Gender reassignment surgery is one of the most important parts of a transgender identity transition, which allows a person to overcome the severe stress associated with the discrepancy between their gender identity and the sex they were assigned at birth.
In a word, such surgical intervention is a real chance for potential transgender people to change their gender from female to male, or vice versa. Naturally, transgender transition is a very serious step in a person’s life, because after undergoing surgery, he will never be able to become the same as before. How is gender reassignment surgery performed from a woman to a man? Why is this dangerous and how does it affect a person’s future life?
Indications and contraindications for surgery
An operation to change gender from a woman to a man is a complex and very labor-intensive surgical procedure, for which the patient’s desire alone is not enough for surgeons. Indications for this procedure are:
- discrepancy between the physical shell of a woman and her mental self-identification, which is confirmed by a qualified specialist;
- the patient's transsexuality, confirmed by a psychiatrist.
Gender reassignment surgery from a woman to a man has a number of strict contraindications, including:
- lack of information about the patient's transsexuality;
- alcoholism and drug addiction;
- severe variants of the course of systemic illnesses, cancer and failure of internal organs;
- mental disorders;
- lesbianism;
- antisocial lifestyle;
- desire to have children;
- retirement and old age.
In order for a woman to change her gender to male, she must be an adult and undergo a full examination by a psychiatrist.
Preparation
The preparatory period is divided into two stages:
- complete examination of the patient;
- psychological examination.
During a full examination, emphasis is placed on the condition of the body, as well as the presence of chronic or undetected diseases that may interfere with the operation. In addition, surgery aimed at gender reassignment involves lifelong use of hormonal medications, so the doctor must be sure that they will not harm the patient.
If the man’s physical condition is normal, a psychological examination is prescribed, during which an understanding of the degree of seriousness of the surgical intervention is revealed.
If after the operation a man realizes that he has made a big mistake, this process may have an unnecessarily negative impact on his psychological state and lead to extreme consequences. In medical practice, there were cases when, after a certain time, the patient realized that he had made a mistake, fell into deep depression and tried to take his own life.
Stages of preparation for gender reassignment in women
Before performing a sex change operation from a woman to a man, surgeons must provide the patient with special training, the main stages of which are:
- physical training;
- moral component of the preoperative procedure.
The physical side includes a long (at least a year) visit to a sex therapist and psychiatrist, collection of anamnestic data and a complete laboratory and instrumental examination of the body, hormone therapy for primary masculinization.
An operation to change gender to male requires serious moral preparation. Therefore, for a whole year, the future male representative must visit a specialist and live like a man in order to really make sure that his intentions are correct to change radically.
REFACE is another tool that can change gender
You can experiment with other applications. However, their creators often neglect the technical side of the issue. As a result, you get useless software with a lot of bugs. He just takes up space and wastes time.
The REFACE app stands out against this background. With it, you can put your face on other people's videos. The application does this so carefully that the person looks very organic in the new image. The treatment result is especially harmonious in the absence of a beard or thick makeup.
How to use REFACE for gender reassignment:
- Download the program from the App Store or Google Store.
- Place your face in the lens and click yourself.
- Click on the "Confirm" button.
- The program will cut out your face.
- View a selection of short videos cut from popular films and clips. The characters in these videos, regardless of their gender, will have your face attached to them.
At the end, click on the “Share” button. Send the video to your friends on social networks. You can then cut it into pieces or take screenshots. A girl can keep herself in the role of Thor, and a man can keep himself in the role of a pop singer.
Tell us in the comments which app you liked best.
How is gender reassignment done for women?
How is gender reassignment surgery performed from female to male? Modern plastic surgery has two main types of surgical interventions that allow a woman to change her sex: metoidioplasty and phalloplasty.
Metoidiolasty is an operation to change the sex of a woman into a man through plastic correction of the clitoris and giving it the appearance characteristic of a penis. Before becoming a guy, a girl takes male hormones, as a result of which her clitoris is stretched by 5-6 cm. After this, the organ can be surgically manipulated and a penis is formed from it, which reaches a length of no more than 5 cm. The penis after a gender change is preserved sensitivity, but is not able to penetrate the vagina. Metoidioplasty is one of the operations that are performed in one go and do not cause frequent postoperative complications.
