The Phalloplasty Philes- You tuber documents trans surgery realities

[TheBurmundseyIndustrialEstate]

A no holds barred look by You tuber TT Exulansic at recent patients who have been through phaloplasty surgery in the US, using their own Tic tok content. She looks at the enormous costs and the horrendous yet repeated and predictable complications.

[Diaryofamadwoman]

I find these too hard to watch, it's beyond shocking what's going on.

[Soontobe60]

She’s excellent at challenging certain ‘issues’. Has done a few videos about how Jazz Jennings is being exploited by their family and doctors all under the glare of public scrutiny.

[TheWeeDonkey]

Thanks for sharing this. I haven't watched the whole video yet but I will do. Just a question, in the comments somebody mentioned the phalliaplasty was carried out without performing a hysterectomy, is that right?

[TheBurmundseyIndustrialEstate]

From what I gather it’s a patient’s choice whether they want a hysterectomy or not.
I am not sure in this instance but I don’t think that trans surgeons in the US would have any moral objections to performing the operation.

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

I just watched one of those videos - they are a really hard watch. I'm aware the youtuber is probably cherry picking but I noticed that

• all of the transmen featured seemed to get increasingly unhappy after their procedures

• all of the transmen featured looked I'll - pale faces, dark rings around eyes.

-the titles acceptance of the inevitability of life changing features complications like urinary incontinence

• it may well be due to editing and cherry picking but they all seemed really ignorant of their female anatomy and general medical complications. Lots of talk about skin "harvesting" and creation penis / scrotum facsimile. Talk of vaginectomy. No discuss of removal of cervix/uterus/ovaries. No discussion about what happened to the clitoris. I say ignorance of female anatomy, but one of them mentioned that penises commonly had "a little bit of hair"

Given that I'm sure these examples were cherry picked Im interested to know if there have been any "successful" phalloplasties that allow the owner to urinate at will, have penetrative sex, orgasm.

[TheWeeDonkey]

Okay I just watched it and oh my, that was really upsetting.

I just can't find the words to say how shocking and disturbing I find it. That poor, poor person. They've destroyed their body and set themselves a lifetime of medical and surgical dependency for what? I fear that they will hit a wall at some point when they realise that fantasy and reality are two different things. I hope they have the support they need when they reach that point.

[TheWeeDonkey]

Sorry, I pressed send too soon. The whole thing just seems deeply unethical to me. The UTI s the fistulas, and these are to be expected?!? The patient deciding the course of surgery? When they're clearly emotionally unwell, and a vaginoplasty without a hysterectomy?! I mean all if the surgeries seem unnecessary and overcomplicated but.... I'm just gobsmacked, really I am.

[Truthlikeness]

I discovered this YouTuber recently. She is extremely astute and has a medical background (pathologist, I believe) which is very evident in the detail she provides.

[OhHolyJesus]

This is also a recent discovery of mine. I really like how she expresses herself and repeatedly makes the point that these are medical resources being used for elective surgeries (during the pandemic in several examples) and therefore are being redirected away from other few-paying patients who require necessary surgeries.

So far the videos I've seen are ftm LD and they all mention the need to pee standing up, this appears to be a 'key ask'. They all have numerous serious medical issues that have been caused by their surgeries and all say they hate various things about the results or how they have suffered but also say how happy they are with their decision to have had the surgery.

One ftm made a list of all the things they hated about their phalloplasty and it included things like the colour of the skin as it had been taken from the thigh (the 'donor site', I know it's medical language but it sounds so removed from saying that it was a taken from a sort of your own body) it is paler than what this person anticipated and as the electrolysis was done on the other leg, and that skin couldn't be used, this person shaves the phallus every other day.

It is shocking and difficult to watch but also I think it's important to see as it shows the reality of the surgical results, and the ones I've watched are utterly convinced it was the right decision and Exulusanic keeps reminding viewers that each person was physically healthy prior to the surgery.

[CreepingDeath]

God this is so disturbing. That first person especially seemed so unhappy, and still couldn't pee through their 'penis' even after months! Why are they not being offered counselling or therapy, but happily given life altering surgeries like it is nothing?

[TheWeeDonkey]

I've only watched he first few minutes of this one but I found it really upsetting, it reminds me of my mum and aunt. In fact my mum has a near identical photo to the one this person describes as the proof that they were not a girl.

The difference is my mum was allowed to be herself. wear shorts and tshirts and her hair short, play in the fields with the boys, climb trees, ride bikes, make mud pies, build forts, tinker in the garage with dad, get messy and muddy, and this is still part of being a girl.

It breaks my heart that normal, healthy people are being convinced there is something not natural about them and the answer is not therapy or councelling but surgery and medication. I hate it, hate it, hate it.

[TheWeeDonkey]

I recently watched two documentaries that are very relevant to what is happening here.

Crime of the Century is on Sky Documentaries and is about the fallout of the opioid epidemic in the US, how it started, how it was exploited and the ways it has destroyed lives.

The Bleeding Edge in on Netflix and is about how little oversight there is over the medical devices industry. How medical devices are aproved and again the devestation to patiens and their families and loved ones.

They are both brilliant but very difficult to watch and helped me to understand how the whole gender affirming industry and how it is being allowed to propogate despite the obvious harms it causes the the patients and the people who love them.

[Shedbuilder]

@CreepingDeath

God this is so disturbing. That first person especially seemed so unhappy, and still couldn't pee through their 'penis' even after months! Why are they not being offered counselling or therapy, but happily given life altering surgeries like it is nothing?

