Complications from trans surgery!

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These are the words of Scott Newgent, a female transitioner who also had a phalloplasty.

During my own transition, I had seven surgeries. I also had a massive pulmonary embolism, a helicopter life-flight ride, an emergency ambulance ride, a stress-induced heart attack, sepsis, a 17-month recurring infection due to using the wrong skin during a (failed) phalloplasty, 16 rounds of antibiotics, three weeks of daily IV antibiotics, the loss of all my hair, (only partially successful) arm reconstructive surgery, permanent lung and heart damage, a cut bladder, insomnia-induced hallucinations—oh and frequent loss of consciousness due to pain from the hair on the inside of my urethra. All this led to a form of PTSD that made me a prisoner in my apartment for a year. Between me and my insurance company, medical expenses exceeded $900,000.

During these 17 months of agony, I couldn’t get a urologist to help me. They didn’t feel comfortable taking me on as a patient—since the phalloplasty, like much of the transition process, is experimental. “Could you go back to the original surgeon?” they suggested.

Quillette

Yes, I do put my money where my mouth is as it were. My understanding, as things stand, is that it will not outlaw providing the risks of both medication and surgery.

What are YOU doing outside of posting on an internet forum.

I remember reading many years ago that F2M surgery can shorten your life by 10 years. I don't know if that is still the case, but it struck me then that people who go through with surgery must really believe they need it, to accept such a risk

I'm not convinced that all surgical patients are aware of this. Still less am I convinced that all applicants are fully able to comprehend what that means in terms of quality of life before death.

There are a surprising amount of people who think that if "x shortens your lifespan by ten years", that means you will still enjoy a good standard of health for the same number of years as someone who does not do/use x. They think it means they will simply drop dead at age 79 instead of 89, and avoid needing to live in a care home. They don't realise that the issues that lead to you dying ten years younger also mean needing help with personal care 10 years younger too.

Ten years might be optimistic, too. Back in 2013, a 44 year old in Belgium was approved for assisted death because of complications from a phalloplasty (procedure to create an artificial penis). The patient had had the procedure only a year before. That's far more than ten years of lifespan lost.

Huffington Post

I remember reading many years ago that F2M surgery can shorten your life by 10 years. I don't know if that is still the case, but it struck me then that people who go through with surgery must really believe they need it, to accept such a risk

I think the overall health consequences are worse than that but I think a big issue here is that when they are taking these decisions, a lot of people are in serious emotional distress. That is not a good state of mind to be making informed decisions on life changing surgery.

More and more detransitioners are reporting that they felt pushed into surgery or that they were so set on surgery being the answer to their distress that they would do anything but then they find that it was not the answer and that their distress is still there or worse.

The other aspect to bear in mind is that many people deciding to have surgery have their moods and decision making altered by cross sex hormones. Taking oestrogen in males and testosterone in females can have specific mood enhancing effects on the brain which entrenches the idea that they are doing the right thing and definitely’ trans.

Equally, it can also have a depressive effect which, once on the path of medication, surgery seems like the only solution left.

We need far more research on outcomes - current research is showing that medical transition does not improve the mental health outcomes for many patients and some countries are stoping treatment in children and young people.

I remember reading many years ago that F2M surgery can shorten your life by 10 years. I don't know if that is still the case, but it struck me then that people who go through with surgery must really believe they need it, to accept such a risk.

I'm not saying every single person who thinks they are trans is right and should be encouraged to have surgery, but I do think there are a few people who will never be comfortable in their own skin unless they have it, and as long as they are adults and have not been pushed into the decision in any way, I say live and let live. Let's face it, neither a post-op F2M nor a post-op M2F is as much of a threat to women as some people who claim to be pre-op M2F might occasionally be. I know an older post-op transwoman who is just getting on with her life, not hurting anybody, and doing a lot of good work for the local community (not specifically to do with trans issues). If a mutual friend hadn't told me, I would never have even realised she was trans. She doesn't deserve to be sneered at.

If I knew of someone who had been through the surgery, believing it was going to be the answer to a lifetime of unhappiness, and then suffered awful complications, I think I would have nothing but sympathy for them.

Indeed. The weird thing is that trans people rely on a distinction in order to define 'trans' but then treat the two as interchangeable when it suits them.

In general people assume the word 'female' also means 'feminine', (and male, masculine). If we could make more effort to separate the two concepts, that might be a start.

Which is commendable.

But how will informed consent be possible if part of the information, say the risks and deleterious effects of "gender affirming" medication and surgery, is not given, because of the threat of professional repercussions and legal sanctions to the practitioner under Conversion Therapy legislation?

Are you willing to campaign to ensure that this will not happen before the legislation is passed? (In which case, you should really start now, because there isn't much time). And what will you do if it is passed without any safeguards of the sort?

Mermaids, who actively trans gay, autistic and non conforming kids?

