I had to leave my home country of Uruguay, but I'm still in touch (although not particularly involved) with a trans women association back there.

Today they were on Facebook talking about buying a dildo for a woman who had recently gotten SRS. They didn't know her, but apparently she appeared on a TV show talking about her financial woes and had mentioned she would need to get a silicone dildo.

From what I understand the clinic where this surgery is performed in Uruguay provides proper dilators to the patients. One of the women in the group mentioned they were by Bayer and compared them to solid vaseline suppositories, but to my knowledge none of them has gotten SRS.

Reading this worried me, because I know dilators have to be hard to provide the proper pressure. But this didn't come from a group of missinformed people, it came from the patient herself. Is it possible she was adviced to use a soft material for some reason?

In preparation for drunk men?     <running away>

Dilators are easily cleanable, silicone is not. Dilators are a specific diameter and have markings for depth.

I am still using the dildo my surgeon told me to buy in 1982 and it's holding up just fine. I  have only used the equivalent of KY  jelly on it but I have added some markings so I could determine my depth. Medical grade dilators were available but the doctor said they were expensive so go an adult book store and pick out something that is the same size as you were.

I would just use the real thing. I don't like dildos..... Just isn't the same.