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surgeries and procedures to affirm your gender

Many transgender individuals find surgical procedures necessary in order to become the best version of the person they have always been. However, not all transgender people want or need medical interventions. You should never feel pressured or like you are not "trans," "man," "woman," or "nonbinary" enough because you don't want to have surgery. The decision to have surgery should be between you, your medical providers, and potentially your partner.

  • What you need
  • Assigned Male at Birth
  • Assigned Female at Birth
  • Finding a Surgeon
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Depending upon the surgeon and the procedure you need to get done, there may be many steps to having a gender affirming surgery. This list is not comprehensive.

  • Determine what's best for you: You may not need to have every surgery available. Spend some time thinking about what you want to have done and rank each surgery so that if you have to pick and choose you'll know what is the most important to you. Seeing a gender affirming therapist would greatly help in this process.
  • Funding: Your insurance may cover some but not all gender affirming surgeries. Any serious surgery plan should start by determining your coverage and private funding options.
  • Start saving: Chances are, you'll have to pay some out-of-pocket. Start saving a little from each paycheck.
  • Fundraise: Look for funding options from nonprofits. Start an online personal fundraiser.
  • Look for a surgeon: Look for someone who specializes in the surgery you want. Look at their online reviews. Price hotels in the city where they are located and price round-trip travel.
  • Schedule a consultation: When you are close to your fundraising goal, schedule a consultation with the surgeon. At that appointment, the surgeon will discuss other things you need to do to be medically ready like a psychological evaluation, labs, antibiotics, electrolysis, etc., as well as the risks. You will also discuss your goals and how the surgery will help you meet that goal. The surgeon will give you a time-line for recovery, so be sure to take that into account when you are scheduling leave from work. You may need to save enough money to support you if you will be exceeding annual paid leave benefits (if applicable).
  • Complete the additional requirements: It may be upsetting to have to see a psychologist for an evaluation, but remember that many major life-changing surgeries have a psychological evaluation component. You don't have to prove you are trans to the psychologist. You will have a chat about the procedure, your goals, and how the surgery will help you meet your goals.
  • Last minute notes: Make sure you've completed all requirements and have funding secured before your surgery date.
  • Don't get discouraged: Gender affirming surgery can be really expensive. Even so, there are little things you can do to get closer to having surgery. If you make a list of everything you need to do, and work on the less expensive things one at a time, then you'll have a way of tracking how much you've been doing on your medical transition.

Next steps:
Not all of the surgeries may be wanted or needed. Some operations may occur at the same time.
Consult a specializing surgeon for more information and options that are best for you.
  • Body sculpting: provides the desired feminization of the body
  • Breast augmentation: implants and/or fat grafting to create female breasts, optimizing for size, shape, and texture
  • Buttock augmentation: implants and/or fat grafting to alter the size, shape, and texture of the buttocks
  • Clitoroplasty: creation of a clitoris
  • Facial Feminization Surgery (FFS): is a set of surgical procedures that makes face look more feminine.
  • Hair grafting: augments female-pattern body hair developed with hormone therapy
  • Labiaplasty: creation of labia
  • Orchiectomy: removal of the testicles
  • Tracheal shave: reduces cartilage in the throat to make the appearance more feminine
  • Urethroplasty: reconstruction of the urethra
  • Vaginoplasty: reconstruction of the penis into a fully sensitive vagina.

Next steps:
Not all of the surgeries may be wanted or needed. Some operations may occur at the same time.
Consult a specializing surgeon for more information and options that are best for you.
  • Body sculpting: enhance the appearance of the body to have more masculine feature
  • Facial Masculinization Surgery (FMS): changes the feminine features of a female face to be more masculine
  • Glansplasty: construction the glans penis, the sensitive and bulbous structure at the tip of the penis
  • Hair grafting: augmentation of male-pattern body hair developed with hormone therapy
  • Hysterectomy: removal of the uterus
  • Mastectomy: removal of breasts
  • Metoidioplasty: moves the clitoris into the approximate position of where a penis would be
  • Oophorectomy: removal of the ovaries
  • Penile implant: insertion of a prosthetic substance that will serve as a replacement for the spongy tissue inside a penis that normally fills with blood during an erection
  • Phalloplasty: construct, enlarge, or repair the penis
  • Salpingectomy: removal of the fallopian tubes
  • Scrotoplasty: creation of a new scrotum
  • Urethroplasty: reconstruction of the urethra
  • Vaginectomy: removal of all or part of the vagina

Next steps:
Gender affirming surgeries are a highly specialize field of surgery. Be prepared to have to travel a long way and spend a lot of money, most likely out-of-pocket. TS Surgery Guide (External Link) has the most comprehensive list of surgeons, including a list of requirements and costs.
This article is not intended to replace professional medical advice. External links are provided to assist users in their transition by connecting them to more specialized resources. Darcy Jeda Corbitt Foundation and MyTransitionPartner do not vet the resources we provide on this website. We cannot guarantee the helpfulness or quality of the external resources we provide. Content on the links provided are reflective of the opinions and experience of the content's author. Linked external pages do not imply endorsement.