Phalloplasty is the surgical correction of a woman’s sex with the formation of a full-fledged penis, which has the penetrating ability and relative sensitivity necessary to enjoy sex. This operation takes place in several stages, is very complex, requires tissue transplantation and placement of an erectile prosthesis in the vagina.
Modern plastic surgery has a huge number of photos that show different stages of operations to change the sex of a woman into a man. Such moments of transformation of a female body into a male one include:
- breast resection or mammoplasty;
- removal of the ovaries and fallopian tubes - oophorectomy;
- resection of the vagina and closure of the entrance to it;
- hysterectomy or removal of the uterus;
- reconstruction of the female genital organs into the penis, testicles and scrotum.
Mammoplasty
Removal of the mammary glands is the initial stage of surgical transformation to change the sex of female to male. The operation is performed under local anesthesia. For resection of small breasts, a technique with incisions around the nipples is used. Medium-sized breasts are removed by cutting the skin horizontally, and large breasts are removed through a vertical incision. Sometimes patients may need correction of nipple placement and reduction in their size.
Ovariectomy or female castration
This operation can be performed separately or combined with a hysterectomy - removal of the uterus. Surgery is performed under general anesthesia using laparoscopic or abdominal techniques. During the operation, a woman's ovaries, fallopian tubes and uterus are removed from the pelvic cavity, after which she will never have children. Removal of sutures occurs approximately on the 10-14th day, and the entire process of postoperative rehabilitation takes about a month.
Vaginectomy
The next stage is the removal of the vagina and suturing its front wall to the back. The operation is sometimes combined with oophorectomy and hysterectomy.
Reconstruction of female genital organs into male ones: where are organs taken for reconstruction (metoidioplasty and phalloplasty)
Surgeons perform gender reassignment surgery for women, that is, plastic surgery of the female genital organs with their transformation into male ones, in two ways: phalloplasty and metoidioplasty. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. The final choice of method for changing gender from a girl to a guy depends on several factors, namely the financial capabilities of the patient, her desires, indications for a particular operation, and the individual characteristics of the transgender person’s body.
Correction of the body and face using silicone
Silicone implants can make the patient's appearance more masculine. More often they are recommended to be inserted in the area of the chin, calves, and scrotum. This is a simple stage of transformation, but it determines how good the future man will look.
Liposuction
As you know, women have fat deposits in characteristic areas that give them a feminine figure. Girls who changed their gender most often used liposuction or removed excess fat from the buttocks, abdomen, sides, and thighs.
Hormone replacement therapy
In order for a woman to completely transform into a man, she needs hormone replacement therapy. Regular and lifelong use of testosterone and other androgens can change the patient’s voice to a lower one, promote hair growth in places typical for men, and help an ex-girlfriend become more courageous.
Rehabilitation for women who have changed their sex
The recovery period after a series of surgical interventions to change sexual characteristics lasts quite a long time and must necessarily include the following points:
- taking painkillers and antibacterial drugs to alleviate the patient’s condition after surgery and prevent the development of infection;
- the use of hormonal drugs, which determine whether the beard and mustache will grow after a gender change, whether the voice will change, etc.;
- complete cessation of alcohol and smoking;
- careful care of seams;
- quality food;
- refusal of intimate relationships until postoperative wounds have completely healed;
- constant supervision by specialists.
The duration of the rehabilitation period depends on the scope of the operation, the individual characteristics of the patient’s body, his age, and the presence of postoperative complications.
Preparatory stage
In civilized countries, before going to the operating room, the patient must be observed by a psychiatrist for at least two years and regularly come for scheduled appointments and examinations. This preparation option is optimal; during conversations, the specialist will try to determine the causes of the problem, tell all the details about the planned operation and, perhaps, offer alternative ways to reconcile the body and mind. The transformation of men into women does not happen in one day; sometimes the complete transformation takes 3-5 years. This is also important to know about for everyone who dreams of changing their gender. Among other things, changing your gender will require considerable financial investments, several operations are usually performed, and medications are not cheap. Therefore, before deciding to make such changes, you should weigh the pros and cons.
