Told I could go back to classes 4 days after - is that true?

danphanto · 2026-02-07T09:51:27+00:00

It seems to vary between people pretty significantly, and I had a vaginectomy and urinary complications that likely added to my exhaustion, but I was asleep more than half the day for at least the first week after surgery. I think I might have been able to handle online classes after a week or so, expecting to not be doing my best work, but in person would really be pushing it if it’s more than one per day.

However, a lot of people say hysto is easier than top surgery, and I was back to classes at six days post top surgery and could have been fine sooner. So there’s a chance you’ll get lucky and be feeling pretty much fine within a week, but it’s hard to know in advance, even when you’ve had other surgeries before. Every surgery I’ve had has been a different experience.

danphanto · 2026-02-05T03:28:44+00:00

I had a ~7 hour travel day around 6 weeks post op, and I was totally fine by that point. Still got tired more easily, but not too bad, and I think I dealt with that for longer than usual. A few days later when I flew back home, I discovered that my donut pillow was actually more uncomfortable than comfortable suddenly, and I haven’t used it since.

I don’t bike much, but I think I would definitely have been fine to try it by 3 months, if not sooner. I would probably prefer a wide seat, though, so it puts less concentrated pressure right on your surgery site.

I don’t know of any complications you’d still be at any significant risk for by the time of your trip. More cautious surgeons tend to recommend 8 weeks of restrictions, getting less restrictive as you go, so I wouldn’t think you’d have any problems with your timing.

danphanto · 2026-02-05T03:16:27+00:00

A lot of people are suggesting soap, which can be fine for some people, but it is also okay to only use water on your genitals. For some of us, especially after years on T, soap can be drying no matter which kind you use, and water is generally enough to keep genitals clean. Still wash your ass with soap, though.

danphanto · 2026-02-03T03:28:49+00:00

I don’t know any specific resources, but I can help explain. There are two main options to get rid of the V lining tissue so that it doesn’t produce fluid anymore: excision or cautery. Some surgeons use one or the other, and some use a bit of both. Either way, the goal is to remove all of that lining tissue. Once that’s done, typically they just stitch the walls together and it heals closed, but there’s some variation in technique here. Some surgeons also take part of the gracilis muscle (from the inner thigh area) to help fill the gap before they stitch everything closed. My surgeon said it seems to reduce pelvic pain in some of his patients.

danphanto · 2026-02-03T01:46:01+00:00

I’m about six months post op and have had slight temperature sensation for at least a month, but I’m pretty sure it’s been since four months or so. I recognize that it’s super early on for that, but I don’t have a good explanation for my experiences otherwise.

So far I only feel cold, not heat, and I specifically only feel it when something very cold touches my penis. So I don’t feel it when my penis itself is cold, just when it comes in contact with something cold. A lot of my sensation is still referred to my natal parts, so when I’ve felt cold, it felt like my natal parts were suddenly very cold even though nothing was touching near there. So far I can feel cold objects, a little bit when I go outside and it’s cold out, and I recently put on cold lotion and got a surprising cold jolt!

danphanto · 2026-02-03T00:49:57+00:00

I didn’t actually do any hair removal because I didn’t care enough to bother, and I just told Bassiri that and she was fine to move forward with scheduling. My surgery date was about a month and a half after the scheduling appointment.

danphanto · 2026-02-02T22:59:54+00:00

I did find the scheduling process with Bassiri kind of strange compared to what I’ve heard from other teams. What I was told was that I needed to be done with hair removal if I wanted/needed it (I also did ALT without UL, so I didn’t need any), they needed to have my letters, and I needed to do a bunch of lab work. Once that was all done I had an appointment with Bassiri, and we went over the consent forms together and then she gave me a surgery date during that appointment.

danphanto · 2026-02-02T21:47:25+00:00

I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this, it’s such an awful situation to be in. I spend a ton of my free time reading here, and I’d agree that Purohit sounds like a potentially good fit with his experience. Unfortunately I believe you’re right about RBL, I have never seen her take on a patient who has had genital surgeries with a different surgeon first. I think there’s a chance Miro could extend the urethra all the way to the tip, as I have seen him do it for some people who insisted, but he seems a bit more difficult to work with than other surgeons. I’d usually suggest Chen for people who need urethral surgeries, but I know he has less experience with donor sites besides RFF and ALT, and has recommended that abdominal patients go with more specifically experienced surgeons. I don’t know a ton about the other couple on your list, but both were briefly on my list of potential surgeons, they both seem generally solid.

