Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I am going to see if I can get my primary care to sign off on a leave of absence letter from work as I plan on completing my hysto/oophorectomy and Phallo within less than the equivalent of a year. I got laid off at the beginning of the year, so the letter would have to be supplied to unemployment. My state considers transgender surgeries as medically necessary.

I am mainly posting this to see if anyone can link me to a good resource with a time estimate, so I can print one out for her. I am having a hard time finding anything concrete through a Google search.

Realize that I had my surgeries over two decades ago. The top surgery was done outpatient and  healed pretty well. They made me wait a couple of months before the OVH. I had mine done through the vagina, so I didn't have the extended healing from muscle incisions. It was about three months before I felt completely back to normal, but i pushed it. (A tip here, the OVH sx may cause severe cramps that feel like really bad menstral cramps. You might ask about a stool softener, because the cramps caused me to have difficulty defecating and I wound up with hemarhoids. ).

The bottom surgery is longer. I had the radial flap and they also put testicles in at that time. I was in the burn unit for 10days. There is quite a bit of swelling and they kept the heat way up in the room, I guess to facilitate healing. After I got out of the hospital, it took about a month for the phalloplasty and a couple months for the graft they put on my arm where they had taken the full thickness flap. About two months after that, they put larger testicles in. My Dr. had put prepubescent testicles first to stretch the skin, then replaced them with larger ones.

I don't know if you can realistically do it as fast as you want, but medicine has come a long way since I had mine done. I had my surgeries during summer breaks as I was in college at the time.

Hope that helps some,
Sam1234

Quote from: sam1234 on February 07, 2015, 06:45:25 PM
Realize that I had my surgeries over two decades ago.
Sam1234

Wow, really?  Over 20 years ago?  That's insane! Mind sharing who your surgeons were for the top and bottom surgeries?

Is the phallo holding up well or problems through the years?  Do you have an erection pump of any sort? 

It is fascinating to hear from someone who had bottom surgery 20+ years ago!

Scary, huh? My Dr. who did the top was Dr. Stephen Ray. He and his nurse Karen were about the nicest people I've met along the way. He did a really good job. Sadly, later on I had to have a battery implanted in my chest for a peripheral nerve stimulator (not related, it was for chronic migraines), and there were problems, so my chest, so nicely done was scarred up pretty badly.

The bottom surgery was done by Dr. Joseph Serletti. I was his first one, but he had a good reputation as a plastic surgeon, consulted surgeons in other states who had done it and spent a couple hours going over the procedure with me and showing me photos.

At the time, (this was '91 or '92), there wasn't all the definition of glans and shaft so it looks more like an uncircumsised penis. He left a full length opening in case I had a urinary hookup later. I'd have to say that it looks the same now as it did post op after the swelling went down. Weight gain or loss effects its girth, and there are no implants to support an erection. At the time, I was told that if i wanted an implant, it would be a static situation. In other words, I would have a continuous erection with the danger of the implant migrating out the end. For all that, I was, and still am great full that someone was willing to try.

For those of you who have just had a phalloplasty, do you have feeling in your penis?

Sam1234

Wow Sam! Thanks for the insight into your experience.

If there is anyone out there who has had phalloplasty in their 40's and are willing to share their experiences, that would be great.

Thanks