I've seen a couple of guys quoting up to $75,000-80,000. One, I remember, was German or went to a German doctor and supposedly had a Cadillac version of phallo. (Or was it Japan? Damnit!)
With SERIOUS complications, perhaps the surgery can exceed $100,000, but I've never heard such a price quoted for a regular, successful phallo with few to no complications.
When I first got my copy of Lou Sullivan's FTM book--then in its second edition--I was dismayed at the phallo photos. Those surgeries had to have been performed before 1990, I think, since Sullivan died around then (1989, I think). In fact, he might have simply reproduced even older photos from the first edition. The surgeons have had an additional 35+ years to improve their techniques, and I have seen quite a few phallo pics online that look pretty damned good--especially when I compare them to the state of the art ca. 1990 and earlier.
I feel that a lot of the misinformation comes from, or is started by, trans men who do not want phallo. I imagine that some of them have seen some bad photos (as I did back in the nineties) or seen pics from right after surgery or simply heard uncorroborated stories. But then there's the sour grapes issue. Many trans men get defensive about not getting bottom surgery. I have run into guys who clearly WOULD get some kind of bottom surgery if it were covered by insurance, but they get so negative and defensive about how horrible the results are that I think, "Okay, that's sour grapes talking." I expect that some of these men truly feel incomplete without a more average penis, but they have built walls around their desires and want to attack anyone who wants phallo (or even meta) or anyone who, heaven forbid, is able to actually have the procedure. I expect that there's a lot of anger and envy in some of these guys.
But not all, I must reiterate.
I have also run into men from lesbian communities who are not only anti-penis but simply anti-male. They have issues of their own, and I wonder whether some of them are spreading misinformation.
Also, there aren't many pictures out there. Some guys could run into one photo and base their entire impression of phallo from that one picture.
I suspect that in most cases, Chipper is closest to the truth. There simply isn't a lot of info out there, and it gets passed around by hearsay until it becomes the dominant story. I am a member of a Yahoo surgery group. I think that joining similar groups and getting info from them would be more accurate than rooting around the Internets.
