I won't go into great detail/personal details but here it is in short:
Consultation date: September 15th, 2014
I read a lot of pros/cons about her on the Internet, and I felt nervous going to meet her; mostly because I was worried our personalities would clash, but it turns out that we mesh together very well. I would characterize her as professional, blunt, sarcastic and logical.
She was really nice and we shared a few laughs. The consultation lasted way longer than I ever expected. My appointment was at 2:00 PM and we didn't leave until 4:45 PM. Most of that time was spent with Dr. McGinn.
It took about 20 minutes to fill out the initial paperwork. Shortly after I completed the paperwork I was brought into the exam room. One of her physician's assistants, Heather, proceeded to ask me a ton of questions about additional medical information, social history, transition history, support, and sexual history. Most of the info that isn't exactly medically related is to get a baseline of who you are now and to determine your support network post-op. This probably took about 30 minutes.
Dr. McGinn came in shortly afterwards, like minutes, and after the hellos were out of the way we discussed the trach shave I want done. Next, we talked about the GRS procedure. For the most part, she likes to talk first and get her stuff out of the way and then you can ask questions afterwards.
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I didn't have a lot of questions to ask her but here is what I did ask (she answered my other questions about risk and recovery during her presentation so to speak):
Q: Hair removal, I know what your site says but what is your personal opinion about it and did you have hair removal done before your GRS?
A: Dr. McGinn highly recommends it; at least on the penile shaft and at the base of the shaft. While she can scrape/cauterize hair follicles on the scrotum, she cannot do so on the penile shaft or base because unlike the scrotum, the penile shaft is not detached from your body and she can't scrape/cauterize live skin.
The scrotum can be done because it ends up being completely detached from your body. Regarding her personal experience, she had electrolysis done before her GRS (laser was not an option back then). She doesn't have a preference for either electrolysis or laser hair removal though, as long as you have a hair/skin type that is compatible with laser hair removal.
Q: Do you ever "try out" new techniques on a patient without their consent?
A: In short no, but sometimes slight changes during the procedure are required based on the individual because every patient poses a unique challenge. Slight changes include maybe an extra stitch or extra little cuts to make the appearance more pleasing. As far as like say stitching pigskin to your body without your knowledge, that is not done at all.
Q: I have done a lot of research on you and it seems that there is a decent amount of people who would deem you basically a bitch (she actually finished that sentence for me lol). Why do you think these sorts of statements are made?
A: She basically said that she doesn't put up with bull->-bleeped-<- and she can tell if someone is not telling the truth or making excuses. For instance, if a potential patient lies to their primary physician about things (you have to get a physical done prior to GRS) and you get say a clean bill of health, but then show up at her door looking to proceed, well, she's been doing this a long time and can tell certain things about a patient too.
For instance, she has a BMI requirement for surgery and a patient says they did everything they could but didn't loose the weight, she'll call them out on it. What I gathered from her examples was that if you don't listen to what she asks you to do and/or you lie to her, you're going to have problems between you and Dr. McGinn. Follow her directions and everything will be fine.
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She said that I had some really good questions, old school questions but good ones. I guess I am kind of old school anyway when it comes to transition. Something else I thought was really nice was that not once did any of Dr. McGinn's staff or herself pressure me into choosing her as my GRS surgeon. She further went on to state that I would get a great result from Bowers, Meltzer, or Brassard.
Her differing technique than the others involves wrapping the urethra around the clitoris to keep it moist and a different type of suture to keep the bottom part of the vagina conforming to that diamond shape (e.g. more pointed than rounded). She also noted that her experience in performing other types of surgeries such as ftm bottom surgeries or ffs surgeries sometimes leads to inspiration or problem solving of challenges she encounters performing GRS.
All in all, both Rachael and I really liked her and most importantly we both felt extremely comfortable in her presence. My anxiety about speaking to her (because of other's experiences saying she's a bitch and mean) quickly subsided after she started talking to me about the trach shave. My GRS date has been set and it is May 6th, 2015
