Australia to Montreal for Surgery

[Lydia]

Hi All,

I'm seriously considering going to see Brassard for surgery and was curious if anyone else here has made the trip from Australia. I'd like to know how you found the return flight. I think it's going to be approximately 24 hours in the air plus stopovers in the States.

Thx Sarah

[KJS MOM]

Hi,
Can you tell me how you choose where to have your surgery done?  I want the best in the country (USA or Canada) for my MtF child. Did you get personal references?  How does one go about finding the best surgeon for SRS?  This mother is clueless, but we are seeing Dr. Reed in Miami, since it is close to us.  Sorry to off topic, but does anyone have any horror stories about him? Should I be on another forum for this?

PS: used to live in Montreal - great place!

[MCMCyn]

I may get reprimanded for posting something negative, but I'll take my chances.

I have heard a lot of disappointing results about Dr Reed. The words I've heard are basically that he can create the cavity, but it is basically just that, a cavity that's not very deep and is non-orgasmic.

I had no dealings with Dr Reed personally, but when I was doing my homework/research, this was the general consenus I was given.

[KJS MOM]

I may get reprimanded for posting something negative, but I'll take my chances.

I have heard a lot of disappointing results about Dr Reed. The words I've heard are basically that he can create the cavity, but it is basically just that, a cavity that's not very deep and is non-orgasmic.

I had no dealings with Dr Reed personally, but when I was doing my homework/research, this was the general consenus I was given.

OMG, thank you for taking a chance and telling me!  I'll have to do my homework,too, I guess.  Can you tell me who is good in the US?? I guess I am enabling as my MtF child should do the homework, but I always helped him (her) write term papers in school, too!    

[MCMCyn]

I've heard great things about Dr Meltzer (Arizona) and good things about Dr Bowers (Colorado). I elected to go with Dr Brassard in Montreal and was extremely pleased.

If you would like, you can contact me off the list and I'll gladly answer any questions

Don't go bargain basement shopping, and do your homework. This proceedure can only be done once. Read up, talk to people and get the pros & cons on all of the doctors. Doing your home work is very important and will be well worth it in the big picture.

[Sheila]

Lydia,
   I traveled from Eugene, Oregon, USA to Bangkok for my surgery. It was around 23 hours. The trip over was exciting but on the way back, if you can, I would try to get an upgrade in your seating. I did the cheap seats and I made it back OK but trying to get out to use the restroom was no small chore. I think that if I did it again I would try to upgrade for the trip back. Lot more comfortable in the first class or that other class. I had a ring but used the pillows instead. We made only two stops coming back and that was Tokyo and San Francisco.

[michelle_h]

I went to Dr. Brassard for srs, happy with the depth & sensitivity.  However cosmetically the results need to be fixed.

I asked Dr. Suporn about improving the cosmetics while I'm there for ffs. 

Here's the comments about my results from Dr. Brassard:  I have spoken with Dr Suporn now, who says that he can make some minor improvements as far as he can see – but nothing major. You do not have much surplus material left with which to make any major cosmetic improvements. His primary observation is that your clitoris hood is too big, and unnaturally shaped, and that the clitoris itself seems unusually large and unnatural. He can probably reconstruct the labia minora to be more realistic and full, but based on the pictures alone at this stage he is cautious about being precise about what can be done – and what might be less appropriate.

I'm also going back to Dr. Brassard to see if he can do anything.

Michelle

[Keira]

Usually, cosmetic fixes are easier to do than functional ones.
As for what's "usual", seems that there are tons of variation
even in normal vagina's an we're much more "perfectionists" than
even nature is...

I doubt 99.9% of guys would notice a difference either way
unless its mega botched up.

As for the clitoris being to large, I thought I heard Brassard actually
gave options on how large we wanted it? Or am I wrong about this?

[michelle_h]

Hi Keira,

I agree there's a fair bit of variation, so I tried a little experiment.

I took images of post op surgical results off the web from Anne Lawrence, one image from this site provided by Steph, Dr. Suporn's club, and anywhere I could find them.  I combined those images in no particular order on a page with a natal female and a couple shots of my results.

Picked a few of my very close guy friends that I know have seen their fair share and paid attention to the female anatomy.  I asked them to rate the images from most to least realistic and tell me why.  I told them the images were all post op surgical results, even the natal one, they also didn't know I was represented in that group of images, nor did they know I wasn't totally thrilled with the cosmetic appearance of my results.  I've never mentioned it.

I realize that the images on the web aren't necessarily the best representation of any particular surgeons work, however I wanted to know what they thought of my results and there's no way I would get honest feedback if I just showed them and asked.

The rating on my result from each guy:  not realistic to marginal (too bad for me).  So in the end is the result botched?  Everything works fine and sex feels great, so not totally botched.  Just not as good as I hoped for.  The image provided by Steph on this site is a Dr. Brassard result and I don't look like that.  To future boyfriends:  No peeking, just get busy!!

In all fairness to Dr. Brassard, he told me a skin graft may be needed since I didn't have much to work with.  I gave him the ok to do so, he didn't use one in the end.  That's good in one way, however I suspect that impacted the cosmetic appearance of my result.  I should have stressed depth, functionality and appearance.  I'll bet he would have told me, not going to happen!

Options on how big the clitoris is, no options were given to me.  The three that went through at the same time as me didn't mention anything like that, so I don't know.

Prior to surgery, I was lucky enough to see real results (not just images) of Dr. Brassard's work and was happy with what I saw, but even that's somewhat misleading when trying to make a decision of who to pick (as I found out).  I know Dr. Suporn uses a different technique which I'm well aware get's huge raves and in my case he may have been a better choice for me, but no guarantee and also not an option at all during that point in my life or foreseeable future for that matter. 

If you're lucky enough to speak with and possibly see in person surgical results (I know that's a bit weird) that may help narrow the field in surgeon choice.

Surgical results vary depending on the original donor material and surgeon.

If I were to do this over again,  once I've narrowed my list of surgeons down I would ask the surgeon: Based on what I have to work with, can you show me an image or give me a very clear idea of a possible outcome?

I'm sure a surgeon has a pretty good idea of what the end result will be like based on the starting material. 

Overall I'm still pretty happy and of course no one wants to go for revisions, I'm not the first or last regardless of surgeon.  Thankfully these revisions are strictly cosmetic, and now I have money which means options.

Michelle

[Keira]

One thing people rarely mention is complication rate, for me, that and functional aspects
on a first go is the most crucial things. Cosmetic, can be fixed with money (they
can fix the nose 2-3 times which is 20x harder to fix properly).

Another thing, never ask a cosmetic surgery patient about a recommendation
about their own surgeon. You'll never get a straight answer out of them
even if their results is not optimal. That happens in all cosmetic surgery,
not just SRS. People don't want to admit that they made a mistake,
even when they didn't (since cosmetic surgery is not an exact science
and it has to compete with expectations which are often not realistic).