u/sunshineleopard

Had a laparoscopic hysterectomy, salpingectomy, unilateral oophorectomy yesterday. The surgery itself went smoothly and the team was lovely. Unfortunately I had complications waking up from anesthesia and urinary retention that forced me to stay in the hospital overnight, but I got discharged today and feel really good.

Gas pressure was super painful for the first few hours after surgery when I was in an out of awareness, but it's been clearing up super fast with anti-gas meds and just walking around. My incisions are sore but I've had almost no spotting and very little pain when walking and getting up out of bed. Despite the unexpected overnight, I'm so grateful to have gotten this procedure and am super pleased at how well I'm fairing so far.

This experience really solidified for me that I don't want urethral lengthening anytime soon, though I do want a vaginectomy in the near future. It feels amazing to have achieved this huge personal goal.

Aetna approved my hysterectomy but denied a cystoscopy as incidental. My dr explained that the cystoscopy is a standard part of any laparoscopic surgery that could potentially damage the urethra and just checks to make sure there are no issues.

Unfortunately my medical team failed to submit the necessary documents and peer-to-peer within a reasonable timeframe. I only found out there was an issue 3 business days before my surgery and have been working with the office to submit an expedited appeal on my behalf.

For the past two days Aetna has insisted that they have not received the appeal request nor the supporting clinical documentation. We have used two different fax numbers to try and reach them. My surgery is scheduled for Tuesday which only leaves Monday to get any information.

At what point do I consider postponing the surgery? The primary procedure is approved, can I refuse to sign consent for the cystoscopy? Is it possible to keep working on appealing this pre-approval after surgery? What kind of bill could I get saddled with here?

Insurance approved the hysterectomy but denied the cyctoscopy that my surgeon explained is a standard check to ensure the urethra was not damaged by the primary procedure. Surgery is scheduled for Tuesday which leaves one business day to deal with this prior authorization issue.

My medical team failed to send the proper documentation and peer-to-peer review the partial denial within a reasonable timeframe. I finally got a hold of someone competent this week to assist with an expedited appeal but insurance still claims they haven’t received the documents my surgeon’s office faxed over.

At what point do I consider postponing my surgery? The hysterectomy itself was approved, can I refuse to sign consent for the cystoscopy? Can insurance still be convinced that the cystoscopy is a standard and necessary part of this procedure?

Discussing anatomy.

I’m getting a hysterectomy in around 2 weeks. Everything is scheduled and squared away. I didn’t even want a full hysto since the internal organs themselves don’t bother me that much and will never be used. What I hate is having a vagina. Unfortunately getting a vnectomy means getting a full hysterectomy, and the medical system I’m going through doesn’t have someone on staff to perform a vnectomy. I’ve described vnectomy as my final stage of transition (for now. I don’t want meta/phallo for at least a few more years) and even got a list of surgeons in my area that could perform the procedure but decided not to follow up yet.

I had my first sexual experience recently and the idea of anything touching my vag was so awful I couldn’t participate in the way I wanted to. I didn’t realize that I would be this stone. I’m pretty pissed at myself for not pursuing vnectomy options when I had the chance so now I will need an entire second surgery and possibly not be able to get in before my insurance deductible resets at the end of the year. It’s upsetting to have confirmation that I can tolerate this anatomy privately but the dysphoria is kind of insurmountable as soon as another person enters the equation.

Everyone who had the balls to go for peri/keyhole as a borderline candidate makes me go insane. I wish that was me so badly. I can't stop looking at perfect results and feeling like shit. I feel like I ruined my life letting surgeons and my own fears talk me into incisions that will never disappear completely.

I’ve always been a binary man. I’ve wanted to look cis for forever. I don’t think I considered all the possibilities of DI besides my absolute ideal goal, which I did not get.

I’m 6mo post-op and the nipple grafts bother me every day, they hurt in even the mildest heat and I hate where they’re placed. I don’t personally want the non-binary looks of no nipples but I seriously cannot imagine myself growing old with the current placement and sensations of these grafts. It might be worth it to have no nips than ”wrong” nips that I feel all the time. It’s so uncomfortable to still have intense chest dysphoria specifically because my top surgery results don’t look cis, and I’m so worried that my only path forward is removing the nipples which doesn’t actually solve the issue of wanting a more passing chest. It all makes me feel less normal and less of a man than before.

What the hell do I do?

Top surgery rant TW

I hate my surgery results. I feel so botched and ugly. My nipples are the same size as before and in the wrong place. My scars don’t follow the contour of my pecs and have stretched out so much. I’ve never been more aware of every sensation in my chest. It’s been 6 months and the disgust I have for my result has only grown. Everyone who looks at me will see a girl who got her tits chopped off.

