"For a very long time, I believed that I would be able to live without the bottom surgery. I only realised that it would be necessary as I approached the end game for the other aspects of my transition," shared a transgender man from Colorado shared. According to him, phalloplasty has made him feel entirely completed.
What Is Phallosplasty?
Phallosplasty is a surgical procedure that involves the construction or reconstruction of the penis. A number of transgender individuals who transition from female to male go through this procedure.
The 21-year-old transgender man who chose to keep his anonymity confirmed that he lived as a man for three years until he was 18. And then one day, he finally decided to go under the knife and make on of the biggest decisions in his life.
The surgeons collected a skin graft from his arm. This was then used to construct his penis as well as some of the other tissues in his genitals. The phallosplasty took about eight hours. An additional skin graft was collected from his leg to replace the one from his arm and facilitate healing.
Life After Surgery
"Recovery was extremely intense in the first two weeks," he said. "I spent six days bedridden in the hospital. I'm a very active, impatient young man so that was pretty unbearable [...] After the first 10 days, I started to regain strength in a meaningful way. I was able to go to the beach... I was very much still in recovery but emotionally, I was recuperating well," he confirmed.
The phalloplasty surgery was covered by his insurance. After staying four weeks in a hotel near the hospital, he was already able to go home. According to him, he no longer has gender dysphoria after the operation. Gender dysphoria is the feeling of discomfort or distress resulting from a mismatch between biological sex and gender identity.
"I pretty much don't have dysphoria anymore which has made a huge difference," he said. "I feel like I can really see myself as an entire person rather than a mismatched set of physical characteristics."
A representative in St Peter's Andrology Centre in London confirmed that they perform about 10 phalloplasties per month. Recently, the statistics are increasing. As of now, it will take about three months for the centre to accommodate everyone on the list.
Based from last year's statistics, sources confirmed that between 10 and 30 percent trans men in the UK opt to go through phalloplasty than 60 percent trangender women. Phalloplasty involved more than one surgery in the UK.
