(no subject)

[kengr]

Got a call from a TS (MTF) friend yesterday. She told me she'd gotten herself castrated.

That's one "odd" bit" of news to be handled. I know it's a big step for her and that she's happy to be one step farther on the way to her goal.

But at the same time, it feels sort of *weird* to hear it.

Comments

castrated?

[walkingbear.livejournal.com]

Ok, I have to ask, is this a normal step towards full sex change? I had assumed that it all happened in the same operation.

If not, then what was her motivation to do this?

Re: castrated?

[kengr]

Sometimes it's done all at once. But some folks do the castration first.

For one thing, it's a *lot* cheaper, and the recovery time is practically nil. You're sore for a day or two. Pretty much like a vasectomy that way.

The reason for doing it earlier is that the testosterone fights the female hormones a pre-op MTF TS takes. Without the testicles, the hormones work better, and you don't have to take androgen blocking meds.

My friend is going to have to save for quite a while to get the rest of the operation. Last I heard it ran around $15,000. But the castration probably cost less than $1000.

And once her breasts get as big as they are going to from the hormones, then she can think about getting a "boob job". That'll run a few thou.

Getting a vagina made can wait. Though as I understand it from others, she'll have to do something (stretching gizmos or the like) to keep her penis from shrinking in the meantime. Since the skin from the shaft is used to create the vaginal lining, you want to keep it as long as you can until that operation. They can use skin from elsewhere, but they prefer not to.

Well, there are some doctors who like using a bit of intestinal tissue instead, because that makes the vagina self lubricating. Only problem is, it'lll *always* be lubricating. Gets messy, I'm told.

Hope this wasn't TMI. :-)

Re: castrated?

[walkingbear.livejournal.com]

Not even close to TMI. Quite fascinating actually. I tried to do a report in HS on the M-F trasistion for biology class. I found very little literature on the subject at the time.

Re: castrated?

[kengr]

Gee. Wonder how you'd react to the "slide show" someone local has. She's got a lot of friends in the TV/TG/TS community locally and she got permission to take photos of the surgery of a couple of folks.

Very interesting, though a lot of guys who were at the viewing I was at got a bit green when they saw the pics of stuff like "skininning" the penis, and dissecting out the erectile tissues.

Re: castrated?

[walkingbear.livejournal.com]

That kind of thing never really squicked me. I'd be fascinated by something lke that. I used to watch the surgery shows on Discovery Health when we had sattelite. :)

Re: castrated?

[kengr]

Didn't bother me either. Though that's at least partly because I have a fair number of fantasies involving castration and "extreme genital modification".

But then again, they aren't the sort of fantasies I'd try in reality. Well, not unless there was a medical reason to remove things. :-)