Something I have want for a long time, I have been seeing a gender therapist. I have my two letters sent to my urologist which does gender surgeries. Nest step is a consult with him on 12/6 and then set a date. I’m paralyzed from the wait down. Looking forward to having them gone.

WELCOME! Sounds like you are well on the way, good luck with the consult.... I'm also a para, and recently finished the same process, (See the "I've got a Date" thread for all the not-so-gory details) Feel free to ask me any questions you may have...

Probably the biggest para-specific advice I would offer is that if you do intermittent catheterizing, and aren't very well endowed, have them put in a Foley cath, and plan to leave it for the first couple of weeks... I had so much swelling during the first few days that I ended up having to make a trip to the ER when I found I couldn't get to my urethra to get the cath in... (and the area did NOT like the poking and prodding of trying to find it) It also seems like a good idea in terms of keeping any leakage away from the incision...

WheelyFixed

One thing is my use was gfbi but some got messed up. I have been on here since 2003. A couple questions scrotal reduction or removal but a may want more later on so I think just reduction. I tuck were panties and a pad, so removing them will be much better as well has low T. I also take HRT on and off. As I don’t want a large chest. I hoping by the end of the year.

How do you feel and are you happy?

Gfbi7890 (imported) wrote: Mon Nov 20, 2023 8:51 pm One thing is my use was gfbi but some got messed up. I have been on here since 2003. A couple questions scrotal reduction or removal but a may want more later on so I think just reduction. I tuck were panties and a pad, so removing them will be much better as well has low T. I also take HRT on and off. As I don’t want a large chest. I hoping by the end of the year.

How do you feel and are you happy?

I'm feeling fine at this point, and am happy that I got it done. It was a bit of a slow process getting past all the hoops, but not terribly difficult.

As I said in the date thread, I found the scrotum removal was much more of a painful / slow healing issue than the orchiectomy itself. However it seemed worth while to get it done all at the same time and I'm still glad I did it that way so I only had to go through healing once. A few others have done a scrotectomy after a long healed orchie, and from their reports, it seemed like they had about the same amount of issues as I did, so it doesn't seem like there is much advantage in doing it as two separate procedures. Knowing what I know now, I would not want to consider doing reduction now w/ removal later, just because I wouldn't want to go through the scrotum healing process twice.

However I also have no desire to do any sort of further changes, so no need to consider saving the skin for use later. If you have any desire for later vaginoplasty, then it is best to keep the scrotum for use in that.

I was never well endowed when not erect, even before I got hurt (The GF was happy w/ what I had when erect ) since my injury I shrank to the point where things are mostly internal and I have to dig it out to cath... Never had any interest in tucking, but almost didn't need to... I've also developed enough of a leakage issue that I have to use a pad now. I've been (and still do currently) wearing standard Fruit of the Loom Y-front briefs, but the pad makes having the 'man-hole' irrelevant so I have to pull them to one side for access... However this makes the pad get crumpled up so it doesn't cover what needs covering as well. So I'm working on a project to design and make some 'accessible' underwear - basically something with a 'drop-down' front, like the old-fashioned "Union-suits" except with the trap door in front...

One of the advantages I found to getting rid of the scrotum is that I kept it pulled up to avoid sitting on them in the chair, which meant the scrotum covered the penis, so when I leaked the drippage tended to get diverted out to the sides and therefore tended to miss the pad. Without it, the drippage now has a straight path to the pad so I stay drier / cleaner... Downside is if I have a bowel accident, I don't have the scrotum to act as a 'mud flap' to keep the poop off my penis, so I have to do more cleaning up before I can cath. I also lose the use of the scrotum / balls as a 'doorstop' to hold the underwear out of the way and anchor the underpad when cathing... Still it's a worthwhile tradeoff.

