The term “gender affirmation surgery” refers to medical procedures that assist patients in transitioning to the gender that is consistent with their internal experience. Facial surgery, top surgery, or bottom surgery are all examples of possibilities that fall under the category of gender-affirming procedures. The majority of individuals who decide to have sex reassignment surgery note an improvement in both their mental health and quality of life.
People may choose to have surgery in order to bring their physical body into alignment with their gender identification. People who suffer from gender dysphoria often choose for gender confirmation surgery in order to feel more comfortable with their bodies. The suffering that results from your sex being assigned at birth being inconsistent with your gender identity is referred to as gender dysphoria.
Types of Sex Reassignment Surgery
Transgender individuals can achieve a physique that is congruent with their gender through the use of gender-affirming surgery. It is possible that treatments will be performed on the face, chest, or genitalia. Some common choices for transgender surgery are as follows:
- Reconstructive surgery of the face to create a more masculine or feminine appearance in the facial characteristics.
- Chest or “Top” surgery refers to procedures that either reduce the size and form of the breasts or remove breast tissue in order to achieve a more masculine or feminine look respectively.
- Surgery performed on the genitalia, sometimes known as “Bottle” surgery, to alter or repair the genitalia.
Before Sex Reassignment Surgery
You need to consult with a reliable healthcare practitioner before going through with the operation. Your healthcare professional can assist you understand the potential drawbacks and advantages of each of the available surgical procedures.
Before they would pay for a gender-affirming operation, many insurance companies need their customers to provide particular evidence about their medical history. This documentation comprises the following items:
Documentation from medical professionals indicating a persistent gender dysphoria.
a letter of support from a someone who works in the field of mental health, such as a social worker or a psychiatrist.
Sex Reassignment Surgery Procedure
The specific technique being performed determines the events that take place throughout the operation. You have the option of having surgery on your face, your top, your bottom, or a combination of all three of these procedures.
It’s possible that facial surgery will change:
- Nose: You could consider getting rhinoplasty, which is surgery that reshapes the nose.
- Cheekbones: Numerous transgender women choose to get injections to improve the appearance of their cheekbones.
- Jaw: To improve the appearance of your jaw, a surgeon may file down some of the bone in your jaw or use fillers.
- Chin: You have the option of either softening the angles of your chin or defining it more dramatically.
If you are a transgender woman and were designated male at birth (also known as AMAB), you may need further operations such as the following:
- The apple of Adam’s eye decrease.
- Surgical insertion of breast implants (breast augmentation).
- Surgical removal of the testicles and the prostate gland (penectomy and orchiectomy).
- The development of a vagina and labia (feminizing genitoplasty).
- If you are a transgender guy (also known as AFAB or assigned female at birth), you could undergo operations that entail the following procedures:
- Having Breast Reduction or having a mastectomy.
- Surgical removal of both the uterus and the ovaries (oophorectomy and hysterectomy).
- Creating a penis and a scrotum from scratch (metoidioplasty, phalloplasty and scrotoplasty).
Recovery After Sex Reassignment Surgery
The amount of time it takes to recover varies greatly depending on the surgery or combination of procedures that you had:
- Surgery on the cheek and nose typically results in swelling that lasts between two and four weeks.
- Surgery on the chin and jaw often results in a reduction of edema within two weeks. It’s possible that the swelling won’t go down for at least four months.
- Swelling and pain can continue anywhere from one to two weeks after having chest surgery. You should stay away from activities that require a lot of physical effort for at least a month.
- After having bottom surgery, the majority of patients are unable to return to their normal activities for at least six weeks. You should continue to have follow-up appointments with your healthcare practitioner on a weekly basis for the next few months. These check-ups are to make sure that your recovery is going well.
It is essential to have an understanding that transitioning is a multi-step process and that surgery is only one of those steps for the majority of people. You should continue seeing a therapist or counselor even after the operation has been completed. This specialist can assist you with social adjustment as well as your mental wellbeing.
Risks and Complications of Gender Affirmation Surgery
There are varying degrees of danger associated with each treatment. People who have had their bottoms operated on, for instance, could have alterations to their sexual feeling or have difficulty emptying their bladders. In the vast majority of cases, serious problems are quite uncommon so long as the operation is carried out by an expert surgeon.
Any surgical procedure carries with it the potential for a number of problems, including the following:
- Bleeding.
- Infection.
- The anesthetic may cause some side effects.
Cost of Sex Reassignment Surgery
Gender reassignment surgeries are pricey. Procedures on the bottom can cost around $25,000, while those on the top (breast surgeries) can cost between $7,800 and $10,000. The cost of facial and body sculpting can also be rather high.