Well, I don't really consider myself an old timer *quite* yet! I'm turning 36 this year, and I still feel very young, thank you very much =P
That said, it's interesting that you mentioned hormone therapy. In my personal experience I really found that hormones did next to nothing for me, aside from some *very* mild development. Nothing really shrunk, and nothing really grew. I guess it doesn't help that I've always had that problem, gaining weight has been nigh impossible for me my entire life. I know, I shouldn't be complaining, but when you're trying to develop some curves, it can be very frustrating. I think my physician took a rather conservative approach, but I haven't really revisited it since (just taking a maintenance dose now). Have you found it's made any difference?
I'm not entirely sure where my break is, I kind of rattled that number off the top of my head. It's probably a bit higher than that, but not by too much. I'll have to check again with the praat software when I get home. But even so, at whatever frequency my break is at, my voice sounds very strained and not very melodic at all. Hopefully the SPL can help out with that.
As for the sick leave, I think any kind of vocal surgery would require a period of non vocalization. Unfortunately, in my line of work I'm speaking and communicating with people on a continual basis, so working is not an option during my recovery, so I'll be taking an extended sick leave for the entire duration. I'm hoping that after 6-7 weeks I can ease myself back in to work. We'll quite literally be playing it by ear, I imagine.
In terms of "old timers" opting for surgery, I imagine it is because we are at a point in our lives where we have enough capitol or credit stored up to the point where it requires considerably less time and planning to get to the point where we can opt to have the procedure done, so a lot of us are 'early adopters'.