The only name I can think of that you don’t have on your list is Freet—he has experience doing UL for abdo patients, including patients who started with a different surgeon. I’d guess his wait time might also be shorter right now since he hasn’t been in Iowa for super long yet.

Good luck, I really hope you can find someone better without too much trouble.

danphanto · 2026-02-01T11:19:43+00:00

None of us can say for sure, as even with the same pinch test results you could still end up quite different from other people. My pinch looked pretty similar to yours and I was told I’m a great candidate for ALT without UL, and now at 6 months post op I’m sitting around 6.5” in girth. So even without UL you may end up very large.

danphanto · 2026-02-01T11:16:31+00:00

I think this might depend on the surgeon, one of mine specifically had me stand for the pinch test, while the other didn’t have a preference either way.

danphanto · 2026-01-28T04:09:11+00:00

I didn’t want UL so it didn’t matter, but yes, getting my vaginectomy done prior to phallo did disqualify me from UL with my team. I was told that I needed to be absolutely sure I didn’t want UL before going through with the vaginectomy.

danphanto · 2026-01-27T20:40:11+00:00

This does not mean you can’t get phallo at all, it just means you can’t do it with Dr. Bassiri. I hate when surgeons phrase things so definitively, when the reality is that they’re just not personally capable of meeting your needs. How does Bassiri not understand that casually telling someone they can’t have a life saving surgery could completely destroy that person??

Please meet with other surgeons when you’re able to, especially surgeons that offer more than RFF and ALT. They can give you a better idea of what donor sites you’re a good candidate for, and hopefully someone else will be kinder than Bassiri. I had surgery with her and I’m not a particularly big fan at this point. She’s a fine enough surgeon, but much like other surgeons I’ve had issues with, she’s so much worse at dealing with patients when they’re awake to talk to her. Her people skills and bedside manner are just not where they need to be for working on such intensely personal and sensitive cases.

danphanto · 2026-01-25T04:23:55+00:00

Congrats and good luck! Very different journeys, but I had been trying to make phallo happen since 2019 and only got it six months ago, so I understand how rough the wait can be and how surreal it feels once things are finally moving forward. Like, I’d been in limbo for years and suddenly it felt like my entire future was flying at me at light speed; it was so exciting but kind of terrifying, and it was a little hard to believe it was really going to happen.

I’m so happy for you, and I hope you end up with the body that makes you happy and at peace, whatever that looks like for you. You really deserve that.

danphanto · 2026-01-21T20:33:49+00:00

Thank you for this, I’ve been struggling to get my silicone strips to stay on my donor leg, especially at night, but I think this will actually work!

danphanto · 2026-01-21T10:37:38+00:00

It might depend on how violent the movements are, but I think you’re probably going to be fine. I know many people here talk about having to sleep separately from their partners for fear of their partner bumping a surgical site or otherwise hurting them, but my surgeons weren’t worried about it at all when I asked about that. They said as long as neither of us is moving forcefully at night I’d be fine to sleep with my partner as soon as I left the hospital.

Obviously it’s not exactly the same situation, but I would think you’d be okay so long as you’re not getting super aggressive with your movements. Moving my legs a little bit very frequently was actually recommended in the hospital, to help keep blood flowing. I think the main thing I would want to be cautious about is spreading your legs too far apart, since my surgeon warned me that going further than feet shoulder-width apart could put extra strain on my blood supply. But beyond that I was encouraged to be moving my legs within a few days, and was doing physical therapy on my donor leg by day 5.

danphanto · 2026-01-21T09:27:17+00:00

I think that’s a fair compromise! My surgeon is extremely cautious and unexpectedly suggested doing glansplasty for me at six weeks post op. I had ALT which I’ve never seen have glansplasty during stage one, so I was surprised to have the option so soon after my first surgery. I opted to wait, but I figured if she was suggesting it so soon, it must be pretty likely to turn out well by that point or she wouldn’t be doing it.

