Hi all,

 

I am 16months down the track on HRT and thinking more about surgery. Unfortunalety there are quite a few places advertised and as we know word of mouth is the best. Has anyone had or know of anyone who has has surgery in Australia or Thailand and their results, recommendations.

I would be eternally grateful to have my dreams be the best dreams i can.

Love Naomi XXXX

Word of mouth is the most unreliable guide to the competence and reliability standards achieved, and maintained by, by an individual surgeon. Annual peer-review is mandatory in the UK, and regular revalidation an obligatory requirement of the Specialist Register of the General Medical Council.

Private medical practice, in the UK, pays lip-service to audit, as the surgeon is the source of income. We surgeons tend to suggest a patient only proceeds to private intervention under the care of a colleague who a) also has a substantive NHS Consultant post in the relevent sub-specialisation b) has an University equivalent in the UK c) is less than 70 years old. (Medical Defence Insurance Companies decline policies from 70)

I previously undertook upper-face feminisation surgery as a Surgical Professor: Charing Cross GIC, London, refer from the NHS to seven UK surgeons with regard to Gender Re-assignment Surgery. Interestingly, the three surgeeons lauded and fiercely recommended by their doting patients, in the UK, are not on that list!

Thailand surgeons generally undertake sufficient surgical interventions to maintain and develop their skills, with the inevitable high success and low complication rates. The reasons my choice, and that of my personal friends, was Thailand is also bound up with the fact that the UK has, so far, not moved on with respect to the complication of development of vaginal hair. Electrolysis is mandatory prior to GRS here: however, electrolysis is far from 'curative'. In Thailand, the skin-used to fashion a vagina is everted, the hair follicles exposed and carefully scraped off the inner surface. Hence, no chance of vaginal hair, ever.

I am registered with the General Medical Council as a Specialist; but have had my licence to practice' withdrawn' by personal request, on retiring.

I am a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

I am a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh 

This post was edited by Hannah Ceridwen Eluned Cavendish-Grosvenor at March 19, 2016 7:06 AM GMT

The main reason I chose my particular surgeon in Thailand was because of his specific technique. At the time, and I think still, no surgeon in our country was doing SRS in this way; they were all still using the penile inversion technique that's been around for decades. I'm sure it can have good results but to me it seemed to have certain drawbacks. For exmaple, the amount of depth possible is reliant on penile length; after several years on hormones this is often not good for many patients.

Sexual sensation and the ability to orgasm post-op was also a deciding factor, I'm not sure if UK surgeons publish figures about their "success rate" in this regard, so I did indeed rely to some extent on word of mouth. Not just a couple of recommendations though, I joined several online groups relating to specific surgeons and also SRS/FFS in general, and did my best to read between the lines at all times. I was also fortunate enough to have a few friends locally who had been to the two surgeons that eventually became my shortlist, one of who was in the UK. My friends who'd been to the UK surgeon had very limited sexual sensation, and not being readily orgasmic seemed unimportant to them. Online testimonials for this surgeon seemed to be about 50/50 with regards to sexual satisfaction. A bit of a gamble, although he seems to have a high rate of success in most other aspects of his SRS technique.

The genital electrolysis was quite a clincher for me, though far from the only deciding factor. If several months of such a torture is not enough to put you off going to a surgeon who requires it for their particular technique (all penile inversion surgeons require it), then the fact that there is even a small risk of hairs growing deep inside the vaginal canal might be. It's probably fixable, but it's not nice.

So I didn't need to have electrolysis "down there"; the removal of all hairs in one go during your surgery (while you're under general anaesthetic of course) seems an obvious and far preferable thing to do.

My surgeon, his staff, clinic, the hospital at which he has his own private wing and the nurses there were all amazing, as was the care and concern I received throughout. And yet there is still some prejudice and suspicion in this country surrounding Thai surgeons. The fact is they're not all the same, if you choose the cheapest one you can find then you take your chances. No-one should choose their SRS surgeon based on this criterion! Go for the most reputable, the one with the most consistent results, the one whose procedure best suits your requirements.

Word of mouth can be unreliable as Hannah says, so if choosing a private surgeon in a country that might not have the stipulations and requirements that we have in the UK then it should be combined with common sense, and lots of research.

Despite annual peer-review and regular revalidation for surgeons in the UK, we still have some unhappy patients. Perhaps all surgeons do, it's a bit of a minefield. I've met dozens of girls who went to the same surgeon as me, and hundreds more online. I'd recommend him like a shot, yes by word of mouth, but I'd insist that anyone should do more of their own research, rather than just taking my word for it.

xx

This post was edited by Lucy Diamond at March 19, 2016 11:34 AM GMT

Thanks ladies i appreciate your feedback, i dont by far go wholy and soley by word of mouth it is just a start and maybe able to decrease my research, as it is in many cases a one off only and i am fussy i will take many months to make a decision. I understand the risks involved in Thailand but hear many success stories so if i can ascertain with whom i can look into them, same as in Australia where i will probably end up, mainly because of the controls and regulations and not so far to go if any complications. We all want the best possible results. I am unable to find a list of preferred surgeons but i dont believe what is found/reviewed online as anyone can make a comment and being mistrusting who knows. Thanks again for everones input and appreciate all the help, keep it coming. Love Naomi XXXXX