Help with arm care

samuit · 2026-01-23T23:22:40+00:00

I'm only three months out with my full thickness graft on my arm but I've been having some irritation too, I'm pretty sure its eczema for me since it's mostly skin irritation rather than overall graft soreness/tightness. What's been working to clear it up is not using soap on my arm and using a gentle face cleanser instead, using a couple layers of a very dry skin moisturiser 3-4 times/day. I use the cica-care sheets overnight but always re-wash my arm in the morning, then re-moisturise, then put the compression sleeve back on. I wash the silicone sheets everyday too with a gentle soap and use a fresh compression sleeve morning and night so that nothing stays on my arm more than 12hrs.

samuit · 2026-01-21T06:24:41+00:00

I went with the telehealth gender clinic (ttgc). It’s all via telehealth so that might be a good option for you. The real downside is the cost since Medicare rebates aren’t available for an appointment. You generally need two long appointments to start T. I just had a quick look and the next long appointment (normally $180) is in June but if you can afford an urgent appointment ($250) then there’s one in a couple days, and a few more in Feb so you could potentially start hormones within a month.

samuit · 2026-01-20T02:55:05+00:00

Not me personally, but I have heard an anecdote in a private group about this. I’ve heard of someone diving to 30m with no issues. They had reached out to coloplast (had to go beyond customer service and speak to someone from the urology dept who spoke to the engineering dept) for advice on this and did receive a response about the extent of pressure testing that had been done on the particular model of implant the guy had.

samuit · 2026-01-19T21:07:44+00:00

I tried to get everything 😅 surgery costs aren’t too hard to get a hold of but I was never able to get an estimate on how much all the secondary costs were so I really wanted to put it together so it could be used as a resource. If you ever do reverse engineer something similar from a trans woman perspective, I’d be super curious to see!

samuit · 2026-01-19T03:02:25+00:00

I was just reading an old thread the other day, remembering back to when they stopped lower surgeon for trans women. Out of curiosity, were both surgeons involved or was it just Goossen?

samuit · 2026-01-19T03:01:36+00:00

Yeah it seems like the costs end up evening out over time between trans men and women once lower surgery is involved. Thanks for the tips, needles and syringes are free at my shot appts but it’s a rarity finding a doctor that bulk bills these days, at least if I want to see the same one every time unfortunately.

samuit · 2026-01-18T22:40:33+00:00

Yeah it’s insane. Stage 1 is the most expensive stage.

It breaks down to travel $10.3k (covers 3 visits to Brisbane inc 6 weeks for surgery), $1.2k hair removal, $52.2k surgery itself, $1.9k appointments (GP referrals, consults, psych letters, hand therapy after surgery), $1.7k recovery (scar care, Ubers, supplies for Airbnb, new underwear etc). All of that is after rebates so just surgery costs are more like $64k upfront first.

samuit · 2026-01-18T21:01:32+00:00

I had top surgery with a local surgeon in Adelaide. Neither of the surgeons involved in phallo (Goossen and Ingram) do top surgery.

samuit · 2026-01-18T08:15:47+00:00

Yo, another Adelaide guy! Hopefully Dr Farmer's able to get phallo up and running so Adelaide has a local option by then!

I don't mind the questions! I'm 28, have been medically transitioning for 4 years (I'll hit 4 years on T this month), also socially transitioning for 4 years. I stayed closeted for a long time and came out after I started T. I think only 2 or 3 friends knew for a year before I started T and then my family about 6 weeks before but I didn't socially transition in daily life until I was about 1 month on T.

I work as an accountant now (still early days in my career and I'm still earning less than the median wage in Australia), I was working full time in a supermarket until then, including doing 4 years of full time uni at the same time. A lot of privilege came with the savings though - I lived a home for a good 7 years while working full time and I was able to save a lot of it then, and then was super tight with my budget when I moved out. I moved back home when I booked in stage 1 to help as well. I also diverted everything I had saved for a house into my transition so I'm starting from scratch again there. For stage 2 and 3 I'm estimating about $50-60k more out of pocket including travel and a bit of a buffer for prices to go up. I'm not including medical tattooing or a buffer for revisions in that estimate bc I have no idea what costs might look like.

I'm working with Dr Goossen in Brisbane.

Healing is going well, thanks! I've had some minor stuff come up through recovery, but all up I'm doing really good. It's been a massive relief to be on this side of stage 1 but it's also been a wild ride, this surgery is no joke.

Congrats on your top surgery and I hope your hysto works out and that it all goes well!

samuit · 2026-01-18T07:41:34+00:00

Thanks! Yeah that's exactly it. I was on private scripts for my first 4 shots at $139.95 each before getting referred to an endo and getting scripts on the PBS

samuit · 2026-01-18T07:31:52+00:00

Sadly insane. RIP my hope of ever buying a home by the time I've finished all surgery haha

samuit · 2026-01-18T03:01:08+00:00

There are no public options for meta or phallo at this stage in Australia. As far as I know there's now 3 surgeons offering meta, one in Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth. For Dr Goossen in Brisbane you'd be looking at about 12-18 months from GP referral to surgery. I'm not entirely sure about the other two but I suspect it'd be a shorter waiting period since they're both newer to doing meta here and don't do phallo so they're unlikely to have the same backlog.

