Jump to content
  • Welcome to the TransPulse Forums!

    We offer a safe, inclusive community for transgender and gender non-conforming folks, as well as their loved ones, to find support and information.  Join today!

Starting the process for grs


Amj12986

Recommended Posts

Hello everyone,

    My name is Audrey. I am a 30. Y/o mtf trans woman. I have some questions about grs that I hope I can have answered. The first thing I'd like to say is that I have been on hrt and doing the rlt for over a year now. I just recently scheduled my consult for the surgery. My consult appointment is on September 5th. Ok now that some background info has been provided, here are my questions

1.   Has anyone ever heard anything about or personally had their surgery at the mount Sinai transgender center in New York City? What really caught my eye about them is that they apparently work with and consult with dr bowers whom I am given to understand is a very skilled dr in this area. If you wouldn't mind sharing any stories or experiences I would love to hear them in regards to this place.

2. I have never had any kind of surgery and I am so nervous about it. I guess the main thing being about anesthesia. I cannot stand the thought of not having control over my body or being put to sleep, it just freaks me out but I am willing to do it for this. What is it like to be put under anesthesia? What does it feel like waking up afterwards? How long before it completely wears off and things are normal?

3. After the surgery, how did you feel both physically and emotionally? I imagine it would physically feel a kin to being hit by a train, but I guess just some personal experiences shared would be nice, not to scare me but so I know what to expect and prepare for it. How did you feel upon waking up and knowing and seeing that things were normal down there? 

4. How long of a process was it from start to finish (i.e. From initial consult to waking up from surgery)? I don't for see any issues getting approved for it as I said I have been being seen and treated for years for everything, been through my rlt, and hold an excellent job for the state of New York with very good insurance ( empire plan blue cross blue shield). I know it's not something I should rush but I am just excited to be able to have the surgery and heal and feel complete.

5. I know it will take some time to heal fully and swelling to go away, but about how long after the surgery should I expect there to be bleeding? How much does it usually bleed after you are sent home? And what practices and things helped to deal with it all and aid in healing? 

I know a lot of these questions are probably "it depends" and "ymmv" , but I guess just some info based off of others experience would help to demystify the process and help me remain calm throughout the whole ordeal. Thank you so much in advance.

                                             Best regards,

                                              Audrey

Link to comment

The questions I can answer I will try.

Having anesthesia doesn't feel much like anything. Usually the guy comes in, either tells you he's starting it, or the put a breathing mask over you and ask you to count from 10. Ususally you are out before 5. Next thing you know you are awake and it's over.

Personally, I was pretty out of it my first day, but not in pain. I'm sure I had something in my IV. By the 2nd day I felt pretty normal. I never took any of the pain pills they gave me. You'll want to limit walking for a few days, which will be awkward anyway. For me I didn't see the results for a week. I wondered how it would feel when I saw it. My best reaction is I felt normal.

I did not have any bleeding. 

Link to comment
  • Admin

My post Op entry's begin with this post back in 2013, Marci Bowers was my surgeon as you can see in my signature.  This topic is archived but you can get a glimpse of what happened to me back then, which I think will answer a lot of your questions

https://www.transgenderpulse.com/forums/topic/52994-greetings-from-san-mateo-ca/

This is another one in the series that almost got a little out of hand, but if it gives you a smile and helps the worrying, that is why I wrote it and others.

https://www.transgenderpulse.com/forums/topic/53849-always-_______-never______while-dilating/

Link to comment

I can't imagine doing that with a local! Eeew! My surgery was scheduled for noon that got pushed back to two something. As they wheeled me down I was humming the song from TransAmerica. Five ish I woke in recovery. By six I was comfortable in my room with a basketball stuffed between my legs. More morphine please? I stayed spun up all week. In Monday morning, out on Friday afternoon after I proved I could pee on my own.

Late the second day they had the basketball off. Right after I was up to go to the bathroom. That was enough for one day. The next day I was jonesing for coffee and cigarettes, I was on the run for the rest of the week. I was all over the hospital, coffee shop, outside, after while they stopped keeping tabs on me. They knew I would be back. More morphine please!

They moved me to my hotel Friday night and from there I owned Thong Lo Bangkok for two and a half more weeks. I walked everywhere in my little corner of the city. Got a really cool tattoo too. I bleed strong for almost two weeks. I didn't use another drug after my hospital flight.

My first dialation felt like I was impaled by a telephone pole. It gets easier each time. It was all a very small price to fix my problem and be just like all my thousands of girlfriends in derby. So much better than in between. Asia was the trip of my lifetime. If you need it go for it. From there you pass over the one way tire grate. DO NOT BACK UP! Enjoy your journey it is a life changing event.

Link to comment
  • Forum Moderator

I've always been a little nervous about anesthesia but really it's no big deal.  After the IV is in, one minute I'm talking with the nurses, then I'm in recovery.  I was alert and totally back in control soon afterwards.  

