Question about Thailand SRS

[lilacwoman]

Why does Suporn have a longer recovery time?  What does he do that's so different - or does he just recommend a longer recovery for similar procedure?

well the piece on him that I saw did state he can use up to 550 stitches so that must take an awful long time to perform...but where the heck can he put them all?  It gives the impression the inside is made of nothing but stitches.
The inside bits which have been cut about will take a long time to heal as everything stays wet unlike outside which heals in about 4 days...plus using the stents will stretch everything and tend to open stitches...I have had two deep surgeries on my lower abdomen and they both healed solid in 4 days.

[Dinky_Di]

Has anyone checked in the possibility of staying at a local Buddhist temple (Wat)?

Can't say I did.  You need to remember you aren't on an adventure holiday but recovering from major surgery so you need to be somewhere you are comfortable.  You will be spending lots of time dilating and the rest taking it easy recuperating so staying in a Wat may not be real suitable.  I personally like the beach so elected to move to a hotel on the coast of Phuket where I could relax and take it easy.  But each her own.

[peggygee]

The only thing that drives me nuts, is trying to figure out total costs.  Airfare is easy, but some have a long stay in the hospital and others have you stay in a room off property.

Where can a girl get a price.

Ideally at all possible whenever I travel, and I am going to be in a country or a city for a prolonged
period I like to rent an Apart-hotel, serviced apartment, extended stay hotel, or the like.

I get the flexibility of an apartment with the service of a hotel. I can cook all of my meals, which is a
cost savings. Apart-hotels tend to be roomier, and have more amenities than a regular hotel. And
over-all I have that "home away from home" feeling.

And the real beauty is that apart-hotels aren't necessarily very pricey.

One chain that I like when I'm in Bangkok is http://www.centrepoint.com/

Alongst those same lines in many countries, one can rent apartments for a month or more, live like
a native, and split the costs with your friends or family.

[Janet_Girl]

Thank You Peggygee.

I also found http://www.rent4room.com/ .  Which along the same lines.

[Britney♥Bieber]

My bestie and I were also looking at Suporns results and were amazed. My other friend is really against going to Thailand for surgery. He's set on them messing me up, but it's just an option. I'm far away from SRS =/

[lilacwoman]

suporn and other surgeons sites have info on local places.

[peggygee]

Thank You Peggygee.

I also found http://www.rent4room.com/ .  Which along the same lines.

Thanks, I've bookmarked this. 

[jade]

Go Kunaporn!!!!!!

He did both my 2nd boobjob and final srs revision in June this year, he is a great surgeon 

He does not lie, he does not overcharge (in fact, he tries to save you money), he deals with you personally, he is approachable, he listens and he cares.

I like his ethics and aesthetics 

And Phuket was amazing, so much better than the overcrowded and dirty Bangkok.

[Dinky_Di]

Go Kunaporn!!!!!!

He did both my 2nd boobjob and final srs revision in June this year, he is a great surgeon 

He does not lie, he does not overcharge (in fact, he tries to save you money), he deals with you personally, he is approachable, he listens and he cares.

I like his ethics and aesthetics 

And Phuket was amazing, so much better than the overcrowded and dirty Bangkok.

Yep I agree, kudos for Dr Kunaporn. 

The only doctor I have ever had who has taken the time to pull up a chair beside the bed, sit down and chew the fat for the next half hour.

[Britney♥Bieber]

I bookmarked his website for further reading once I'm closer to srs! Thanks for the recommendation!!

[Susan T]

I have just returned from Thailand where I had SRS and FFS with PAI.  Dr Preecha did my facial work while his assistant Dr Burin did the SRS. I am more than pleased with the results so fa., The facial work was excellent and I have a well formed (all be it swollen) Vulva which is sensate and has a vaginal depth of 7 inches. The total cost for this was just under $14000. I know that  Jade has had problems with PAI  and to be honest I was surprised by the way that they treated her, but I would caution you that you may have complications with any procedure. Most of my friends have been to Suporn or Chettawut and almost all have required at least one revision, so complications are not the domain of any single surgeon. Its also worth remembering that Suporn Kunaporn and Chettawut learned their trade by working for Preecha. I did not go to PAI blindly, I had bee accepted by Chettawut but my gender specialist told m,e to keep clear because of the very high number of serious complications that he had observed in his patients. He suggested that I go to Preecha or Suporn. However, Suporn has hiked his prices so much that I wouldn't go to him out of principle and 4 of my friends had been to Preecha and spoke highly of his work I decided that I would go to him. Although I must admit Jades after reading Jades post I was a little nervous. As for Kunaporn, his technique involves an extended recovery time due to the fact that he does not graft the vaginal skin until several days after SRS. I should also point out that he also has his share of unhappy patients who feel that he has treated them badly.