I had so many opportunities to go for peri. I could have gone with a different surgeon. I even asked for peri one last time when the surgeon I chose talked to me pre-op in the hospital. He insisted that I’d need a revision if I did peri and would have to pay for it entirely out of pocket. I remember panicking at the disapproval in his demeanor and how he said I’d have loose skin without even looking at my chest. I don’t think I’ll ever forgive myself for agreeing to DI.

I do have bottom dysphoria but mostly around piv and having E from ovaries. If my period ever came back that would be awful. I would love to never be reminded that I have a womb ever again.

But I worry that a full hysto might have unexpected side effects that wouldn’t happen with just removing the tube and ovaries. I wish I went for a minimally invasive top surgery even if my chest didn’t turn out tot flat because my results feel “unnatural“ and weird sensations still bother me almost a year later.

Can someone give me some perspective? How does your body literally feel after hysto? Do you notice anything different after healing?

Regret, dysphoria TW

Before top surgery I felt like a man with boobs. I was so excited to just be a man. Now I look more like a woman because it’s clear I’ve had my tits chopped off. I feel trapped inside my body. My surgeon fucked up my nipples so badly he didn’t listen to a single request I made. Other people say it’s fine, not great but fine. I feel botched and ugly. Before top surgery I used to dream of finally taking my shirt off in public, now I feel sick at the thought. I will never pass.

To make matters worse, the surgeon talked me out of peri because of non-flat results, less precise nip placement and no resizing, loose skin, said I’d definitely need a revision which insurance doesn’t cover. It was all untrue and he botched the nips anyway. I’d pay for a dozen peri revisions if only my nipples could be in the right place. I’ve never had dysphoria this inescapable. I don’t want boobs, but they were better than this because there were options to fix it. There are no options to fix this. I will always look like I’ve had a bad transgender surgery.

I do have regrets.

My number one concern was having the “right nipples” I had an extremely specific size and placement in mind and saw multiple surgeons to go with the one who was most confident they could do what I wanted. Even though I was a borderline candidate for peri, everyone said I’d have more control over the nipple with DI so I accepted the scars. I brought pictures, had notes about what I wanted, and reiterated everything the morning of my surgery. I didn’t get a single thing I asked for.

I’m so disappointed with my surgery choice. I wish I never trusted the doctor who didn’t bother to write down or listen to my requests. I wish I didn’t have all these scars that accentuate the bad nipple size and placement. I wish I had a way to remove the grafts entirely as they cause the same dysphoria that boobs did. I’ve been told I have no more options it feels hopeless that I’ll never have the freedom I always wanted.

Male chests aren’t completely flat and always have a little bit of tissue right behind the nipple areola complex. My nipple grafts aren’t in the optimal place for where fat will grow if I gain weight, and I’m not even sure if I can get fat in my chest anymore if it was manually removed. Has anyone gained weight after di and noticed problems with their results? What does top surgery look like after decades? What will it look like when the skin gets thin and less elastic?

I got top surgery a few months ago. I should be over the moon. Instead, I feel overwhelming dysphoria and can't stop thinking about about all the opportunities I had to chance it with a minimal-scarring peri procedure. While my surgery results aren't exactly what I wanted, they aren't straight-up bad. They're just... very trans.

I didn't know I would feel like this. I'm nearly 7 years on T and pass in my daily life. I've been stealth when I can but for the past two years I've been in a workplace and friendgroup where being stealth isn't possible. Going through old journals, I'm reminded of how horrible this was after being stealth and all the mental blocks needed to dig myself out of the depression. Somewhere along the line I convinced myself that top surgery would help me feel normal, but I feel more different now than ever before.

Now I'm irreversibly visibly trans when I had the option not to be. I think I hate being trans. I don't know how to deal with regret and self-scrutiny of this caliber. I also don't know what it could take for me to like my results or at least not have dysphoria over it when there's nothing more I can do.

Sorry I don't know what to tag this.

Has anyone pursued a vaginectomy without any other kind of bottom surgery? Sorry if this is the wrong sub for this sort of questio, but it’s hard to find specific information about this.

V-nectomy is a standard step for meta and phallo (can opt-out if you want to keep that anatomy) and I’ve seen that it’s usually combined with full hysto as one procedure or a follow-up surgery in the next step of multi-part bottom surgery. Seems like some surgeons recommend getting full hysto ovaries/fallopian/uterus/cervix removed then six months later get vaginal canal cauterized and sealed to reduce healing risks.

Are there any pictures or first hand experiences anyone can direct me to about v-nectomy as a stand-alone procedure? I don’t want meta by itself and am not going to do phallo for several years at least, but am extremely interested in the possibility of v-nectomy given that some surgeons don’t require the vaginal lining to do UL.