Question #9 from The Interview of my life.....

sorry, it's been a while since I last posted a question from The Interview based on my life.  The first eight questions can be found in earlier posts.

9) Can you explain that procedure?

Contrary to popular belief, the penis is not amputated during SRS. Rather, the internal penile tissue is mostly removed, but the outer skin is left attached, inverted and inserted into the body inside out as the new vagina. The testicles are removed, but the scrotal tissue is also left attached and used to fashion the vaginal lips or labia through standard plastic surgery procedures.

Here is how it happens. Once the patient has been prepped, sedated, wheeled into the operating room and anesthetized, the doctor slits the skin of the penis lengthwise from the head of the glands down to the base on the underside. The skin is then peeled away from around the penis, but since the slit only opened the penis, the base of the skin is still attached.

The penile skin is then turned inside out, much like one might turn a sock inside out. When this is done, the slit is stitched back together, creating an inverted penis, which will ultimately form the new vagina.

Before this occurs, a rather miraculous, yet simple procedure is performed. Earlier, when the internal penile tissue was removed, a small stub of tissue was left behind, still attached. This is erectile tissue, which becomes stiff when stimulated, and also carries sexual sensation.

A tiny slit, perhaps a half-inch in length, is made in the new, inverted penis near the base where it is still attached. The stub of erectile tissue is pushed through the slit, forming the equivalent of a clitoris, and providing the opportunity for complete orgasm and sexual satisfaction after surgery. In addition, a second tiny slit is made below the one for the clitoris. The urinary tube is rerouted to this second slit to create a typical female urinary opening.

Once this procedure has been accomplished, the skin and muscles of the lower abdomen are lifted up with surgical instruments, providing a gap near the pelvic bone. The inverted penis is pushed into the gap, still attached at the base, so that it hinges down and into the proper location for a vagina.

To allow for proper vaginal contractions later, some of the abdominal muscles are repositioned around the new vagina so that they can squeeze in on it, both by conscious control and also automatically during orgasm.

The new vagina is filled with surgical gauze to maintain shape, and then anchored in place with a thin surgical wire which enters the abdomen from the outside, runs under the pelvic bone, through the new vagina, back up around the pelvic bone and out the abdomen again. Once the vagina has healed in place, which takes approximately seven days, the wire is removed by the surgeon, who simply slips it out. To minimize the possibly of damaging the sutures, the new girl is then kept sedated for about 5-6 days after the surgery.

(Above description taken from the Transgender Support website)

Then after the SRS surgery, the new girl still will need to perform a certain level of maintenance on the new vagina. In the immediate months after the surgery, it is critical to keep “dilating” the neo-vagina on a regular basis. The need to do this will diminish as the years go on, but may never be totally unnecessary. The primary reason for this is that SRS recipients do not have a natural vagina as a natural girl would have, and it can, and will, have a tendency to slowly close. That is something that has to be avoided or someone will have a really serious problem requiring additional surgical procedures. The “dilating” can be done with different items----my doctor provided a set of 4 items, but similar items can be purchased at adult stores. Those fortunate enough to have an active sex life may not need any additional dilating. The important thing, however, is to keep the new vagina from closing by following some method of dilation.