They're not 'given' them. They pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for them, and the costs are never-ending because they will get UTI after UTI and for some of them their kidneys will fail. They crowd fund on social media and they expect their parents and families (one of them talks about parents, grandparents and great-grandparents all contributing). This is a massive medical scandal.

I do like the way the YouTuber keeps reminding us that this is an issue that will, as numbers grow, place an enormous strain on the medical system and on public funds.

[Whatwouldscullydo]

I watched these last night and got lost in a bit of a rabbit hole with some of her other videos.

I was disturbed at how ill they looked and how low the bar was for determining it was a " success"

None if them could pe me, they had catheters and numerous complications and no skin on their arm.

If someone had had surgery to save their leg but was left with a non feeling lump thT just dangled, caused them serious pain and having to walk around with a bag taped to the inside if the other leg I doubt that many wouod call the operation a success. Not when some people with prosthetics have gone on to run marathons and compete in sports and live active healthy lives.

The forced grins exclaiming delight at something that's left them repeatedly going back to the drs who bother it the time befire were disturbing.

And good points made about the money just circulating between them all constantly

[Whatwouldscullydo]

Also saw a couple if her videos on JJ.
I had previously already thought it a bit odd that the conversations were so, well personal yet conducted so publicalky.

But to see all the clips together like that, it realky showed just how devoid of boundaries they all are.

I too recoild in horror at the clip of a minor alone in room with a closed door whilst an unchaperoned adult male conducted an intimate examination

[EdgeOfACoin]

There was an interesting discussion in the comments below one of her videos. Commentators were musing on whether or not the forearm scars would one day become widely-known as a 'transman giveaway'. As more transmen opt to have tattoos in that area to cover the scars, eventually men will stop getting forearm tattoos.

I suspect we're a long way off that happening, but it was an interesting thought.

[Melroses]

I watched a few of these last night.

I remember a Whittle talk where the inadequacy of phalloplasty was mentioned (along with a suprisingly large number for loss of sexual function for penile inversion surgery).

Presumably the next stage, having completed a 'successful' phalloplasty is insertion of a device used as a last resort for erectile dysfunction which, as it is an implant of a surgical device, will probably come with a whole host of other problems.

It was also worrying that she confirmed that there is a lack of structural attachment.

[Whatwouldscullydo]

Presumably the next stage, having completed a 'successful' phalloplasty is insertion of a device used as a last resort for erectile dysfunction which, as it is an implant of a surgical device, will probably come with a whole host of other problems

I really worry about the drs who would do this. I mean at least in ED patients there will likely have been a few other steps taken first. Therapy/health work up/ diet/exercise/medication etc bit to go straight to this in , well in one of these videos the person was what? 19?

At least in men its would go where its supoosed to go and hope with full sensation. But these young adults dint have any sensation beyond having an.ark stroked because that's effectively what it is. So it's purely cosmetic int that sense and I wonder if they weren't being paid privately if it would would get past an ethics board.

[FlyingOink]

@EdgeOfACoin

There was an interesting discussion in the comments below one of her videos. Commentators were musing on whether or not the forearm scars would one day become widely-known as a 'transman giveaway'. As more transmen opt to have tattoos in that area to cover the scars, eventually men will stop getting forearm tattoos.

I suspect we're a long way off that happening, but it was an interesting thought.

I'm not sure tattoos even cover it, the actual flesh is removed so there's a difference in the diameter of the forearm where the tissue has been taken in comparison to the other forearm. Also this can affect mobility of the forearm and strength too, from what I've read.

Metoidoplasty seems less invasive but results in a micropenis. And in phalloplasties it seems really difficult to lengthen the urethra, so the urinary incontinence and peeing from behind the neopenis seems pretty standard.

It's interesting that standing to pee is such an important thing.

[FlyingOink]

Yes I'm sure the clitoral nerves are somewhere in the base of the neopenis, and as you say the rest of it is arm or leg, and I can't see how having my forearm stroked would get me off. Presumably it must work for at least some of them.

[Whatwouldscullydo]

And what about friends.

I mean at 18/19 - 24 ish going to college then I was working then going out and seeing friends crashing on sofas etc

Its supposed to be a time when commitments are at a low amd freedom to live is high. Before rent and mortgages and children etc

How many friends are going to wait to spend their time on and off long term , having to sit around at a mates house while they recover from yet another surgery, and are restricted witg where they go and what they do .

Its gotta take a toll on friendships/relationships. Where are they at the end of it all?

[somethinginoffensive]

Those videos are horrific. When she asks "when will this be banned?" I do wonder if it will ever be banned.

As she says, they are taking physically healthy girls with a psychological disorder and turning them into lifelong medical patients.

[ElliottSmithsfingers]

I had a post deleted on another thread for suggesting trans people have mental health issues, so the current terms of the debate damage them in the first place. If somebody wanted their arms chopped off as they thought they'd be happier without, would they be humoured in the same way? And the people who urge caution slated as armless-phobes?

[TheWeeDonkey]

I've fallen down the rabbit hole now and all of these people just look so unwell. When they answer the question about functionality I just think "what have you done to yourself" .

For me the parallel between this and with opiates is that drugs like oxycontin and fentanyl were first developed as pain management for end of life patients, but because obviously they have a limited need for these drugs the drug industry created Pain Management so then teenagers with sports injuries are put on a pain management pathway rather than rehabilitation. A healthy 19yo is going to be a more profitable cash cow than someone who will be dead in a few days. The drugs firms fund the doctors to keep pushing this and lobbyists push politicians to make this not only legal, but patients liable for any harm caused.

Its the same thing, its like a wheel that keeps turning and its vulnerable people who get hurt every time.