Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Does anyone here know the approximate length of time MTF SRS takes with Dr. Bowers?

Thank you in advance!

I know quite a few of her patients and I took a friend out to get her surgery done by her. 

      I believe the surgery is about 5 hours or so.  Then it's 4 or 5 days in the hospital, followed by a few days in a motel.  A week later, the packing comes out and you get your first followup visit and look at yourself.   A few days later, they clear you to go home.

      From arrival to departure it may be about 12 days or so, depending on your individual condition.

      If you contact her staff, they'll give you all the details.  I met them and they were super nice. 

      Dr Bowers has as great practice, is a wonderful surgeon and has great results.

Quote from: Re: Joyce on July 29, 2011, 05:39:25 PM
I know quite a few of her patients and I took a friend out to get her surgery done by her. 

      I believe the surgery is about 5 hours or so.  Then it's 4 or 5 days in the hospital, followed by a few days in a motel.  A week later, the packing comes out and you get your first followup visit and look at yourself.   A few days later, they clear you to go home.

      From arrival to departure it may be about 12 days or so, depending on your individual condition.

      If you contact her staff, they'll give you all the details.  I met them and they were super nice. 

      Dr Bowers has as great practice, is a wonderful surgeon and has great results.

Thanks! The surgery time is all I needed :) I'm already scheduled for SRS in just over 5 weeks from now!!!! : ;D

Hayley, I'm glad for you & know you are counting down the days. It's also good to see that you are using a US physician.

I guess others want to save some money by flying to another country however it seems too risky if you need assistance after the surgery. I know I will stay with an US based surgeon when my new day comes. 

My best to you, you look beautiful & I hope all goes well down in Miami.

Francis,

Dr. Bowers is in San Mateo, California.  Dr. Reed is in Miami. But thank you :). I have to say though that I don't quite agree fully. Thailand is world reknown for SRS and I would not discredit the surgeons there so quickly. Some of their techniques are better than those in the US and the only reason I did not consider one from Thailand is that my insurance is paying for my surgery, so my options are limited to US surgeons that accept insurance.

Good luck to you as well and I hope your day comes soon as well that you're happy with your choice.

Hayley,

Not sure how I connected Bowers name to Miami? It was late when I saw your thread. That is nice that your insurance is helping.

You take care & good luck again to you.

Francis

Lol, Thanks! :) They're covering 100%, I'd say they're helping quite a bit!!!!

Hayley Rivka, you are one lucky girl to have insurance that pays 100% of srs.

You are lucky indeed!  My insurance specifically excludes any treatment for transsexualism.  I can't even get them to cover plain old therapy, much less HRT or SRS. *sigh*  I'm trying to get into a better employment situation (for a LOT of different reasons), but the job market stinks right now.

Best wishes on your surgery!  :)

I am, but i'm not the only one. There are more and more insurance carriers that are starting to cover it. Many plans in different amounts. Cigna happens to, Thank God, cover it in my plan 100%.  My company had offered two different plans when we switched in January to Cigna. The "Base" plan and the "Buy-up" plan. I'm thankful that I thought ahead and considered that should Dr. Bowers ACTUALLY be In-Network it would pay to get the "Buy-up" plan, and I was right. If I had gone with the Base plan I would have had to shell out about 20% of the costs. With the Buy-up, In-Network is covered 100%!! I had to pay my $500 annual deductible which I had to pay anyhow for reserving a date with Dr. Bowers.

HRC has a list of insurance carriers that cover trans-related procedures. Much of it is BCBS of various states, Cigna is there as well as Aetna (though they mention only very select plans allow for it.) I was initially approved by Guardian Health Insurance but that was going no where since the surgeon was out of network and the carrier refused to say how much would be covered, until a claim was submitted. Dr. Bowers office obviously would not bank on that and required I pre-pay the entire thing and get  a refund minus the insurance payment.

Either way to get approved and have it mean something takes dozens and dozens of phone calls with lots of follow up. I was also lucky that Cigna had a Client Advocate team that seriously went to bat for me and I owe the team leader a lot for it!! He stepped on a lot of toes and went out of his way above and beyond the call of duty to do what was necessary. He even gave me his personal cell phone number to reach him for updates when out of the office!!!!!

That man is a saint!

Be persistent and dont give up when they say NO!!!!

Hi Hayley,

Can you tell me more about how to reach this Client Advocate team?
I'm with Cigna, and no one has mentioned this to me.
I'm having issues getting the right paperwork to the right people, and time is running out before my surgery.

Eve