SRS with Suporn, and Post-Op Odor

[poisonivy]

First of all, I am a 25yr old pre op trans girl and have my SRS surgery booked with Dr Suporn in Thailand

While I have a specific question I would like to ask, I would also welcome any advice or thoughts or recommendations on your own SRS experiences, either with Dr Suporn or just in general.  I would be grateful to have any of you share any of your own experiences or results or thoughts

Now, I would like to preface the following question by saying that I am no way trying to embarrass or shame anyone and this is not intended as comedy.  I have genuine questions about SRS results and I am coming from a place of honesty and respect..

***

One of my friends mentioned that one of her friends had her SRS surgery and that she had experienced major odor problems, but that the individual in question was blissfully unaware of it (presumably because she had gotten used to it and didn't realise?).  This comment was based on her meeting her friend at 3 months post-op.  I took this with a grain of salt, thinking it was just one isolated incident, or that she was probably still healing.
However I have since met with my other friend (who also had her SRS surgery with the same Dr), and I too experienced the odor first hand. My friend was close to 8 months post op, and the odor was strong enough to be smelt through clothing and at a distance.

In your own experience, or from what you may have heard, is this a common issue?  If you yourself have faced this, or know someone who has; was the odor an indication that something was wrong (infection, problem healing), or is this odor just an unfortunate side effect that most post op's go through? If so, how long does it last?

I did not raise this with her directly as I did not want to cause offence or hurt her feelings, but considering my own surgery is coming up, I want to know whether this is something that I too may experience..


Thank you in advance

xx

[mrs izzy]

Welcome to Susan's family.
To answer your question yes we have odors just like a real vagina. Some can give you a idea of the health of the natural flora. So yep its all part of the package.

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Je suis un être humain,Popcorn?

Hugs

[Jenna Marie]

That does not sound normal... though issues with infection, hygiene, etc. can cause similar problems for cis women. Your friend(s) might want to have that checked out!

(I'm years post-op, and I have a slight vaginal odor but it seems normal relative to the cis vaginas I've been near; at the risk of being graphic, I can only smell it on my hands or dilators, as it's certainly not strong enough to notice from more than a few inches away much less through clothes. Vaginas aren't supposed to be completely disinfected and odorless, but neither should you know about it unless you're in an intimate position with the person!)

[poisonivy]

That does not sound normal... though issues with infection, hygiene, etc. can cause similar problems for cis women. Your friend(s) might want to have that checked out!

(I'm years post-op, and I have a slight vaginal odor but it seems normal relative to the cis vaginas I've been near; at the risk of being graphic, I can only smell it on my hands or dilators, as it's certainly not strong enough to notice from more than a few inches away much less through clothes. Vaginas aren't supposed to be completely disinfected and odorless, but neither should you know about it unless you're in an intimate position with the person!)

Thank you so much for your response!  Yes this is what I was thinking (and hoping!). 
Of course there's going to be a specific vaginal scent, which is completely normal, but in both my friend and my friend-of-friend's cases, I am thinking that perhaps they may both have had an underlying infection that would explain their issues.  I would think that if that overbearing scent were 'the norm', then more people would definitely be talking about it.

[Muffinheart]

Only door I've ever experienced is when I eat asparagus lol.
Other than that, every once in awhile, after I pee, I have "smelled" my tp, only because I'm paranoid.

I know, TMI

[Jenna Marie]

Glad to help!

The flip side is that I've heard of a couple of presumed-cis women who left a strong enough vaginal odor behind in a bathroom that other people could tell they'd been there after they left... notice I said *heard* about, because this is so unusual that other women were gossiping (a bit unkindly, I admit).  It was not considered normal or expected.

OK, and I admit, I think everything smelled terrible down there for the first couple weeks of healing b/c of all the blood and whatnot, but your friend who's 8 months post-op should be similar to a cis woman in terms  of cleanliness and odor by now. It's actually not a good idea for her to ignore that, since bad smells are one sign of a vaginal infection (not the kind of post-surgical infection that wounds can get, but something like bacterial vaginosis).

[sh1982]

Did they your friends have surgery with Dr Suporn?If not maybe they had colon srs which i heard can sometimes cause unpleasant oders.

[GendrKweer]

Sounds like it could be bacterial vaginosis... cis women get it too, google it. I personally don't have any odor except as others have said, the normal amount, but once a week and/or after dilating (once every 2 weeks) I try to douche with water and a tiny bit of vinegar. That seems to work fine maintaining a fairly normal Ph balance. Any other douches shouldn't be used from what I hear, by the way, for either trans or cis women.

[Lara1969]

I am 9 months post op and usually there is no odor or a little odor if you come very close to the vagina.

I had a infection which caused a lot of odor.

I do not douche it. As every cis women a healthy environment there do not need any cleaning, it cleans itself. But I only have safe sex. It may be different if you get in contact with sperm there.

[GendrKweer]

I would just add that our anatomies are made to resemble ciswomen, but we do not have the same abilities as ciswomen, including the ability to stretch and to self-clean. Without the constant mucosal movement, self-cleaning and maintaining a proper negative Ph is impossible (unless sigmoid colon vaginoplasty was undertaken).

[Lara1969]

My gyn gave me the of a gel which is mainly used by women to ensure a negative PH. It also supports self cleaning. I use it from time to time. He also suggested not to douche the vagina because it destroyes the good bacteria biofilm. I am also always a little bit wet. And there is no odor or nearly no odor.

It maybe has to do with the mucosa I have there taken from the urethra. Self cleaning definitly works for me.

[GendrKweer]

"The pH of the neovagina of the transsexual women in our study was consistently elevated (mean 5.8; range 5.0–7.0) as compared to that of the biological vagina. This is not unexpected as the acidic pH (3.8–4.5) of the vagina results primarily from lactic acid production by the resident lactobacilli [9,10] and is further enhanced through acidification by an active proton pump action of the vaginal epithelium – a mechanism upregulated by oestrogen [11]. In our patient series however, lactobacilli were consistently lacking, with only one transsexual woman with a penile skin-lined neovagina displaying some lactobacilli. As expected, and although these women show serum oestradiol levels comparable to those in substituted postmenopausal women, the environment of this penile skin-lined neovagina, does not support the growth of lactobacilli. This might be due to the absence of glycogen rich epithelial cells and to the absence of lactobacillus epithelial binding sites that are upregulated by oestrogen in the normal vaginal mucosa."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2695466/

Worth a read.

[ainsley]

Another interesting point of note from the article GendrKweer posted:

There was no correlation between dilatation habits, having coitus, rinsing habits and malodorous vaginal discharge on the one hand and the presence of a particular species on the other hand. There was however a highly significant correlation between the presence of E. faecalis and sexual orientation: in heterosexual transsexual women (having a male partner) E. faecalis was present in 78.6% while it was only present in 14.2% of homosexual transsexual women and in 12.5% of bisexual transsexual women (p = 0.003). Equally there was a significant correlation between E. faecalis and the occurrence of regular coitus with a male partner: in those having regular coitus E. faecalis was present in 75% while in only 25% of those not having coitus (p = 0.027).

I find that a curious finding.  meh.