Orchiectomy before beginning / very soon after beginning HRT?

[Averyel]

Hey there!

I'm 22, and going to be asking my doctor on the 28th about getting a bilateral Orchiectomy scheduled as soon as possible so as to minimize how long my liver will have to deal with AA's. Seeing as these are lifelong medications I'd rather nip the issue in the bud rather than working against my own body's efforts.

I'm not sure if this is even a thing, but it won't hurt to ask.

Anybody have any useful advice or experience?

[josie76]

You will have to call around to different urologist's offices. You have to find out which doctors will do that for transwomen. Many will require a letter from a therapist. Some require 2. My therapist wrote my letter after three months of weekly sessions. It is definitely worth talking with a therapist. I am waiting on my new urologist's office to calculate the self pay cost for the procedure. I hope it's low enough I can get it done soon. I'd like to get off the Spiro and Finasteride.

Some doctors want to wait for a year on hormones. One thing is that getting an Orchi done you can get the affadavits from the doctor to fill all the gender change documents.

I had found another doctor. His fees and office charges were really good but he uses OR at large hospital. Best guess was $15k just for the OR fees. My current urologist uses their own surgical center. Fingers crossed the cost comes back low enough that I can do it.

Also university hospital in Indianapolis has a transgender healthcare system. They said an Orchi would be around $2500 but required a full year on hormones and a letter from your hormone managing doctor and a therapist letter.

[AnonyMs]

I didn't think your liver is a good reason for an orchi unless your actually having problems with it, and I'd assume that would show up in blood tests. You also want to be careful how you do it to avoid any issues with srs if you're planning on that. You won't be needing AA's after that either.

Dr Arnkoff does it without letters, and you can find a few posts about it by searching his name. One with photos if I recall correctly.