I am extremely happy. I had surgery last April. I never honestly believed that being this happy was possible. I hardly recognize the person I was pre-op and it has affected every possible area of my life. I'm so much more confident in myself, so much more comfortable in my body, and I can fully see the way that I used to passively feel dysphoric literally constantly no matter the circumstances. Having a penis was severely detrimental to my mental health and made it essentially impossible to feel at peace in my skin. I love who I am today, I love my body in spite of it's flaws, and I feel like I can express myself in ways I never could before and like that shines through and my relationships with everyone in my life have become a lot healthier as a result. It's weird sounding to say that, but yeah not being in constant dysphoria has changed everything haha. Yes I'm very very happy and have no regrets whatsoever.
I had hypergranulation on part of my labia in the short term after my surgery date. I had to travel quite a distance in less than ideal circumstances only 10 days post op. In the process of that significant strain was put on my labia and some of my stitches opened. It was a relatively small area on the inside of my vaginal canal and the bottom of one side of my labia. It looked pretty scary at first but healed mostly fine on its own without intervention. Not entirely though, and due to complications I ended up having to get some granulation tissue treated with silver nitrate. Took around 6 months of silver nitrate treatments every 3 weeks for it to fully go away. I don't have any granulation tissue anymore, though, and I was at the point of being fully healed as of around 14 months post-op.
Yes, I am able to orgasm. There's a lot I could say there, but yeah, I can. Sex in general, is infinitely more enjoyable for me now. Learning how sex with a vulva functions has been an experience to say the least but with patience and time I've been figuring myself out haha. My sexuality and relationship I have with sex has changed a lot since surgery. I think my first orgasm was around 4 months post op.
Nothing unique no. Pads are annoying but I only had to deal with them for the first 2 months. Still need liners sometimes but they're not nearly as uncomfortable.
The massive difference that having no T made in my life. I experienced a big jump in breast growth, a shift in my body and facial fat placement, a surge in hair growth especially my hair line. Like my body not producing any T made me hormone levels a lot more stable and a lot higher consistently. The difference has been pretty wild honestly. I'm mostly used to it now but a lot of people have remarked on it.
I also noticed at first the lack of like. Anything there. And I'd also notice just how often I used to feel it being there and just sorta tune it out. The novelty of it is short lived and by this point the thought that I had one at all feels distant, like I know that I did but I'm losing my memory of what it was like having one.
Interestingly, my T levels went up post bottom surgery. I had blasted it so low it was undetectable on HRT, but post op, without blockers, I reached the low end of the cis female range (which is healthier than where I was
Yeah I recall you having mentioned before. It's interesting how that happens. I'm still on a low dose of blockers, pending some more blood work and follow up to see if I can take less.
There are multiple ways vaginoplasties are done. One is penile inversion, which results in a dry vaginal canal. Others use penile inversion plus some moist tissue so that the vaginal canal isn't dry. Sometimes this tissue secretes excess fluid and that's what the liners are for.
Yes, I am referring to multiple different surgeries. The colon one is a sigmoid vaginoplasty. I am also aware that a vaginoplasty can be performed without PI. However there are surgeries that use PI and then use peritoneum to add additional depth.
This link here is to a surgery that uses PI and the peritoneum.
yeah, I am opting for penile inversion as well, mostly because that's what my surgeon is good at, and because it is more of a "tried and true" method with less risk and faster recovery than the other methods.
Though I also might have less motivation than some trans women to have a self-lubricating vagina, namely I'm not young and potentially in situations where I would want to be able to have penetrative sex on demand (not wanting to plan and bring lube, etc.).
Yeah, also the issue with self lubricant is it's constant so you will always have discharge. Not a bad thing. Im younger, 30s, but I just have a small thing of lube that I can carry if I'm going somewhere.
Though if they could just do a full swap I would take it so I wouldn't have to remember hrt lol
Same. I actually get very wet when I'm worked up haha. But yeah it varies day to day but usually I have a little bit of clear discharge so I wear liners to bed and sometimes during the day.
That's interesting. I've only heard from people who got PI that theirs is always dry. I am aware that the shaft can secrete fluids, but I didn't think it could be that much.
I actually just looked it up and was going to edit my original comment but you already replied! Lol anyways, what I found was this:
Anatomically, penile and scrotal skin have no self-lubricating potential, though penile inversion vaginoplasty may produce some sexually responsive secretory fluid when urethral tissue is incorporated and lubricating genitourinary accessory glands are retained.