Do phalloplasties actually work?

[SilverTapz]

After wondering about this for a while, I ended up searching phalloplasty online and ended up on a Reddit page where people post their progress. I had never seen one before an was curious, I guess. It was actually quite shocking. People with what looks like no muscle left on their forearms, someone with a necrotic 'scrotum', someone where the stitches were wide open and the tip has turned black and left a gaping hole etc etc. People seem to be commenting saying that they look great, they've made the right decision etc, but honestly they look absolutely butchered. It's scary. And I guess my question is, do they actually function? Some of these people are so young and it's scary what they've done to their bodies. I can't help but think a lot of them will regret the decision. Is it mainly cosmetic? Can they orgasm? Honestly just very shocked by what I've seen!

To get a discussion going, to invite different views, to increase awareness.

Are you a bot?

Kindly, if you go to a transmen forum (I presume you mean Preddit) you will not get anything approaching honesty about what is really involved, and what the real outcomes are. Apart from the fact that there is a terrible circle jerk effect of "mine didn't work and I'm now disabled but it's still SO GREAT/yours will so you should deffo do it" any women (transmen) trying to post about poor outcomes are either downvoted to extinction, or their posts are deleted for transphobia.

On mumsnet there are women who know a lot about the terrible costs of this, and many have daughters or relatives who have been thrown into this meatgrinder of troubled girls/women.

But if the forum of women who had breast reduction surgery was heavily policed by activists and bullies so the women couldn’t speak freely about the negative issues they’d suffered, would it be helpful?

Also if the women were gaslit and brainwashed to think they were the only ones suffering and to put aside their suffering for the greater good because breast reduction surgery must be promoted at all costs you’re not going to get an objective answer.

It's interesting that you're all assuming I'm pro-phalloplasty. For the record, I'm not. But I still don't think Mumsnet is the place to ask very specific questions about phalloplasties like "do they work" and "can they orgasm". Surely those questions would be better asked to people who have had this surgery?

The OP can ask what she wants on this forum, yes?

So next question

And yet people (mostly women, we know) post about their pets on MN rather than/as well as on pet forums, about DIY, Style and Beauty, work related issues, films and TV, mental health…

Why single out this topic as something that should be discussed elsewhere?

On the basis that neither of these are available on the NHS (and thus funded by the taxpayer), have little to no post procedure complications (and the costs of sorting them out if there are any is funded by the individual, so again not an issue for the taxpayer), and are also completely reversible, I’m not sure what your point is?

There are masses of vids on X and TikTok about this, it's all out there.

A bot? No. I have a long posting history here.

Indeed: so again, why ask on Mumsnet?

Indeed: but I can also ask what her motivations were for doing so.

I would certainly recommend also asking the question on a forum specifically for people who have detransitioned or have transition regret in order to get a balanced view.

To canvas opinions on a high traffic site?

And you have. Up to the OP if she wants to enlighten you.

Anyway, ignoring the obvious attempts to derail.

It is blatantly obvious that most people don't have a clue about what these surgeries entail

Would you also have an issue with OP asking question about FGM?

Incidentally, some states in America refused to pass anti FGM laws because the powerful trans lobby knew it was likely to interfere with these ‘trans’ surgeries. That’s how close it is.

I guess the real question here is @peachgreen - why are you not as horrified as the rest of us?

I'm confused by you saying that these stats support successful outcomes. The first link compares trans med having phalloplasty with natal men having phalloplasty
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29019859/. I note it's from 2018.

and this is the conclusion.

Conclusions: Cismale patients undergoing phalloplasty had lower urethral and flap complication rates compared with transmale patients. Staged urethroplasty had more flap complications, and worse outcomes and patient satisfaction compared with primary urethroplasty.

The second link
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2050052122000129
in your post you have quoted the findings from the study that
"Overall complication rate was high at 76.5%, of which urethral complications were high in all reconstructive subgroups (urethral fistula rate of 34.1% and urethral stricture rate of 25.4%)"

This just seems to confirm my concerns.

Some of us don’t use X or Tik Tok. We prefer to have our discussions on here.

Did OP really ask for opinions though? She asked some very specific questions:

• "Do they work?"
• "Do they actually function?"
• "Is it mainly cosmetic?"
• "Can they orgasm?"

All questions that, I would argue, would be better answered by those who have undergone said surgery (or performed it).

That's fair enough, but OP wasn't asking for a discussion, she was asking very specific medical questions.

We don't have to have had the mutilating surgery ourselves to know the answers, as demonstrated by many posts if you read the thread?

And has got some very specific answers, backed up with evidence.

I actually am quite horrified by the procedure, and by the complication rate. Again, I am very much not pro-phalloplasty. But I still don't think Mumsnet is the place to get the kinds of questions OP has answered accurately.

FGM slightly different in that there are more likely to be women here who have experienced FGM -- but I'd still say that if one wanted specific medical questions about the experience of FGM answered, it would be better to post on a forum specifically for women who have undergone FGM.

But not from anyone who has actually undergone the procedure.

Discussion is part of arriving at answers to questions.