Overview

Male to female sex reassignment surgery is the surgical procedure to physically transition a persons gender.

Patients who seek to transform the sex organ are required to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria and undergo counselling to determine if they will transition to fully opposite.

Preparation

Prior to the sex reassignment surgery, the patient needs to undergo hormone therapy for 1 year. If the patient is taking Anticoagulants (blood thinners) such as Clopidogrel (Plavix), Heparin, Warfarin and Aspirin, the medications must be stopped 2 weeks prior to surgery under doctor supervision. The doctor will advise the patient to stop smoking 2-4 weeks before and after surgery. Furthermore, the patient is required psychiatric approval prior to the procedure.

Procedures

Male transitioning to female surgery will include several procedures; such as, using the penis and testicles to create a vagina. Additional procedures may also be performed to change their appearances including breast augmentation, buttock implants, and facial feminization surgery.

The patient will be evaluated and discussed the appropriate treatment plan, which are 2 surgical methods as follows:

The technique of penile skin inversion with scrotal skin graft is used to create the new vagina, in which inverts the penis and uses a scrotal skin graft to construct the vagina. The urethra is shortened.

On the other hand, the penile skin inversion with colon graft technique can also be performed as an alternative procedure. The surgery utilises the rectosigmoid colon to create the vaginal opening.

Post-operative Care

After surgery, the wound care is applied. The stitches are generally removed within 7 to 10 days. Once discharged from the hospital, the post-operative care instructions will be given to the patient. The vaginal dilator will be used to expand the vagina in width and depth and allow stretching of the tissue.

Risks

The patient may have infection, bleeding and need a revision surgery if the surgical outcome is dissatisfied. The most common complication of male to female surgery is neovaginal stenosis, which can be corrected by using a vaginal dilator.