Considering Thai GCS: Should I get genital laser or electrolysis anyway?

[scrambledeggs]

I understand that hair removal isn't required for most reputable Thai surgeons. However, after hearing complaints about women with hair in their vaginas anyway I'm thinking it might be better to do it anyway.

Will I be turned down by Dr. Bank or Dr. Chettawut if I have hair removal beforehand? Are there any downsides to do this?

[Hoku]

I understand that hair removal isn't required for most reputable Thai surgeons. However, after hearing complaints about women with hair in their vaginas anyway I'm thinking it might be better to do it anyway.

Will I be turned down by Dr. Bank or Dr. Chettawut if I have hair removal beforehand? Are there any downsides to do this?

No, they won't turn you down if you've had hair removal beforehand. I've been lucky and not had any hair in there really besides one random strand that popped up. Electrolysis is extremely painful for some people in that region not to mention time consuming. It can take years to effectively remove it all because the hair grows in cycles and thermolosis doesn't have a 100% reduction rate. I tried to do it; I couldn't. It was excruciatingly painful, time consuming, expensive, and not many electrolysists in my area would perform hair removal there.

I had to go to a neighboring state. I'm too blonde for laser, so I had no other options than to find a surgeon that offered it without hair removal before hand. It's something you may want to consider, but I personally believe hair in the vagina is something that is overblown. My surgeon had told me that it's rare with Scrotal skin grafting, but that penile inversion is far more likely to have hair without removal before hand. If you want penile inversion, then I'd suggest doing it.

[Brooke]

I would add that scraping works best on thicker hairs. That means if you've done laser and/or electrolysis but don't have complete hair removal it can cause the follicle scraping to be much less effective. That being said if you're up for the time and money commitment electrolysis is still the safest way to go if you want guaranteed hair removal.

[Casady]

I understand that hair removal isn't required for most reputable Thai surgeons. However, after hearing complaints about women with hair in their vaginas anyway I'm thinking it might be better to do it anyway.

Will I be turned down by Dr. Bank or Dr. Chettawut if I have hair removal beforehand? Are there any downsides to do this?

I looked into this and Dr Chettawut's website says:

"Dr. Chettawut do not suggest the genital hair removal on either penis or scrotum before sex reassignment surgery as either electrolysis or laser hair removal can induce post-inflammatory reaction which causes skin to become thick or have less elasticity.
The ideal skin being used in SRS operation should be appropriately thin and pliable so any procedure which may impact the quality of your original skin should be avoided.
There is only one area of skin which Dr. Chettawut allows the patients to consider hair removal before SRS which is the perineal skin (the skin between anus and base of scrotum as shown in the figure).
If you have a lot of perineal hair, it is possible that there will be some hair growth around the vaginal opening after SRS as Dr. Chettawut uses this skin to become the floor of vaginal opening.
The hair around vaginal opening can be potentially pushed further inside the vaginal canal and oftentimes misinterpreted as hair growth from the skin graft."

I guess it applies to other surgeons using similar technique, but wouldn't think you'd be turned away if you have been cleared.