Heya! I’ve been looking into getting an orchiectomy, but I’m having a really hard time finding a surgeon. I’m located in Arizona, USA. Does anyone have any tips or recommendations?
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Are there any LGBTQ resource groups near you? I know the one by me maintains a list of local doctors of various specialties that are supportive and affirming for trans people. And folks there may be able to share doctors they’ve had luck with too.
That’s a great idea - I’ll need to look into what’s available around here
- Talk to your local trans community, find multiple people who have actually had surgeries and who like their results, figure out who their surgeon was (they may have traveled to get the surgery, it’s not uncommon to have to travel).
- checkout reviews online of surgeons in your area or region, you could start here for example: https://old.reddit.com/r/TransSurgeriesWiki/wiki/srs/usa-west#wiki_arizona
- If the above two options don’t work, and you have a trans healthcare provider (like an endo overseeing your HRT), they will sometimes have a list of referrals to people in urology who accept trans patients.
I recommend seeing someone experienced in performing gender-affirming surgeries for trans patients, and who has a strong track record of good results.
I would even recommend going with a surgeon who performs vaginoplasties and who will know how to perform the orchi in a way that preserves the scrotum so you could use it for a skin graft in the future.
Sometimes surgeons don’t know to prioritize the scrotal skin for later surgeries (or just have particular methods and preferences that could conflict with future surgeons), so having a skillful surgeon who routinely performs orchiectomies before vaginoplasties on the same patients will hopefully know how to preserve and treat that area better than a generic urology surgeon who performs orchi’s on men or outside the context of trans healthcare.
Also, if you later use the same surgeon for the vaginoplasty, having had an orchi from them before creates more trust and confidence they will be able to use the scrotum as a skin graft, etc.
Thanks for the detailed write up! I’ll have to look into what’s available around here
Meanwhile cis me as I scroll through here on the equivalent of /r/all (I can’t be remember this app’s version of it) and feel mine hide inside me for a second as I read the o-word. xD
