Glottoplasty in Germany - contact details.

[thegreenrabbit]

Could somebody point me in the direction of where to find contact information for the 3 clinics that offer the glottoplasty procedure in Germany and a brief opinion of their reputations for this type of surgery.

[anjaq]

Hi

In Stuttgart, it used to be the Clinic at http://www.klinikum-stuttgart.de/ueber-uns/struktur/standorte/katharinenhospital.html - I am nut sure they still are doing it, but you can contact them and ask if they do or if the surgeon has moved

In Berlin it is http://audiologie-phoniatrie.charite.de/patienten/stimme/information_fuer_transsexuelle/ - they are still doing this.

I heard 2 people who went for it in Germany and they both were sounding rather breathy. They are ok with it, as it still sounds female, but it was not as well as what I heard here from Dr Kim. But my sample size is small, I know just that in Germany no one ever recommends voice surgery as the consensus is, that they never heard a good result. I know that there are some good results around that I hear din rumours though. Both the clinics can gove audio samples on request but only on site and during the consultation.

Why would you want to do this in Germany?

[thegreenrabbit]

Why would you want to do this in Germany?

Thanks for your input. Much appreciated.
Two ctriteria that I am using are that they are experienced at doing the glottoplasty and that they are in relatively close travel distance should things go wrong - and they do go wrong. Aftercare follow up is also important. Not so much price. Korea is just too far to go. My first task is to gather as much info as possible and then go about attending an initial consultation. Feedback from real life patients is critical. I only have one set of vocal chords.

[anjaq]

So you are from Europe - I guess that Prof Remarcle seems to be a better adress then. But honestly - I do not really see the benefit of doing it in Germany. Wherever in Europe you are, probably you will have some hours of train ride or take a flight there anyways, the flight to Korea is a bit longer and more expensive but if that is all the difference, it does not deter me. Berlin is a 1 hour flight or so from here, but I gladly take the longer flight to Seoul from what I have gotten in terms of information up to now. And things going wrong - well in Korea you will be for 2 weeks anyways in case something goes wrong, and then upon return you can go to one of the surgeons or phoniaters who are familiar with glottoplasty in Europe and do your checkups.
It is rather hard to find patients who had voice surgery in Germany and most of them had CTA. It is a bit of a Taboo and scary topic

By the way - I am trending towards doing this surgery, but even though I could get it in Germany on insurance costs for no additional money, I will rather save money and pay Dr Kim because I just am really not convinced of the consistency of good results in Germany - They can have good results but there are more people with raspy voices coming out of it than I am comfy with and I have not yet hear that of anyone from Dr Kim - the worst case with Dr Kim seems to be that the voice is a bit less loud and there was not enough increase in pitch (but at the same time the risk of falling down low is gone in any case)

[Lara1969]

As far as I know the Berlin Charite is the clinic with the most glottoplastic surgeries in Europe. I heard some fantastic result and no bad result but I only meet three women which had surgery there. I know one woman who had CTA in Weimar and I am not convinced.

Lara

[anjaq]

I second that - IF one wants to go to Germany, my advice also would be Berlin. They have published an article about their glottoplasty results in 1999, so they do have at least more than 15 years of experience, although they certainly do not have the numbers and the frequency of Dr Kim.

Lara, I would also be interested in hearing what information you have from the three women you talked to - can you provide some anonymized information about what they told you? Do they have any restrictions still, anything they cannot do anymore, are their voices all clear and comparable to what we hear from Dr kim here?