I'm planning on bottom surgery in the next 9-12 months and have done some basic research, but there seems to be a lot of myth and street knowledge flying around.
Who are the best surgeons?
Where can I get good solid info on results?
From my research now I'm leaning toward metoidioplasty but I'd like real information on the current state of the art for both since this is a rapidly developing/changing area.
When you go looking remember that the surgery tends to be fine, when people die or have real problems its usually the results of 'post-surgical complications.' And you might want to think about what happens in that case.
Yahoo groups has thedecidingline @ yahoogroups.com and ftmmetoidioplasty @ yahoogroups.com, and there is also a lower surgery group on Live Journal. Transbucket has pics also, and I believe there are phallo groups as well.
Jay
I second those yahoo groups. There's also one called FTMSurgeryinfo for both top and bottom surgery info and photos.
A third for the Yahoo groups. I found the ftmmetoidioplasty group the most helpful.
I can't say I agree with FtM bottom surgery being a 'rapidly developing/changing area' though, unfortunately. That is not to disparage the work of surgeons who are indeed working on improvements (it is appreciated and needed), it's just that those improvements are incremental. I still see a 'fully-functional, adult-size, indistinguishable-from-cis' penis as being a long way off. Just make sure you're fully aware of the benefits and limitations of both meta and phallo (a frequent topic of discussion on the Yahoo groups), and make sure you are OK with those limitations, as well as any complications that can occur.