What organs look like and how they work after gender reassignment
After gender reassignment and phalloplasty of the genital organ, the newly-made man’s penis becomes as close to natural as possible. Its head and body itself are clearly visible. Such an organ can reach a length of up to 14-16 cm, or even more. Together with the skin and other soft tissues, the patient is transplanted with the nerve responsible for sensitivity in the area of the formed penis.
The issue of erection can also be resolved surgically. This is a separate operation to introduce an erectile prosthesis into the vagina, with the help of which a man will be able to have full sexual intercourse. This surgical intervention is expensive, so not every transgender person can afford it.
Hormone therapy
Hormonal drugs allow you to change your appearance as much as possible. For example, estrogens can give grace and charm to rough male facial features, hair growth on the skin decreases, the voice changes, and breasts begin to grow. In turn, androgenic hormones lead to hair growth on the face and body, the face becomes rough like a man, the body becomes powerful, and the voice becomes low.
Hormonal medications are taken throughout the patient’s life, and their selection is carried out individually. These hormonal therapeutic measures begin to be carried out at least 9 months before the operation.
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Possible complications in women after gender reassignment
On the Internet you can find many photos after a gender change from “F” to “M” that depict people with complications after transgender surgery. Before changing female organs to male genitalia (sex change), the patient should be familiar with the list of possible undesirable consequences of surgical procedures, including:
- infection of postoperative wounds and sutures;
- formation of seroma and hematomas;
- poor wound healing;
- formation of keloid scars;
- loss of sensation;
- development of bleeding;
- complications of general anesthesia;
- pulmonary embolism;
- an uncomfortable feeling of being in a man’s body and a desire to transform back.
How much does gender reassignment surgery cost - cost, price
It's no secret that plastic surgery costs a lot of money, and gender reassignment is no exception. The high cost of transgender transition is due to factors such as the small number of specialists in this field of surgery, the large amount of work, the duration of the process and the rehabilitation period.
In general, a complex of gender reassignment operations will cost the patient a fairly round sum, which can reach 10,000 USD. e. The most expensive procedure is phalloplasty (about 5-6 thousand USD), so transgender people often replace it with metoidioplasty.
What else does a woman need to know after becoming a man?
What is the name of a girl who has changed her gender to male? This question interests not only ordinary people from the environment of the newly minted man, but also the patient himself. From a scientific point of view, a person who has gone through all stages of transformation, including psychological aspects, is called a transgender. Girls and women who want to be a guy, but have not completely gotten rid of their female organs, are considered transsexuals.
Women who want to change their gender to male should understand that after the operation they will have to face a number of difficulties, namely:
- problem with re-registration of documents;
- side effects from constant use of hormones;
- hostility and misunderstanding of others;
- the need for a long visit to a psychologist;
- impossibility of reverse sex change.
In any case, transgender transition is a complex process that requires long thought and understanding of its irreversibility. Therefore, before the surgical stage, doctors always try to dissuade the patient from such a step, explaining to her all the consequences of her actions.
Rehabilitation
During the rehabilitation period, the patient goes through all the hardships of the consequences of the surgical intervention, to which is added the psychological discomfort associated with getting used to the new gender role. If before the operation the patient had no somatic pathologies, he took hormonal medications, eliminated alcoholic beverages and smoking, there will be a minimum of side effects during rehabilitation.
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If we talk about the risks that transgender surgery can bring, they are divided into psychological and physiological.
Physiological ones include:
- scars on the body;
- numerous hematomas;
- swelling;
- bleeding.
However, after a while, almost all these complications disappear and after rehabilitation, the patient’s health is completely restored.
After the operation, the surgeon explains to the patient how he should behave during recovery, prescribes medications, physical procedures, etc.
Psychological discomfort can bring much more trouble than physiological discomfort. Despite the fact that an operation aimed at gender reassignment is very desirable, after it is performed, the patient is faced with an outside world that finds it difficult to accept such a person.
The realities of life are such that many are prejudiced towards people who have changed their gender. As a result, a person may not get along with the new gender role and come to the conclusion that he wants to return his masculine nature.
Gender reassignment is a very serious decision. Every person who decides to undergo such a surgical intervention must understand that he will have to face psychological problems, as well as a rehabilitation period.
