Orchiectomy OK before SRS?
Some transsexuals, and even some SRS
surgeons, dislike the idea of having an orchiectomy before SRS. Some surgeons fear that orchiectomy will
permit our scrotal skin to shrink, which then reduces the raw materials available
for construction of our future vagina and labia. Some pre-ops, as much as they dislike the idea of maintaining
their current male parts, fear losing any donor material for their future
female parts. They fear ending up with
reduced vaginal depth and compromised surgical results, or needing a skin graft
(and a resulting scar) from another part of their body, or possibly even
needing the very invasive sigmoid colon transplant procedure.
I had my orchiectomy more than six years
before my recent SRS. My scrotal skin
did shrink, and I turned out to be one of those patients who required a skin
graft from my tummy for adequate depth.
This left me with a horizontal scar line below my tummy. My surgeon did leave this scar in an area
where others won’t notice in my everyday life, and I could probably wear a
bikini without exposing it. But it
would be easily visible in any intimate setting, and it does often itch.
So how do I feel now about having had an
orchiectomy? If anyone asks me that
question, the only thing that comes to my mind is the extra six years of not
having testosterone, and all of the advantages this gave me throughout my long
transition. I don't like my extra scar
line, but I hated testosterone a lot more than that.
If I were permitted to go back in time to the
year 1998 and retain all foreknowledge of things to come for the next eight
years, I still would have had my orchiectomy.
I just could not have done without six years of being free from
testosterone, requiring only low doses of HRT and no Spiro, saving tons of
money on my HRT costs, and best of all, the positive effects on my feelings and
emotions along with the knowledge that no matter what happened, testosterone
could never cause any further damage to my body.
Besides, even without an orchiectomy, years
of HRT with androgen blockers (Spiro or Androcur) can also cause male parts to
shrink. Not having an orchiectomy does
not guarantee that your male parts won’t shrink before SRS.
There were additional factors that
contributed to my need for that skin graft from my tummy. If I had decided to not have an orchiectomy
six years before SRS, I might still have required an additional skin
graft. Without these additional
factors, I might not have needed that skin graft even six years after my orchiectomy.
I decided to have my orchiectomy and enjoy
the benefits of an easier transition and elimination of testosterone, at the
possible expense of a necessary skin graft or reduced SRS results, and I would
make that same decision again. On the
other side of this issue, one TS friend has told me she not only won’t have an
orchiectomy despite being several years away from her SRS, but she is also
deliberately taking inadequate doses of HRT to ensure that her male parts will
still contain enough material for her eventual vaginoplasty.
So my thoughts are, consider all of the pros
and cons. Only you can determine
whether the pros of orchiectomy before SRS would outweigh the cons in your
case. I and some others decided that
the pros outweighed the cons, yet some TSs have comfortably decided to forego
orchiectomy and just have all of their parts removed in one surgery later on.
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