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. :-)