I'm doing E for HRT, as my docs insist that I do something in order to keep from further increasing the bone health issues that come w/ being paralyzed. It has made my boobs grow a good bit, but not to the point where I need to worry about a bra, and when dressed I believe that I still fall in the 'normal male' appearance range... I also didn't want a big chest as I plan to continue presenting as 'normal guy' (I don't think it's anyone but the GF's business what my genital "load-out" is...) and big would make that difficult. I can live with what I've ended up with... However from reports what one gets on E is rather unpredictable - with a little guidance from what female relatives have and age...

WheelyFixed

Ok, thanks for the info. I’m not well endowed either at this point, I have found for me that wearing stretchy spandex type women’s hipster panties that are just solid color with no lace work amazing with a 6 drop Always bladder pad, I,fold them in half as I don’t have any bowel issues but they are long enough for protection from that area. I tuck because it adds extra resistance to bladder leaks and the stretch panties hold everything in place really well not to mention very easy to get on. I have feeling from waist down so pain during healing should not be an issue. I will bring up the drainage and long healing and ask the Doctor to take extra care in closing the incision. I have learn there is a big difference in the way Doctors close and suture the skin up and bringing it up helps to make sure they take extra care. I work full time and sitting in my chair 12 to 14 hours a day I can feel discomfort down there so there awesome to have them out of the way. Hopefully boob growth doesn’t get to much after but I welcome some. I’m sure it’s a relief waking up,knowing there gone.

Meant to say I have no feeling below my waist. Also even though I alway liked to wear panties and some feminine things, I was self conscious about what other would say but other then few joking comment from friend and my girlfriend I just said this is what works and it better then leaking which as you know really sucks. I also found wearing legging as long underwear works great cause there snug. Sometimes I also wear black thicker pantyhose tights for compression to keep ankles and feet from swelling plus there easier to get on verse actual compression stocking. It’s a bummer that it’s so taboo for guys to wear or do feminine things but I really don’t care being what you have to deal with being in a chair and it’s kind a fun to try things like painting toes and wearing some feminine cloths and more guys do it and people don’t really care, it’s just getting past being nervous about it. I have thought about further vulvoplasty but the convenience of a penis for cathing is convent plus tucking add extra safety were as a vagina is a lot more difficult and much likely for bladder leaks. FYI I use Vapor plus pocket catheters which are totally sealed self contained with a bag. Looking forward to doing the next step instead of going back and forth. I have done chemical a couple time both with estrogen patch and without. It truly shows you how powerful testosterone is and how sexual thoughts disappear with a calmness. I’m sure once done I will like most wish I had done it years ago.

The issue that I had wasn't the quality of the surgeon closing the incision, it was the swelling that seems to be the result of the orchie and so on... It was so much that if I hadn't seen the pathology reports on the electronic health record I would have thought the surgeon had left them in with a bit extra added, and jammed up tight at the base of my penis... They didn't mention it at the time, even after I asked, but said later that icepacks would have helped, and also "Alleve" or generic equivalent - supposedly the OTC NSAID that works best on swelling... This swelling lasts for several days, and seems to get worse for the next several days before it starts to go away....

I'd suggested that they put in a Foley when doing the surgery so that I wouldn't leak on the site, or on the fresh incision. They did and told me to pull it after the first 3 days, which turned out to be a mistake... The next day or so I was able to fish my glans out far enough to cath, but it got increasingly difficult... I called the doc, and was basically told that if it got so bad I couldn't cath, to go to the ER, which I ended up having to do... I was there all nigh and they did a lot of poking and prodding plus ultrasounds and so on, but basically all they did was put in a new Foley... I then went about 10 days, which let the swelling go down a lot, and when I went back in for an office visit they made me demonstrate that I could pull it out far enough to cath before they would remove the Foley...

If I had it to do over, (fortunately I won't...) I'd be using ice packs a lot for the first day or so (ice doesn't help after that) and also doing the Alleve rather than Tylenol for pain... I also would leave the Foley in until most of the swelling was gone.

