced Brassard patients to talk me through this......

I have an appointment scheduled during one of the upcoming months and I am freaking out here! I have some questions that I know may have been asked before, but I have never gotten them answered to the extent I would like by casually reading through the archives. Please bear with me.....

First off, I am a heterosexual transwoman and I plan on using my new parts in the future, so these couple of points are HUGE for me. I have never had a sex, I've put it off my entire life and have waited patiently for this surgery to fix what I consider a birth defect that has held me back.

My first major problem is, I have very little donor material. I mean, verrrrrry little! I don't see the doctor getting any sort of adequate depth from what I have, especially since a certain amount will be needed to form the outer structures. This is even with the use of a scrotal skin graft, overall I am lacking in both departments downstairs. And NO, I don't feel that 4 to 5 inches is adequate in the depth department, as so many people try to lead us to believe... So, my FIRST QUESTION is: How likely is it that Dr Brassard will harvest a graft from elsewhere? I haven't heard of a single one of his past patients mentioning having one taken and I wonder if he is even willing to do one. Has anyone had a skin graft while under his care and if so, could someone please explain where he takes it from and how much depth they were left with.

My second issue is the fact that I have alot of dark hairs going on down there. All over. I know I have come across at least two horror stories of patients left with large amounts of hair inside of them. This is not acceptable to me, especially after trusting a doctor's recommendation as to not have any electrolysis before surgery. And now I simply don't have the time nor money to explore having any done. Needless to say, I am scared to death over this happening. My SECOND QUESTION is actually in parts: Does any know, directly or indirectly, if the couple women who went to him had alot of hair previous to surgery? And, with the women who were affected, did he perform the inversion technique with *only* penile tissue, or was there a scrotal skin graft involved, as I suspect. It would seem that for such a large amount of hair to remain, it would have to come from the scrotum, unless the person had an unusually hairy penis beforehand.

Please help me here. No anecdotal "only the doctor can answer your questions" stuff, I would like some insight from those who have been to Brassard on their own experiences. Such as, if they necessitated any sort of grafting (scrotal or otherwise) and what their experiences were in the hair department (had a lot before, had a little) I would just like some other people's experiences to make a comparison to. At this point, I am scared that the doctor will recommend that I only have a scrotal graft and that I will be left with either hair inside of me or inadequate depth afterwards, or more horrifyingly, BOTH!

Anything you can say to help me with my questions, I would greatly appreciate it, and if you don't feel comfortable getting into specifics here, then please email me. Thank you all, so much!

[blueconstancy]

Brassard will do skin grafts. I personally met two of his patients who had it done, and both were pleased with the results. He also will tell you beforehand if he thinks that he'll need a graft. He does his best to avoid it, b/c of the additional scarring, etc. but once he has your permission, he'll do it if he comes up short in the OR. He also generally provides a minimum of 5.5" of depth whether it requires a graft or not, which may not be enough for you, it sounds like. I was in the room when he explained to another patient that if there's extra tissue he generally prefers to focus on adding "external detail" rather than more depth, so...

The second question, I do not know. I know that he does obviously recommend against hair removal, and that if there's less than a year before the operation, it will be *worse* to get electrolysis than to do nothing (electro interferes with the method he uses to scrape off follicles in the ER by making those follicles weaker).

My wife had surgery with Brassard this past summer. Although obviously she isn't with a man, I can say with certainty that she has more depth, girth, and lubrication than *I* do and I was born with a vagina. She also had a GP tell her that the only thing differentiating her results at ~4 months from a natal vagina was some swelling and a ring of scar tissue at the entrance, and both will fade with time.