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!

Some of them involve mutilating your genitals. Cosmetic surgeons do more labioplasties on women that know they are women than men who want to fashion a vagina or women who want a penis. On the whole, they do more boob jobs on female teens than they do on trans people.

Reddit will give you a snapshop but not rounded evidence. Fot exsmple there might be over representation of those witg complications because they are seeking advice or reassurance. Herr are links to 2 studies (abstracts only but gibe you a good sense of results) .
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29019859/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2050052122000129

Overall good functionality, not too bad rate of complications. Note that first abstract incluse is cismales who have the surgery for various reasons other than transitioning.

In terms of orgasm who knows if that's a big deal. If you hated or disliked your genitalia to begun with organising may have been difficult or absent. So it might not be that important post op.
Just thought these may offer more nuanced evidence less coloured by the sociopolitics of the transitioning debate.

I find it funny that people would be spitting fury about some random teen getting surgery but forget their daughter is having botox at 23

Oh FGS - young women thinking plastic surgery is somehow compulsory and routine - is a hugely depressing development.
Can you not get your head around the idea that ALL plastic surgery and surgical body modification is immensely damaging for young women, especially those who are vulnerable or autistic

And now people happily say "adults should feel free to have whatever surgeries they and their doctors decide~~, it's only children I'm concerned about".

I know from conversations with less online friends of mine that most people have literally no idea what these surgeries involve, how many go wrong and what it looks like even in the best let alone the worst outcomes. They imagine it like a sort of transplant (haha) and think that the ethical issue is just whether it's wrong to interfere with the bodies God created or something.

That shows its all about stopping trans people from existing over saving people from the horror of extreme, unethical surgery.

@MyOliveHelper Its nothing whatsoever to do with stopping trans people existing, are Trans people who choose not to have these surgeries no longer Trans in your opinion ?

Agree it’s sad that these surgeries are becoming normalised as well. The phalloplasty seems to be a particularly complex procedure with a very high rate of complications though.

oh that just doesn't bear thinking about.

I personally don’t agree with young women feeling they must get breast enlargements or have Botox to fit an unreal sexualised Beauty standard so they can attract the male gaze. I also don’t think women should be told having a skin graft from their arm will give them a fully functioning penis and make them a man. See I can care about both. This thread was asking if they work. Not very often and never fully. Plus as these women are women how would they know what a fully functioning penis actually was? They wouldn’t because only a man with an actual penis knows that exactly the same as a man with an vaginoplasty doesn’t know if it’s the same as a real one (it isn’t).

Indeed. I do not think mutilating genitals is no better or worse that mutilating tummies, books, faces. Because while we often see the faces and boob's that did well post surgery there are many that went horribly wrong. And there others where surgeons have performed multiple surgeries on women who have become obsessed with cosmetic enhancement that they are, for lack of a better word, deformed beyond recognition and are essentially being repeatedly mutilated. And yes sometimes it is to look like a different person. It's all more complicated and nuanced that we sometimes would like to believe

Then perhaps the answer to the Op's question is that whether they "fully work" depends on what the "patient's" goal was. If it was to pee from a phallic appendage then probably over 92% success rate. If to satisfy their feeling like a man, then that depends on their feelings pre and post op. If to do all the major characteristic physical functions of weeing and being erect, then a lower rate. If to include sperms production then probably not. However there are men who don't havr elections or produce sperms but are still men by virtual of their biological sex. So op's question is actually complicated. In terms of biology no a phalloplasty will not switch the chromosomes but it terms of what the patient wants to achieve it may be highly successful

How does one even define what 'works' means in this context?

It doesn't work like a normal penis of course, how could it?

So what else is included in 'works'?

Indeed, especially when in certain NHS trusts people cannot get additional IVF treatment, or cutting edge cancer drugs or ASD/ADHD assessments!!

Aside from the fact that my DD genuinely believed for many years you could 3D print a phallus and attach it, the fact is that everyone we know of who has had mastectomies and explored/had a phalloplasty has been deeply disappointed and full of regret aftwards. I’m not talking about 1 person, I’m referencing a significant community in London/Brighton. The people promoting these ops - the activists - rarely have any actual skin in the game [literally]… they are all about inciting others to do it. Am just grateful that these Reddit threads with photos are now out there because my DD realised pretty quickly what a complete con it was and finally began rejecting being ‘trans’.

Theatre nurse here. Never heard of it. Had to google, and that is totally barbaric. Each to their own but the word Mengale-esque. Is spot on. Absolutely brutal.

Exactly what I just finished typing. Do we define a penis purely by ability to be erect and ejaculate? To orgasm? How diminishing would that be to millions of men who cant. Then what of women's vulva, vaginas, clits?

It really isn't just skin that's removed from the arm. It's skin, deep sub-cutaneous tissue, fat, nerves and blood vessels. They try not to damage the arm muscle and tendons, but as a pp has said these can end up infected/exposed. Then they take a skin graft from the thigh to cover up the wound on the arm.

Yes. Apparently a whole dedicated hospital plus unknown number of referrals to NHS funded private hospitals. Then we’ll be paying for the inevitable lawsuits when these girls wake up and realise how badly their bodies and fertility have been destroyed. Part of the phalloplasty procedure is a hysterectomy and oophorectomy (removal of ovaries).

There is no clinical need for these procedures - it is a highly contested experimental procedure to treat a mental health condition. It is at least as bad as lobotomies were. Anyone arguing in favour of this should be ashamed.

Interesting that the writer describes self as “a-sexual” and
carefully mentions every other phallo person by their race.

It’s a very “New Yorker” …

Thanks for sharing this, even though I found it very upsetting to read. The image of the huge scar on her thigh is something that will stay in my mind for a long time. Also she - a transman who has had a phalloplasty but retained her vagina writes this:

"It’s impossible to articulate and maybe even to know exactly why my vagina is integral to my power and my personhood."

I found myself yelling - it's because you're a woman! It feels so tragic. I hope she can find some peace in her life but it feels so wrong to inflict all this harm on a healthy body.

Great, well this thread is about the trans ones, but you're free to make a thread about other types too.

educate yourself

This really was an idiotic thing for TRA to say - people educated themselves and realised exactly how much worse transideology was than they first thought.

As far as I am aware, the NHS is not providing cosmetic surgery such as fillers, Botox, breast and buttock enlargements, but the NHS is providing this barbaric surgery (and I include 'vaginoplasty' for men in that description; what they end up with is not a vagina by any means.)

The next time you hear someone banging on about the NHS needing more money then perhaps consider what they are spending it on. Surgery is not the answer to mental health problems and it should not be provided on the NHS. The surgeons doing this are zealots and activists.

Yes. The NHS in some areas is also providing full body electrolysis, voice ‘feminisation’ coaching, facial feminisation surgery and boob jobs for men who want to look more like women.

An awful lot of whataboutery on this thread by a poster to is determined to liken the whole destruction caused by phalloplasty to Botox injections.

The standard definition for a “working” vagina seems to be “fuckable”. So I expect it’s the equivalent.

Of course, sex dolls are “fuckable” (as are many surprising things, for some men) and dildos and similar accessories can be purchased on the high street, so it seems a lot of trouble to go to for possibly not very much.

Edited to say forgot to quote @TheKeatingFive