Hi all,
This is my first post. I've been looking through the site for about a year now and it's been so helpful so I wanted to share information that hopefully is helpful to other people. As a really quick introduction, I'm a Mama Bear to my beautiful 21 year old trans daughter. This week we went to New York for consultations with Dr. Bluebond-Langner at NYU and at Mt. Sinai to discuss GCS and BA. Any opinions are, of course, just our opinions but hopefully someone will find this helpful.
We first started trying to request a consultation with Dr. B-L in May 2017. NYU's response to the on-line form is not as fast as they claim (when you request an appointment the auto reply says you will receive a response in one business day). The first time we requested, we never heard from them. We submitted the form a second time in June and missed the call (which was more than one day later). Finally we submitted the form again in September and connected on the response. We booked a consult for January 2018. That was first available. Four months out.
I then decided to try to book a consult with Dr. Ting at Mt. Sinai to coincide with the Dr. B-L consult to make the most of the trip. I contacted them in October and their response was faster. They could have seen us in December but I asked for January to coordinate the two.
Before going into the actual trip report, just wanted to say that Mt. Sinai was much more communicative leading up to the visit - sharing a mini schedule and asking for photocopy of my daughter's ID and insurance card. NYU said they would be sending an email closer to the date but they did not. It got a little hairy at the end and we had no response to multiple voice mail messages we left for them. In the end, I used the appointment request form to ask that someone please confirm the appointment and email us any forms. This did work but that meant we received the forms the day before the appointment. In these forms was information on what the letters should include. We already knew that and had her letters ready but for someone else, this could've been a problem.
OK - so here we go. NYU Plastic Surgery office - it is a modern building on the ground floor. The waiting area was actually kind of small, maybe room for 16-17 people to sit but when we were there (mid-day) there were about 20+ people waiting so it was pretty tight. Our appointment was for 12:30. We arrived early and were actually called back at 11:55. Vitals were taken - blood pressure, temperature, asked for height/weight, allergies, meds, any previous surgeries. Dr. B-L and Dr. Zhao came in after that, about 12:10 p.m. Dr. B-L explained the procedure they use, talked about length of hospital stay, etc., the basics. We asked questions about BA (cannot be done at same time as GCS but is an outpatient surgery with an overnight stay - can be scheduled "anytime"). GCS surgery is scheduling in 2019. Dr. B-L and Dr. Zhao have been doing GCS together for over a year now, two-three a week. Dr. B-L has been performing these surgeries for three years. NYU's BMI cut off is 35 but healing will be better/easier if BMI is lower. We asked for photos and she brought a number of photos for us to see. All look like normal vaginas! Dr Zhao says sexual function is Excellent! (he was very enthusiastic in that response). Use of the robot helps with better visualization. After questions, I left the room and the Drs did a brief exam of my daughter and asked a few more questions about sexual history. We were finished a little after 12:30. While the appointment was short, we did not feel rushed, we had all questions answered, and had a great feeling about the doctors and NYU. I didn't know Dr. Zhao would also be there and was very glad he was. They are clearly a team.
The next day we went to Mt. Sinai. We were scheduled for three hours of consultations! The waiting area at Mt. Sinai is not as shiny and new as NYU but there was more space, so definitely not a crowded feeling. It is an LGBTQ+ Center, so definitely very welcoming. (NYU was completely welcoming as well). Our first consult was with Ida Hammer, Social Worker. She was very friendly and asked a number of questions such as, Why are you looking at Mt. Sinai, Why do you want surgery, How long have you been on hormones, Allergies? Surgeries? How long RLE, What is your understanding of the surgery - including the potential risks, What are your expectations, What is your living situation, Do you have friends/family/loved ones supporting your transition, etc. She talked a bit about recovery timeline, follow up visits, needs for housing/transportation, etc. This was about 30 minutes and then we went...back to the waiting room.
About 20 minutes later we were called back to have my daughter's vitals taken - bp, temp, weight, height. Then...back to the waiting room.
About 30 minutes later we were called back and met with Jim Eckert, Physician Asst. who asked "What can we do for you?" Now, this is when my daughter really started to get annoyed. I think it's great that everyone is trying to meet your needs but this is now the third person in an hour and a half asking the same questions. Allergies? Meds? Hormones? RLE? How did you hear about Mt. Sinai? You need letters (we have letters, we told the first lady we had letters. Oh really? Yes). At this time, they would do a blood test and urine test (including HIV and drug screen) but my daughter denied. We told him, again, we are here on a consult, we are deciding who to go with. Fine. Then, he mentioned that it is NY State law that MtF must sign a sterilization consent before this surgery - informing people of their rights. That's good to know, but again that was something my daughter did not want to do right now because - consultation. A few more small things - brief check up heart, lungs, etc. Then he asked if we had any questions. I said that I had questions for Dr. Ting but I guess we weren't going to meet him? Eckert said that was correct, we would not meet Dr. Ting but he could answer the questions. We asked a few but frankly, we didn't ask that many because for us, the point of a surgeon consult is to speak with the surgeon. Eckert did say that Dr. Ting has performed over 400 procedures. He started doing GCS two years ago. Prior to that he was a breast reconstructive surgeon. He is training a Dr. Avenessian (sp?) and in July she will start doing surgeries solo. Eckert says Ting does 2-3 vaginoplasty (inc. revisions) per week; 2-3 BAs per week, and approximately 1 FtM surgery per week. Mt. Sinai's BMI cut off is 33. Surgery is done at Beth Israel Hospital. Didn't see any pictures but also didn't ask for any. Then...back to the waiting room.
After another 40 minutes waiting we met with Hansel Arroyo, Psychiatrist where he, you guessed it, asked all the same questions all over again. Why do you want surgery? Why Mt. Sinai? Hormones? RLE? Surgeries? etc. He then started probing on my daughter's history with anxiety and depression and I had to step in and ask him to stop because he was getting close to triggering my daughter's trauma and she is not his patient and he knows nothing about her. He then was talking about needing the letters and he could write a letter and again I had to say that we had the required letters and one was faxed to them ahead of time and the other I had in my hand and tried to keep giving to people. He finally took it. I mentioned again that I found this process very odd because we had requested consultation and then he says, Oh, you're still looking around? I thought you were decided on Mt. Sinai. No. We are hear for a consult - again, no reason to keep pushing my daughter about the roots of her depression. This was the most awkward of all the meetings at Mt. Sinai and really unecessary for someone just doing consultations and trying to get information on the surgeon and the surgery. I can see how this "one stop" shop with everything in one place is great, especially if you haven't had those resources, but for us it was overkill and unnecessary and unfortunately really put my daughter off.
So, in the end, we have decided to go with Dr. B-L at NYU. They are supposed to call in the next few days and hoping to have a firm date on the calendar soon. Sorry if this was too long but hope it was helpful in providing some more information about this part of the process.
