I am a Spiegel patient and post-op I realize his approach is too conservative for my taste or needs.
I had the following procedures with him: Forehead recontouring with brow lift and reshaping of my orbital rims; feminizing rhinoplasty; cheek implants, upper lip lift; and, jaw and chin recontouring.
Of all the procedures the only one I am happy with the results of is the forehead recontouring (and even so, I wish he had positioned my brows slightly higher and taken my oribital rims back a bit further, but I can live with what he did.) The upper lip lift I feel neutral about. All of the rest I am actively seeking revisions of, most likely with Dr. Zukowski (who was my second choice initially and I am reconsulting with him in a few days.)
Personally I think my cheeks should be stronger, my jaw and chin weaker and my nose, well, my nose is a disaster. As a number of people have commented to me it somehow now looks larger and more masculine than it did before. Partially because of the angle he set it at.
Other comments I have recieved post-op include:
* "You look more trans now than you did before." - Therapist
* "I thought he was going to do something with your chin and jaw?" - Colleague
* "You've gone from a guy who could easily pass as a woman to a woman who could easily pass as a guy" - Friend
* "You don't look bad." - Family member (not exactly the same as "you look good.")
Also, a colleague who last saw me years ago, pre-HRT, with much shorter hair and much more weight, immediately recognized me when he saw me: Telling me I either look much the same facially, or, like my therapist said, look more trans than I do female.
Dr. Spiegel is right for many people, but in hindsight, he and his ultraconservative approach, that can leave one looking quite androgynous, was very wrong for me. I should add that he operates out of Boston Medical Center, a teaching hospital, and that their level of customer service is not what I would describe as top drawer. Similarly, I have felt Dr. Spiegel's staff are a challenge to work with. Post-op follow ups seem welcomed but not exactly encouraged: You need to reach out to them. If you are unhappy with your results Spiegel has a good reputation for doing revisions. I am only opting to go with someone else because I no longer trust him given the range and depth of what I feel to be shortcomings in the work performed on me.
You might consider having a consult with each surgeon personally or via Skype and collecting feedback from as many patients as possible before making a decision as to which surgeon is best for you. Like was mentioned, each surgeon uses a different technique and will generate different results. For example: I ultimately chose Spiegel for my first round of FFS because I preferred his technical approach to foreheads and brows over the endoscopic approach used by Dr. Zukowski.