Physically I was not in any great pain.  A little soreness from the numbness wearing off around the surgery area.   Bleeding was minimal.  Getting use to the new way of relieving myself was a learning process.   Emotionally I was fine also.  I had already moved on mentally.  I told my sister I didn't feel different.  My best friend had told me before I travelled that the hard part was over and this was just frosting on the cake.  He was right.  I have healed quickly, more so than I expected which is good.  My clothes fit great!

From when I decided to come out and see a therapist to my surgery date was 22 months.  Your timeline may vary.   This is how I was meant to be.

Jani

Link to comment

Question 4: My consult was in March and my surgery is August 1st. 

Question 5:A month or two.

This may have some other answers for you about post-op life:

 

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Who's Online   3 Members, 0 Anonymous, 121 Guests (See full list)

    • Breanne_O
    • AllieJ
    • VickySGV
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      80.7k
    • Total Posts
      768.4k
  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      12,024
    • Most Online
      8,356

    JamesyGreen
    Newest Member
    JamesyGreen
    Joined
  • Today's Birthdays

    1. Alscully
      Alscully
      (35 years old)
    2. floruisse
      floruisse
      (40 years old)
    3. Jasmine25
      Jasmine25
      (22 years old)
    4. Trev0rK
      Trev0rK
      (26 years old)
  • Posts

