Hi guys.

So I had top surgery about two months ago. This is great but I found that the bottom is now killing me. I really don't want to linger like I did with my chest, having to wait, all while wallowing in self-loathing and hating myself/hurting myself.

I was wondering how long you waited between top surgery and bottom surgery. The experience was quite exhausting and it took my body quite some time to deal with it.

It all depends on how you feel after your top surgery. Do you feel fully recovered? Are your chest muscles still sore? Most people I know usually wait a year between major surgeries but some have multiple surgeries in one big operation. It really all depends on you and how well you handle multiple surgeries.

The time between my GCS and FFs was just about one year. Both of these are major surgeries. What type of bottom surgery are you planning? I would consider a phalloplasty to be major surgery, while a metoidioplasty  is a significantly less complicated procedure.

I am planning phalloplasty. In no scenario will I have surgery right away, but I can be put on a waiting list now. The waiting list for top surgery was eight months.

Unless I go abroad, but even that'll take time. The knowledge of having surgery planned alleviates some of my dysphoria though. Thanks for your answer

Having a plan and the means to follow through is therapeutic in itself.  It sounds like you have made the plan and are well on your way.

Take care and be cool. 

I had top June 2014 and would've had bottom immediately but insurance didn't go my way until last year.

If everything goes according to plan, what I hope, I will have phalloplasty two or three month after the mastectomy and hysterectomy.

That sounds intense. In any case I'll have to wait longer than that, I imagine. Hope it works out well for you 

I haven't yet had bottom surgery but since I will have it in a few months or so, I think I can at least give an approximate answer.

I had my top surgery pretty much exactly 4 years ago, in 2014. So, the time between my top and bottom surgeries will be roughly a few months over 4 years.

My reasons for taking 4 extra years between, as I was offered consultation for lower op already 6 months post top op but declined it at the time:
Back in 2014 I also had bottom dysphoria like I do now but it was more mild-moderate then, and even though it had just kept getting worse all the time already at that point, I refused to let go without a fight. I wanted to know I had tried everything else first. I kept trying to make my parts work for me somehow, but dysphoria just kept getting worse. Finally I hit my breaking point where I couldn't keep fighting it anymore and dysphoria sky-rocketed, and ultimately realised I needed bottom surgery. So I started planning and researching for that.

Ever since the beginning of my transition I knew that if I was gonna ever have bottom surgery it would be meta. I looked into both meta and phallo, but it was meta that I ultimately decided for, for all sorts of reasons. So that's what I'm gonna have, but the journey to get to this point was quite long and crooked and I'm still not quite there yet. All in all I had considered about bottom surgery on and off for around 6 years before I had made up my mind about it, as my transition started in 2009. It always felt like a huge step for me, much more so than top surgery or testosterone. That made me also more careful with my decision, and meant I needed more time to be sure.

Quote from: November Fox on March 13, 2018, 08:09:53 PM
That sounds intense. In any case I'll have to wait longer than that, I imagine. Hope it works out well for you 

Thanks man
Yes, it will indeed be intense and exhausting too I suppose. But it's important to me that this will happen as soon as possible as my extreme bottom dysphoria keeps me from actually living and I don't want to waste any more time.
I have to say that I was surprised though when I asked the surgeon when it will be even possible to do have phalloplasty after the mastectomy and hysterectomy and he said 6 weeks. 

I don't know about the lower surgery just yet, still healing from top.

Next appointment with the GIC therapist in a few months and they'll be asking me about it and I'm not sure whether I want more time or what, I mean this surgery is more serious and potentially debilitating than the top and I don't want to be out of it for more than a month this year - too much to do. I don't want phallo, and I need to look into available surgeons while they still are on the NHS. Knowing the system here I'd probably have to wait a year or more anyway, there's a lot of top surgeons compared to bottom surgeons.