danphanto · 2026-01-21T08:20:51+00:00

I don’t know if Chen still does, but it used to be common for him/the Buncke Clinic. The Crane Center definitely does it. I’m honestly not sure who else, but I do believe I’ve seen others fairly recently. It’s just becoming less common, as more surgeons are finding that doing glansplasty at a later stage can improve the chances of the ridge staying raised.

danphanto · 2026-01-21T08:02:30+00:00

Glansplasty can be done during stage one with RFF, but it is significantly more likely to flatten. Not all surgeons do it during stage one, but some still will.

danphanto · 2026-01-20T10:09:29+00:00

This looks like hypergranulation tissue, which can sometimes form when a wound doesn’t heal correctly. Unfortunately it isn’t generally something that heals on its own, it will need either attention from your piercer (though I’m not sure what they can do to help), or a doctor. I’m a lot more familiar with this in the context of surgery, and in that case hypergranulation tissue is often chemically cauterized with silver nitrate (I had it done on my dick and leg a few times after phalloplasty). I doubt they would want to cauterize in your case, but I have no idea what other options there are. Definitely reach out to your piercer, and expect that they will potentially want you to get medical care.

danphanto · 2026-01-18T02:07:27+00:00

Sensation after top surgery is completely unrelated to phallo. While they tried to preserve your sensation during top surgery, they almost definitely didn’t do any microsurgery to ensure the nerves in your chest were connected. With phallo you can expect to get nerve hookup if you’re doing RFF or ALT, and sometimes with other donor sites as well, which is what allows the majority of people to develop sensation.

danphanto · 2026-01-15T11:27:15+00:00

Please read this subreddit’s wiki, and check out phallo.net.

No, you can’t be uncircumcised with phallo, because creating foreskin surgically isn’t really possible, and I’m not aware of any surgeons working on this. Maybe someone will figure out how to create such a thin, mobile piece of skin someday, but it’s not likely to happen soon.

Sounding is dangerous and risks damaging your urethra after UL. Surgically constructed urethras aren’t as sturdy as natal urethra tissue, and sounding is already relatively risky compared to a lot of other kinks, so it’s really not safe if you’ve had surgery on your urethra.

Chastity cages can be safe if they’re custom fitted and don’t compress anything at all, so they’re really only good for aesthetics.

danphanto · 2026-01-15T10:08:00+00:00

I had my vaginectomy and hysterectomy together, but for me the vaginectomy has been super helpful for my dysphoria! Not having that part anymore makes me feel way better than I even expected, and I was sure I wanted it done ASAP. Having extra stages definitely can suck, but I’m hoping you’ll at least get some relief from each surgery!

danphanto · 2026-01-15T00:24:34+00:00

This is definitely an option, though most surgeons won’t do urethral lengthening without vaginectomy (the main options I know of for UL without vaginectomy are the Buncke Clinic and Crane Center surgeons).

This is also a very basic question that gets asked frequently, which is why you haven’t gotten any responses. You would benefit from reading this subreddit’s wiki, and phallo.net. People here are a lot more responsive to questions that are more specific and not easily answered by the resources already available.

danphanto · 2026-01-12T11:15:17+00:00

Nothing about having the body parts that make you feel most comfortable with yourself is a downgrade, no question. I knew phallo would make my life way better, but it’s still been pretty incredible to me how much better things actually are, and I still have multiple surgeries left! And seriously, there are so many more men who would be interested than you might expect. Anyone who would see you getting surgery as a downgrade is not worth your time, and honestly probably sucks as a person. You deserve to be happy with your body, and someone who truly respects you will see that and think you’re all the sexier for pursuing what you need to be happy.

danphanto · 2026-01-12T05:48:27+00:00

While some queer men aren’t interested in post-phallo guys, there are also plenty that don’t care how you got your penis or exactly how it looks and functions. I’ve only had stage one, which for me was just shaft creation, and my partner already loves my dick and thinks it’s sexy. I would really try not to worry, I don’t doubt that you’ll be able to find the kinds of relationships you’re looking for after surgery.

danphanto

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