    • EasyE
      Republicans have long committed grave errors by emphasizing their social agenda and moral issues instead of just focusing on the economy, lowering taxes, keeping the public safe, building a strong national defense, promoting business, touting reasonable immigration policies, etc.   The country would thrive economically under Trump's tax and business policies. That's a fact. Another four years of Biden will run this country into the ground financially (including all of our 401Ks and IRAs). But the GOP continues to play right into the Dems' hands by leading with their moral crusades instead of staying the course and trusting their fiscal policies to win the day... 
    • Carolyn Marie
      https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/hundreds-athletes-urge-ncaa-not-ban-trans-athletes-womens-sports-rcna149033     Carolyn Marie
    • KymmieL
      Well first day is over and now getting ready for bed soon. Work was OK.   Don't know why but I am feeling down. I am heading to bed. Good Night.   Kymmie
    • Adrianna Danielle
      Boyfriend and I our time at my place.Both admit our sex life is good,got intimate for the 2nd time and he is good at it
    • Abigail Genevieve
      Thanks.  I will look those up in the document, hopefully tomorrow.   I always look at the source on stuff like this, not what someone, particularly those adversarial, have to say. 
    • MaeBe
      LGBTQ rights Project 2025 takes extreme positions against LGBTQ rights, seeking to eliminate federal protections for queer people and pursue research into conversion therapies in order to encourage gender and sexuality conformity. The policy book also lays out plans to criminalize being transgender and prohibit federal programs from supporting queer people through various policies. The project partnered with anti-LGBTQ groups the Family Policy Alliance, the Center for Family and Human Rights, and the Family Research Council. Project 2025 calls for the next secretary of Health and Human Services to “immediately put an end to the department’s foray into woke transgender activism,” which includes removing terms related to gender and sexual identity from “every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.” The Trump administration proposed a similar idea in 2018 that would have resulted in trans people losing protections under anti-discrimination laws. [Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership, 2023; The New Republic, 2/8/24] Similarly, the policy book calls for HHS to stop all research related to gender identity unless the purpose is conformity to one's sex assigned at birth. The New Republic explains: “That is, research on gender-nonconforming children and teenagers should be funded by the government, but only for the purpose of studying what will make them conform, such as denying them gender-affirming care and instead trying to change their identities through ‘counseling,’ which is a form of conversion therapy.” [The New Republic, 2/8/24] The policy book’s foreword by Kevin Roberts describes “the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children” as “pornography” that “should be outlawed,” adding, “The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned.” Roberts also says that “educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.” [Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership, 2023] Roberts’ foreword states that “allowing parents or physicians to ‘reassign’ the sex of a minor is child abuse and must end.” Echoing ongoing right-wing attacks on trans athletes, Roberts also claims, “Bureaucrats at the Department of Justice force school districts to undermine girls’ sports and parents’ rights to satisfy transgender extremists.” [Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership, 2023; TIME magazine, 5/16/22] Dame Magazine reports that Project 2025 plans to use the Department of Justice to crack down on states that “do not charge LGBTQ people and their allies with crimes under the pretense that they are breaking federal and state laws against exposing minors to pornography.” [Dame Magazine, 8/14/23] Project 2025 also calls for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to repeat “its 2016 decision that CMS could not issue a National Coverage Determination (NCD) regarding ‘gender reassignment surgery’ for Medicare beneficiaries.” The policy book’s HHS chapter continues: “In doing so, CMS should acknowledge the growing body of evidence that such interventions are dangerous and acknowledge that there is insufficient scientific evidence to support such coverage in state plans.” [Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership, 2023] Going further, Project 2025 also demands that the next GOP administration “reverse policies that allow transgender individuals to serve in the military.” The policy book’s chapter on the Defense Department claims: “Gender dysphoria is incompatible with the demands of military service, and the use of public monies for transgender surgeries … for servicemembers should be ended.” [Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership, 2023]   …summaries of what’s within the rest of the document re: LGBTQ+ concerns. A person can believe their gender is fixed but incongruent with their physiology, but the authors and Trump (by his own words) just see the incongruity of an “expressed gender” that conflicts with what was/is in a person’s pants.
    • Mmindy
      Good catch… I took care of it.
    • Sally Stone
      I'm tired of the two-party system.  It has degraded to a system where there are only two diametrically opposed views, neither of which supports me.  I have conservative views regarding big government and government spending but I have very liberal views when it comes to protecting the rights of individuals.  And just elections of the past, I am stuck with two choices, neither of which I support. With only two parties, each with agendas that are off the left and right scales, I am not adequately represented.    Finally, I'm okay with party affiliated politicians running for office using their party views, but once elected to office, they are obligated to support the entire electorate not just the electorate members that voted for them.  Plain and simple, our government system is broken and dysfunctional.  I'll step down from my soapbox now.     
    • Sally Stone
      Thanks Mae.  She was an amazing friend and I grew to love her like a sister.
    • Sally Stone
      I did Ashley.  Non-rev travel was one of the major factors for taking the job.  At the time, US Airways had the best non-rev policy in the industry.  It cost $10 to fly coach and $25 to fly first class.  We flew first class whenever there were seats available.  
    • Abigail Genevieve
      You should have a moderator fix what you meant to write as "birth certificate".  Ooops.   I've gone over that verse and am wholly and completely dissatisfied with the SBC exegesis of it, so much so that it was one of the things that helped me break out of a mindset of guit.  Sometime I may strut by stuff as a Hebraist and show what it really means.
    • Abigail Genevieve
      I found this   — 450 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise Goal #1: Protecting Life, Conscience, and Bodily Integrity. The Secretary should pursue a robust agenda to protect the fundamental right to life, protect con- science rights, and uphold bodily integrity rooted in biological realities, not ideology. From the moment of conception, every human being possesses inherent dignity and worth, and our humanity does not depend on our age, stage of development, race, or abilities. The Secretary must ensure that all HHS programs and activities are rooted in a deep respect for innocent human life from day one until natural death: Abortion and euthanasia are not health care. A robust respect for the sacred rights of conscience, both at HHS and among gov- ernments and institutions funded by it, increases choices for patients and program beneficiaries and furthers pluralism and tolerance. The Secretary must protect Americans’ civil rights by ensuring that HHS programs and activities follow the letter and spirit of religious freedom and conscience-protection laws. Radical actors inside and outside government are promoting harmful identity politics that replaces biological sex with subjective notions of “gender identity” and bases a person’s worth on his or her race, sex, or other identities. This destructive dogma, under the guise of “equity,” threatens American’s fundamental liberties as well as the health and well-being of children and adults alike. The next Secretary must ensure that HHS programs protect children’s minds and bodies and that HHS programs respect parents’ basic right to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children.   https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_CHAPTER-14.pdf   First, that is not much, if that is all that is of concern.  Secondly, I have seen all sorts of anti-Trump slander, including the Steele dossier and the lawfare he is now undergoing, to be cynical of any criticism against him, and indirectly this document.    He deserves some of what he is getting, but not all.  Thirdly, I bolded one statement of concern.   I don't think gender identity is subjective.  "Radical actors" is name calling, and there is a lot of that going around.  Maybe I am not seeing everything of concern or reading this right, but i would discuss with the author of this document concerning this.
    • Willow
      Good evening   well I finally finished reading my textbook.  Yeah.  But I still have a lot more to go for the class.     My endocrinologist always asks me about lactation.  And yes I have had some very small amounts of leakage but not on any regular basis.  I figure I blocked the discharge Duce when I pierced my nipples with scare tissue.  But who knows.  I also get asked about mammograms.  I e had my first or baseline and this fall I will need to schedule my second.   As someone in the midst of studying the Old Testament, I can say that I haven’t found any mention of pending damnation for being transgender or intersex.  The closest it comes is a verse that says men should not wear women’s clothing.  Now I don’t know each and everyone’s particulars, but I know I meet the medical definition of female gender, and even in Ohio, a State that until recently refused to allow birth certificates to be changed, I meet the criteria.  Therefore I can only conclude I am not a man wearing women’s clothing.  But there is a somewhat different scholarly explanation of that law that it should not be taken as literally as the haters want.  Mostly men should not pretend to be women to ex ape from their enemies. Or tried to hide from God.     willow
    • Abigail Genevieve
      Well, the left wing has been doing that.    I read a few things while trying to find out what the problem is and liked what I read.  But I am a conservative.    Is there something specific in there that is of concern?  Does it promise somewhere to erase trans folk? That would be problematic.
    • Ivy
      It's a plan to basically completely take over the government by the right wing.
  • Upcoming Events

Contact TransPulse

TransPulse can be contacted in the following ways:

Email: Click Here.

To report an error on this page.

Legal

Your use of this site is subject to the following rules and policies, whether you have read them or not.

Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
DMCA Policy
Community Rules

Hosting

Upstream hosting for TransPulse provided by QnEZ.

Sponsorship

Special consideration for TransPulse is kindly provided by The Breast Form Store.
×
×
  • Create New...