Community Conversation => Transitioning => Gender Correction Surgery => Topic started by: tatiana on January 22, 2012, 04:13:56 PM Return to Full Version

Title: In vitro vagina tissue transplantation?
Post by: tatiana on January 22, 2012, 04:13:56 PM
I was just reading up on the internet and I thought, why wouldn't it be possible for a neo-vagina to be created from issue from the male genitalia tissue?

In this article, vaginal tissue biopsy was obtained from the vaginal vestibule and cultured in-vitro to create vaginal tissue to transplant by grafting in creating a vagina:
http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/22/7/2025.full (http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/22/7/2025.full)

Could any of the more medical/life science oriented people see which tissue from a man could be used to do such a procedure? Theoretically, would it lead to a vagina with full sensation & functionality? What would be the pros & cons in comparison with a normal penile-inversion SRS option?

Food for thought.
Title: Re: In vitro vagina tissue transplantation?
Post by: Eve87 on January 22, 2012, 04:24:38 PM
Not quite the same but I know they do this with buccal mucosa for women born with vaginal agenesis. It's morphologically indistinguishable from vaginal tissue. They harvest it from the inside of the cheek and cultivate it then use that as the graft.

It can be used in vaginoplasty as well. Supposedly less sensation than the inversion technique but it lubricates and it's mucosal tissue. Also much less dilation involved and quicker recovery.
Title: Re: In vitro vagina tissue transplantation?
Post by: dejan160 on January 23, 2012, 01:02:46 AM
Tissue engineering is a very popular thing in the modern medicine. Italians are very good in it. I would still go for something more conventional. It is an option still. But the question is are you willing to undergo an experimental surgery with uncertain results? I believe that the uretral mucosa can be used as tissue harvested and cultivated to create the neovagina.
Title: Re: In vitro vagina tissue transplantation?
Post by: tatiana on January 23, 2012, 02:31:18 PM
Quote from: Eve87 on January 22, 2012, 04:24:38 PM
Not quite the same but I know they do this with buccal mucosa for women born with vaginal agenesis. It's morphologically indistinguishable from vaginal tissue. They harvest it from the inside of the cheek and cultivate it then use that as the graft.

It can be used in vaginoplasty as well. Supposedly less sensation than the inversion technique but it lubricates and it's mucosal tissue. Also much less dilation involved and quicker recovery.

Wow, I didn't know that they had such advance procedures for situations like vaginal agenesis. That's really neat. I wish they had more information on that and I wonder why the surgeons haven't really been looking into this alternative techniques available for genetic girls. I'm guessing you were referring to this article:

http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/18/3/604.full (http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/18/3/604.full)

Quote from: swan on January 23, 2012, 01:02:46 AM
Tissue engineering is a very popular thing in the modern medicine. Italians are very good in it. I would still go for something more conventional. It is an option still. But the question is are you willing to undergo an experimental surgery with uncertain results? I believe that the uretral mucosa can be used as tissue harvested and cultivated to create the neovagina.

I agree that these experimental surgeries are less than conventional, but I think it'll be good to inform ourselves about the options that we have so that we could even suggest to our surgeons to perfect one of these methods instead. Or even a hybrid penile inversion-mucosa graft method would be even possible. The penile inversion method has been around for a very long time, but it would be wonderful to take advantage of the newer techniques and technologies available to us in this day and age.

If it is true that we would have to dilate less and would be more anatomically similar to a natal female, I think that would be an upgrade over the technique we have right now. Maybe they would be able to resolve the issue of sensation in the near future too.

I personally would try to see what benefits would there be with a hybrid of penile inversion/mucosa graft & try to aim for that if I had the option. How about yourself? Which method would you choose if the graft procedure was perfected & had similar success rates as a penile inversion?