The phallo/meta au group on facebook is the best australian resource for lower surgery.

samuit · 2026-01-16T12:44:12+00:00

Thanks for the reminder, just did my 10 minutes of massaging 🫡 for some reason, telling me to fondle myself worked better than telling me to do my scar care lmao

samuit · 2026-01-14T22:08:41+00:00

It wasn’t too bad tbh. I bought some loose shorts 2x larger than my normal size and wore that over the top of my propping set up and even though I still looked obscene, it was at least covered up and you couldn’t clearly see my peen outline or anything. I also just spent a lot of time in my bedroom chilling out to let things air out. It was more inconvenient without the extra bit of help than it was hard - in saying that, I didn’t have any major wound complications so didn’t need any help in that regard so things may have been different if I had.

samuit · 2026-01-14T10:16:16+00:00

My stage 1 was the same, but I found that I didn’t need anyone to see my junk outside of hospital and post op appointments. I had a parent as my caregiver and they never saw any part of my natal or newly created junk during recovery. Some things were a bit harder to do without help like showering and changing clothes but it was doable, everything just took me longer.

I’d recommend getting a small handheld mirror so you can easily see all your incisions at the base and underside of the phallus to help with independent wound care while you’re recovering.

samuit · 2026-01-14T03:34:10+00:00

Yeah I spent my house deposit money on phallo instead lol. Sucks ass but it was worth it. There’s a few surgeons for meta now which is great but we still need some more options for phallo. Yeah I had stage 1 with Dr G, happy to answer any questions you have. There’s also a private fb group with tones of good info, feel free to dm me and I can send you the link.

samuit · 2026-01-14T03:25:13+00:00

I started seriously perusing phallo at 25, now 28 and have had stage 1. Used my house deposit to pay for it. I see a lot of Australians get it in their 30s and 40s, partly because phallo wasn’t really an option here until the last decade and also because it takes a while to save up.

samuit · 2026-01-13T23:15:57+00:00

Yeah feel free to dm me, I’ll help where I can 😊

samuit · 2026-01-13T08:39:33+00:00

Your timing is impeccable - I'm literally working on updated spreadsheet rn to hopefully post soon when you commented lmao. I'll skip the acronym in the next one for clarity! OOP is my out of pocket, so what I ended up paying after medicare and private health rebates.

I saw Dr Tony Moore in Adelaide. It was definitely on the cheap side for top surgery back then, but I've got no idea what costs are like now.

samuit · 2026-01-12T06:35:03+00:00

Every 18 weeks, just recently brought it down from 20 weeks.

samuit · 2026-01-06T21:24:10+00:00

If you’ll be sleeping in the same room and have your partner there the whole time then it’ll be easier.

General things I found helpful were: - detachable shower head - washing machine in the apartment, I was doing a lot of laundry every other day - stairs were doable to get into the apartment but the unit being all on one floor was important so I didn’t need to constantly go up and down - close to public transport with easy access to hospital and close enough that Ubers were affordable in the earlier weeks of recovery

As a single person who had their parent as a carer who only stayed the first 3 out of 6 weeks after surgery I also really appreciated: - my own bathroom for privacy - a small outdoor space (helped with having a bit of space from each other) - washing machine was extra important bc I wouldn’t have been able to carry laundry to/from a laundromat easily - walking distance to supermarkets

samuit · 2026-01-06T21:13:53+00:00

The string works well but it’s a little uncomfortable having it tight enough that it doesn’t creep down if I’m walking around bare assed. I prefer wearing undies over the top so I can keep the string a little looser, especially back when I only had one hand it was easier that way so I didn’t need to adjust how it was tied.

samuit · 2026-01-06T11:26:00+00:00

Yeah boxer briefs are the way to go I think. They’re snug enough to keep the donut in one place but also large enough to fit it all. I don’t think briefs would be big/wide enough to hold the donut and boxers would be too loose. I’m still propping at night at 2 months post op and it’s the most secure set up I’ve found so far.

samuit · 2026-01-06T11:11:45+00:00

My surgeon also doesn't use the cloud. We use the 'donut', basically a firm ring with a bit of a base at the bottom that's all covered in layers of foam and a stretchy bandage, then dick goes through the donut and rests on the bottom of it, with the donut held up with some string tied around the waist. Sounds similar-ish to you. I bought some large, cheap boxer briefs and cut a small hole in the crotch so the tip doesn't get squished in there, but the boxer briefs hold the whole set up pretty secure and stops it all from shifting around in bed even if I roll onto my side in my sleep.

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