Who advocate for sterilising these kids and taking them out of the gene pool?

There's a word for that if I remember correctly.

No shit

They’re not conforming to the stereotypes associated with their sex though. Like many girls have done for years - short hair, jeans, t shirts, boots or trainers. Only now there’s more pressure on children to conform, and if they don’t there’s pressure on them to be trans.
They’re adhering to opposite sex stereotypes because for some reason, right now, these stereotypes and the identities and constant stream of genders and labels are more important, like most teenage phases, but this time adults are indulging them and agreeing that they’re right - who does that to a teen? Roll your eyes, let them get on with it and it’ll pass.

Is there one story out there of a transitioning child that doesn’t rely on gender stereotypes? I’ve yet to see one.

@JusteanBiscuits I agree, informed consent is very important. I think what you're doing is potentially very important. I wish you all the best with it.

Transitioning, especially when involving girls and young women, is an extreme way to escape rigid gender stereotypes. What very few people are asking (or are allowed to ask) is why they want to escape

But they're not escaping rigid gender stereotypes, they are simply adhering to those of the opposite sex. Thus enforcing the rigid man and woman boxes because they need these to make their identity 'real'
Without the stereotypes it's all utterly meaningless as a man cannot ever know what it feels like to be a woman and vice versa.

Absolutely. I'm sure puberty is pretty horrific for any girl, but the onset of periods in particular really significantly negatively affected me. Small things like the physical sensation of wearing a pad or a bra made my body literally recoil and I stewed in self-hatred. I had severe PMDD (I know now that it's very common for neurodiverse women to be overly sensitive to hormonal changes as well as the obvious sensory issues I now recognise)

I didn't know I was autistic at the time but I knew I was different. "Gender dysphoria" was the explanation I was given.

I am simply for making sure kids, and everyone, makes the right choice for them. If someone is trans, I would support them. But even more, I don't want people to make the wrong decision for their life. So I don't support affirmation at any cost. I want there to be adequate, quality counselling for anyone struggling, to explore if it's the right decision or not. As I said earlier, I'm doing a masters around informed consent because it's seriously lacking in all healthcare in my opinion. So ensuring people truly understand the good and the bad is very important to me.

Sounding dangerously transphobic there, tea - the gender affirmation model is the one that trans rights activists hold up as being the gold standard for mental health care for youth stating they are trans.

See the work of Dr Johanna Olson-Kennedy of the Centre for Transgender Health in Los Angeles, as endorsed and promoted by Mermaids and other organisations.

To be very honest @NeighbourhoodWatchPotholeDivision I hadn't looked into that but i shall do out of interest. Thank you for the pointer.

That subreddit has doubled in size in less than a year and yes it's really heartbreaking. I keep wondering how many more children have to be sacrificed at the alter of this ideology before politicians, doctors, teachers etc say enough is enough.

And why is it that for any other mental condition, the treatment is for the mind. Yet here the “treatment” is to alter the body to appease the mind?

That would be akin to liposuction and a gastric bypass for anorexics.

A really good proportion of this would be solved if we stopped conflating sex and gender. It wouldn't be difficult.

Rather than what is a woman? The question needs to be what is gender and why it has to be legislated? What is trans?

if sex is not binary why would a GRC made you a man or a woman? Given into the binary. How can a nonbinary category exist if there is not a binary?

What are trans transitioning from? From presenting as a man or woman ( based on stereotypes) to the other sex? No one can change sex.

You are your body. You can subject your body to all kinds of procedures but that doesn’t provide you with a new body.

Why would the tax payer have to pay for medical treatments if there is no medical requirement? and even with one is it a life saving or a life shortening?

The poor results of interventions made the original Johns Hopkins closed his surgery programs because no improvements to life quality.

The whole thing is full of nonsensical premises. It is very dangerous to believe a lie and make it law.

Sorry if this has been said already as I was looking for this on FWR not here.

I have no doubt there are many issues in undergoing such extreme body modifications.

But the DM arctile is based on research from a clinic in Canada the purpose of which seems to be if only you had come to us first you wouldn't be having these problems, and once you sign up with us, with can continue to make adjustments.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/nau.25132

On the subject of puberty blockers, which til recently were breezily touted by all and sundry as fully reversible, the Karolinska Hospital in Sweden - a world leader for gender healthcare - has stopped using them due to no convincing evidence of their benefits, and some alarming cases of very detrimental effects on young people's bone density.
segm.org/Sweden_ends_use_of_Dutch_protocol

This has been a live experiment on gay and autistic kids.

I’ve just looked at the “detrans” subreddit and it’s really heartbreaking.

The above is fairly typical for autistic girls. I’ve yet to meet an autistic woman who didn’t struggle as a teen with their changing body, the way teen boys and men change around you.

I cannot fathom why the National Autistic Society supports transitioning, unless they feel sterilising autistic girls is a good thing?