Keeping the penis is definitely a reason I don't want to do anything further.... I have a female friend that got hurt at about the same level a year or so after I did, she jokes that the only time she ever suffered from "Penis Envy" was when they showed up with a mirror for her "how to cath" training in rehab... I also know a lot of other women that have chosen to get suprapubics and indwelling caths just because for them it is so much less of a headache.

FWIW, I use the Cure Medical CS-14 closed system kits, they are bigger than the Vapro's but much more complete and have a 1500ml bag rather than the 750ml bag the Vapro's and Coloplast pocket units use.... I get my supplies through 180 Medical, and have found them to be the only medical supply outfit that is NICE to deal with - fantastic customer service, and really willing to do whatever it takes to make things go right... Highly recommended... (If only the chair service people were as good, I have a service request I put in during April 2022 that I'm still waiting on NoMotion to finish....)

ex-Gooserider

I will for sure remember the ice packs and alleve in mind as you know getting injured being in a chair is hard to take care of things. I can only imagine the difficult catching for a female. I asked my female therapist her thoughts on if she had to use a catheter and what it would be like to find the urethra not to mention having completely pull your pants down unless wearing a skirt. The answer was very clearly very difficult. Do you have any feeling down there? I have seen pics of orchiectomy surgeries that were just done and your right it look likes there still in there. What was your T Pryor to getting castrated? Mine is around 175 last time it was checked. I do take some micronized progesterone and estrogen patch off and on with sometime estrogen cream and several years of abusing them with bands. Wondering how I’ll feel when my T is reduced to not much. My chest seams to respond quickly when I am on meds. I welcome a little boob and nipple growth I don’t desire fully developed chest, being almost 61 most guys have some degree of man boobs so I don’t stand out. Curious how meds are working for you now that yours are gone?

My injury is T-5, ASIA-B, or 'incomplete' I have feeling but no motor... The feeling is not 'normal' though, it seems like I don't get the pain component the way a normal person would... It is a 'non-traumatic' ischemic injury as the result of emergency surgery, which gives me a slightly different set of issues from those usually associated w/ a traumatic injury. I still feel pain to some degree below my injury, but it's more 'long term' things I feel. (i.e. my left sitting bone gives me a lot of discomfort - the right one doesn't, go figure...) I have had many occasions where I've done something that injured me (cuts, burns, etc) and felt it as uncomfortable, but not realized I had actually hurt myself until later... As best I can tell the issue is that it's my 'lower motor neurons' that are damaged, along with the 'reflex centers' that drive them, which means the primary pain pathways are blocked...

Before I started down this path, I had about 50% of 'normal' T levels, and my endocrinologist had me on a gel to bring it up... It went back down to about the same when I started and they took me off the T supplement. I then went through chemical castration w/ Lupron, which dropped it to '<12' (the detection limit for the test, so effectively 0) about a month after that I was started on E, and have not had detectable levels of T since... I haven't had a test since the surgery, I'm expecting to at my next follow up with the TG doc in a couple of months.

I haven't ever had a strong physical or emotional reaction to hormones or lack of them... When I got the Lupron shots I felt so little difference I wasn't sure it had worked until I got the test results. I possibly had a few hot flashes / night sweats, but our home AC system was on the fritz at the time, so I'm still not sure if it was hormones or just heat... I did start noticing boob growth pretty soon after starting the E, and especially a lot of tenderness in the breast buds. I'd say it took about 6 months for the boobs to reach their current size - I haven't noticed any further growth since. It took about 9 months for the tenderness to mostly go away. They are still more tender than before, but mostly only if I actually push on them. The nipples didn't change a lot, but seem to be erect a lot more of the time.

WheelyFixed

Haven’t been on in awhile but I did have a consult with my urologist on 12/6 and have two letters, so all is a go. My insurance is changing after the 1st so I will move forward and have insurance approved and then schedule the date and have them removed. Still need to figured out how much of the scrotum I want removed in case I decide on further surgery, such as vulvoplasty.