Sloughing inner skin pain?

[lilacwoman]

Can any post-ops offer any insights onto the chance that pain and bleedings and inability to use dilators might be due to the new vagina's inner skin transforming from being outer skin from penis, scrotum or a free graft?

As we know that if we wear thick wooly socks and shoes in hot weather we get lots of soft soggy skin between our toes and if we have to wear a plaster or bandage for a few days the skin under it gets soft and puffy and eventually peels off so is this what happens inside a new vagina where the skin has to go through a long process of getting used to being wet and gets soft and shed to expose nerves until it is eventually replaced by new skin more suited to being inside?

[FairyGirl]

The skin on the inside does slough off as it becomes inside skin. If you look inside with a speculum you will see it in there like sticky white paste. It might appear to be an infection but it isn't and its very natural. As it absorbs moisture and gets wetter it will naturally remove itself, one of the reasons I'm still wearing sanitary pads at 10 weeks post-op. It has no smell other than slightly smelling like, well, girl parts, but that's natural too. There is no pain associated with it. The only pain I've felt on the inside is from using the larger dilator, but none from the skin transformation itself. It's like it knows what it's new function is supposed to be and takes up it's new assignment naturally. It's an amazing thing.

There is pain where there is scar tissue around where the skin graft is attached, but that is from extreme tightness. I've split the skin in the front inside a few times trying to insert the large dilator and that hurts, but going backwards isn't an option so we smile through the pain and keep going

[Cruelladeville]

A healthy neo-vagina will shed skin cells forever....

However if you dilate regularly...it will just like with regular women translate into white creamy deposits....

But you should douche regularly too; I normally do this when in a warm bath relaxing...

And if you're having sex with man, as in a full-time relationship, then they obviously leave organic deposits in you fairly often in my case...lol... so another reason to keep uber-clean...

But there should be no pain with this.... discomfort or internal bleeding is a sign of infection or damage.... and this will mean a visit to a medic...

[katgirl74]

At four months, I am still wearing pads as things continue to heal and get accustomed to their new places. I haven't had any pain from the skin sloughing, in fact I have had little or no pain throughout the whole process. Some doctors recommend douching, while others strongly recommend against it in order to maintain the healthy bacteria that helps keep bad bacteria in check. Consult your doctor prior to deciding whether or not to douche. Mine recommends against it, as do many GYNs.

[Kristyn]

There is pain where there is scar tissue around where the skin graft is attached, but that is from extreme tightness. I've split the skin in the front inside a few times trying to insert the large dilator and that hurts, but going backwards isn't an option so we smile through the pain and keep going

So, when you experience bleeding from dilating, is the blood coming from that grafted area?

[FairyGirl]

So, when you experience bleeding from dilating, is the blood coming from that grafted area?

hmmm no, it was just inside where the inside skin is growing into the outside skin and so is easy to tear if I'm not careful. I'm not having much bleeding now, but I'm also doing extra dilations which seems to have helped.

I didn't ever have bleeding inside where the skin graft ring is, as the inside has healed up well and I'm very pleased with the results. It's just very tight and stretching those pelvic muscles with the large dilator hurts! That's where the pain is from the muscles being so tight, but it seems to be getting better with the extra dilating. This has nothing to do with the skin sloughing off inside, which is painless.

And dilating isn't always painful, sometimes it's actually not bad at all

[Nigella]

Hi there,

This is off topic a little but I was wondering if tightness around the opening is due to the elasticity of the skin we have. For obvious reasons the more elastic and pliable your natural skin is the better it will be for dilation. I only had to have a penile inversion because the surgeon said my skin has elasticity and could be stretched very well. This has proved to be the case in dilation with no problem either. I've yet to go to 3 as the hospital only gave me 1 and 2 and said they wanted to see how I have healed in two weeks time before I can go larger.

This was just a thought and I might well be wrong when I up grade to 3 and 4, lol.

Stardust

[FairyGirl]

it was much easier at first and got more difficult as it all began to shrink, which it really wants to do as the healing process gets further along. This was at about 8 weeks for me I think. The only real pain I have is with the largest which is 3.81 cm (1.5") diameter and 11.94 cm (4.7") circumference. I save that one for later in the day, no way for the first session in the morning just forget it! lol But I just keep remembering what Katgirl said about going backward not being an option, which is very good advice.

[katgirl74]

So, when you experience bleeding from dilating, is the blood coming from that grafted area?

The bleeding comes, like Chloe said, from the Vaginal opening. To my knowledge, non of the bleeding has come from inside. I had the additional issue of a bit of granulation tissue all around my vaginal opening. While I don't think it affected tightness or my ability to dilate, I think it probably bled a bit more than those without granulation issues. The bleeding has typically been very very minor, and stops pretty quickly, barely enough to be of any real concern at all. For me the hardest time was after I went back to work, coming home after 10 or more hours away, working the largest dilator was no fun, but like I said before and Chloe repeated, I worked through it and never backed down.

[lilacwoman]

Dr Bieber told his patients that the ring would likely bleed and maybe pop a stitch or two. 
Can any recent operatees say if this is what todays surgeons have said to them?

[Kristyn]

Dr Bieber told his patients that the ring would likely bleed and maybe pop a stitch or two. 
Can any recent operatees say if this is what todays surgeons have said to them?

I'm pretty sure the scrotal skin is grafted as opposed to stitched nowadays

[katgirl74]

Even with the grafting, I believe there is still some stitching involved, but the technique has probably changed significantly over the years. I was never warned about any internal stitch popping.