[MTH]

I had bee accepted by Chettawut but my gender specialist told m,e to keep clear because of the very high number of serious complications that he had observed in his patients.

What's the name of your gender specialist?

[Cruelladeville]

I found this today...

A useful...ish overview of all doing gender reassignment work....

http://www.gendercare.com/testes/srs_surveyresults.html

[Susan T]

I found this today...

A useful...ish overview of all doing gender reassignment work....

http://www.gendercare.com/testes/srs_surveyresults.html

Dr Richard Curtis. Of the LOndon Gender Clinic. He is a FTM himself and took over from Russell Reid, who was disciplined by the GMC for using the standards of care as guidelines rather than rules.

[Susan T]

Dr Richard Curtis. Of the LOndon Gender Clinic. He is a FTM himself and took over from Russell Reid, who was disciplined by the GMC for using the standards of care as guidelines rather than rules.

The problem with that survey is that it's based upon such a small sample. e.g. Marcie Bowers gets a nine based upon the opinion of just one person. 

[jade]

Hi Susan,

First of all, I'd like to congratulate you and wish you lots of healing.

I realise this new topic is about someone else but since my personal account is mentioned briefly, I feel that I have to clear up things on my behalf.

First of all, I have no intentions to ruin Dr. Preecha's reputation or cause anyone to feel anxious.
At the end of the day, its your body and your life, therefore it becomes your choice.

I just want people to be very cautious about their choice.

The time that I went to Dr. Preecha (2004), he had better reviews than other surgeons so I thought he would be a more stable option than trying to encounter newish surgeons who would grow to be more popular in the recent years.

I have been to him twice for revisions after my original SRS in 2004 so I had dealings with PAI between 2004-2009.

And these were not cosmetic revisions because I am vain or anything, they were functional revisions only.

In 2007, I had my first revision (at Pivayet Hospital) which turned out to have no improvement.

Last revision (July 2009 at Pivayet Hospital again), I don't know how he managed it but Dr. Burin left me with a massive labial tear and I lost depth too.

I could not sit on my ass for a month, I was in pain and had to use steroid cream prescribed by Dr. Simon Ceber.

That's when I realised, each time things are getting worse and worse with this clinic.

When I was in Thailand, Dr. Chettawutt would not even touch my SRS job in terms of giving me a revision.

I had to see Dr. Thiti Chaovanalikit from Bangkok Gender Clinic for a 3rd revision in Dec' 2009.

That revision helped with the labial tear but caused some unnecessary scar tissue which narrowed my width around the entry.

So I had to save up again one last time, take my sister with me and see Dr. Kunaporn in Phuket.

Dr. Kunaporn examined me and he knew what had to be done, he said there is only way to fix it, it was releasing my scar stricture with skin grafts taken from labia majora.

And thank god, I would say it is %90 better, he also repaired my widened entry from previous damage.
Cosmetically, things have improved as well. My vagina looks similar to his current work on his website now.
I can dilate with #3 from my own set which is 3.5 cm in diameter and have a depth 4-5".

I have had 4, yes not just 1 or 2, 4 SRS related revisions in total!

I have wasted so much time, emotion and money on one choice that would affect my life.

Because of my experience with PAI, I have suffered major depression and have received counselling from a clinical psychologist who has experience in transgender matters.

I have photos to prove my case and I have been in touch with PAI over these years.
The last thing I heard from them was a plain 'sorry' in an e-mail from Dr. Burin Wang, not even from PAI.

They have refused to give me any compensation or a refund.

If this medical malpractice happened in Australia, I could have taken them to court, won my case and I would have enough funds to get as many revisions as I like.

The amount of money that I have spent on plane tickets, hotels, revisions, recovery & downtime; I could have had a make-over from head to toe twice.

I feel that my vagina is patchwork, or a post-modern work of art, not because it is imperfect, simply because it has been through the wars.

These days, I am just trying to focus on improving myself and my life in other ways.

Thailand is a beautiful country; however, I personally don't ever want to go to Thailand (unless I really have to), I don't want to have any more revisions.

And I would like people to really take their time and make a wise choice because mine turned out to be a very expensive one both financially and emotionally.

Finally, I wish everyone all the best on their journey because I believe all of us deserve to live the happy lives we always wanted.

Love,

Jade

[Susan T]

Jade
I fully understand where you are coming from and I can only sympathise with the situation that you found yourself in. I think the problem is that if you go half way around the world for surgery and things go wrong, it's not that easy to get things put right. All surgeons have their own horror stories, For some you Thai surgeons you have to dig deep because they are covered up by their "fan clubs" who will not publicly own up to the problems that they are having, which quite frankly is unhelpful for those that follow. I am pleased that you were able to finally obtain the corrections that you required from Dr Kunaporn. However it is very easy to find evidence of his mistakes eghttp://www.intersexualite.org/Nicole.html. Does this make Kunaporn a bad Surgeon? ... Of course not. I think in choosing a surgeon it is important to know of the failures but to balance those against the numbers of people who get the outcome that they desire. When you go for any type of surgery you are playing a percentage game and sometimes you lose. I know from experience of a previous facial surgery in Europe that went horrendously wrong and had to be treated here in the UK.  The surgeon who preformed my surgery was a well respected professor of plastic surgery but I developed complications that he couldn't put right by long distance. Some of those were only corrected in the recent surgery by Dr Preecha.

I am completely happy with Preecha and Burin's work and believe me I was worried after reading  your comments just a few days before I was due to fly out. The only problem that I seem to be having is Hypersensitivity  of the neoclitoris and anything touching the top 1/3rd of the outer labia is extremely uncomfortable. I am told that this will settle down in time and for now I am accepting that as a fact and hoping that the time will come soon

[jade]

@ Susan T,

I am glad to hear you had a good experience. My experience goes back to 2004 when i had my original SRS.

The way the clinic works might have changed. My last two visits to them were in 2007 and 2009.

After receiving a major vaginal tear as a complication when i was there to fix my original problem, i swore not to ever go back to Dr. Preecha and his team again.

Since my SRS in 2004, i had 2 revisions to my SRS at PAI (both failed to correct the problem), one with Dr. Thiti Chaovanalikit at Bangkok Gender Clinic, and my last one with Dr. Kunaporn in Phuket. These 4 revisions were necessary for physical functioning, they were not out of vanity.
My final and last revision with Dr. Kunaporn has been the most satisfactory, i would say i am mostly cured even though i have a painful spot around the entry and sometimes get vaginal bleeding from the end of my vagina.

The whole experience of living with complications, having a partner, draining my savings to arrange more trips to go back to Thailand to have more surgery took its toll on me, my emotions and my financial situation.

I never regretted my SRS but i regret having gone to PAI everyday, the money that was spent on revisions, i could have gone to someone like Dr. Suporn and had a designer vagina.

Having mentioned all of this, I am not the only person i know that had issues. I have known 6 other post-op trans women who had their nightmare like experience with that clinic. One of them was from the U.S. who i kept in touch with occasionally and she was contemplating suicide last time i spoke to her because she could barely put her thumb in her new equipment, she was severely depressed. One was a very close former friend who was seeking revision at the clinic because her vagina had the typical 'U' shape, opened wide and had trouble with very excessive erectile tissue popping out like a golf ball and had issues involving width/girth with her sexual partners.

I have not heard of any excellent one-stage results that are so natural you can't tell from that clinic.

I was over the moon too when i had my srs done, it was only when i started to run into post-op complications
because i was uneducated about the risks and maintenance of this procedure due to lack of information and dilation instruments by the clinic.
It's their responsibility to provide a full set of dilators in increments instead of providing one tiny wax candle.

Looking back, i was very young, i don't think i rushed into SRS because i was desperate for it but i did make the wrong choice of surgeon.
I realise no surgeon is infallible, almost all these surgeons we discuss on this forums has at least one or two negative reviews about them on the internet but the fact that the clinic brushed off my issues, and kept charging me for unsuccessful solutions and giving me further complications is what  made me go and write the reviews / comments i did because none else paid the price with their health and mental state but me, only ME.

However, i have been focusing on other aspects of my life and trying to be as positive as i can and i am happy for those who had a great experience regardless of who they went to.

Good luck to all.

[tekla]

if you go half way around the world for surgery and things go wrong, it's not that easy to get things put right.

That would be my only concern, but it's a really big concern.

[Anatta]

Kia Ora,

I just thought some might find this interesting..It's a video clip[NZ 20-20 programme] about a Kiwi girl "Rachael" who had her surgery performed in Thailand in Phuket by Dr Kunaporn...

If you're squeamish about blood and surgical procedures  I recommend parental supervision 

Enjoy  http://tvnz.co.nz/view/video_popup_windows_skin/679596?bandwidth=56k

Metta Zenda  

BTW After notes...This video clip was shoot in 2006... Petra's no longer with her American boyfriend  Malcolm and Rachael returned to Phuket a year later to have a colonvaginoplasty [she wanted more depth]...