Does anyone have experience with Dr Morrison in Seattle for srs?
I am slated to have SRS with him this year but I haven't seen any reviews of him for the specific procedure. Does anybody have experience?
My closest friend just had phalloplasty with him and I was their advocate and caregiver.
Surgically things went… fine… But their team is a MESS, there was zero training for nursing staff on how to work with trans people, they were forced to share a room in the hospital with total strangers, the aftercare was non existent and every medical professional we interacted with had a totally different opinion on how best to care for their body.
We did a TON of advocacy, including speaking to heads of nursing floors and the head of the gender affirming program there. People were very compassionate and open to feedback and we have already heard that people are getting private rooms and are getting better care than my friend did. So changes are happening. But not without us having to make a scene numerous times.
Morrison, on the other hand, is very ego driven, in my opinion. At face value he seems caring, his CV regarding trans care is incredible. But in practice he did a lot of shady moves regarding my friends care. And further, he was not accountable to the position he put my friend in and was very dismissive of our concerns. It’s also incredibly hard to reach him after surgery and see him at post ops. My friend actually had zero post ops scheduled and we had to demand that they be scheduled weekly and for them to see Morrison himself. Morrison had a lot of excuses about why he could not be seen but we insisted that for something like trans lower surgery, it is unprecedented for the surgeon to not be available for post ops in the first month.
So while I think he is fine surgically, expect hurdles when it comes to the care we all deserve.
Thank you for the review. I had a vagninoplasty consult with him and also felt a little dismissiveness regarding a couple of my questions. My surgery is in a couple months. I know they're a new program so I'll cut them some slack - hopefully things will keep getting better.
As long as you’re very clear with what you need and want out of your surgery and how his team treats you- I think you’ll be fine. Also- you can reach out to their gender affirming care program for advocacy and support if you feel you need it leading up to surgery.
Thank you for the review!! I've been looking for info on him for months. Was this at UW? Was he like cagey answering results questions?
My pleasure! Ask all the questions you want. I got a very close perspective on him and his team after being with my friend for a whole month. I’m also a gender affirming surgery caregiver (and had many gender affirming surgeries myself)so I have a lot of experience in this realm and know what is and isn’t up to par for our care.
It’s thru UW but the surgery was at Harborview.
And I’d say yes- he was very cagey. It’s hard to get a clear response out of him about his experience level as a lead surgeon and we found out that he was intentionally misleading about how many he had done on his own. His urologist and microsurgeon had actually never done urological/microsurgical work on a trans masculine person before and we only found that out after intense prying.
Hmm that's not ideal. I don't really have another option for a surgeon at this time though
I totally get it. Sometimes we have to work with what we have access to.
My unsolicited advice:
-ask for his experience as a lead surgeon for your surgery.
-Have a friend/loved one with you at your consults/appointments. Having a second person there makes all surgeons act a little differently and often makes them more transparent
-ask a lot of questions
-if something feels off, say something.
-talk to other community members in advance about their aftercare and figure out what your standards are for your own care. And make the staff stick to it.
He’s not a bad surgeon, he just doesn’t yet know how to work well with trans people without his ego getting in the way. So if we go in knowing our rights and having expectations for a standard of care, we get better treatment.
Best of luck to you and if you have more questions about him, happy to answer.
How did you deal with him deflecting?
Well we didn’t know he was deflecting til after each convo was over. We would compare notes with other info we had and would learn he wasn’t being truthful.
And then after we established this pattern of his we set out to get clear answers in writing and actually couldn’t get him or his staff to admit that he had not done a specific surgery as the lead surgeon yet. Then my friend had a phone call with him about it and Morrison said he had done the surgery before but we found out later it wasn’t as lead surgeon.
Sooooooo…. We were pretty unsuccessful getting him to be fully transparent with us.
Thank you very much! I've asked my gf to come to the pre-op and we'll not let him deflect
Great idea. So glad you’ll have her with you.
Oh wow I’m glad I did not go to him to fix me. And I’m guessing his urologist was dr skokane or some name like that ? If so his ass don’t listen.
Oh did you have a bad experience w Skokan? (He’s definitely the urologist)
Yes saying I had everything but erectile tissue issues (after my 2018 stiller penile inversion )so he had me go in for a hernia ultrasound (wasn’t that ) , pelvic exercise (which i did not go ).
It’s so annoying when doctors think they know more about our bodies than us
Spot on about nursing staff in recovery. One tried to rip out the stitched on bolster, was clearly unfamiliar with post surgical care. And seconded Morrison's ego. Skokan has great bedside manner tho. I liked working with Skokan.
Wow hate to hear that you had a similar experience with Morrison and some nursing staff. I really hoped he was getting better.
My friend did enjoy Skokan though. He is thorough, kind and well informed.
Congrats on your surgery, btw!
Thanks. It could have been a lot worse. I'm just thankful that where they deviated from my goals is probably fixable. And that I don't have to see either of them again.
Heaaarrrd. Where they deviated from my friends goals is not fixable unfortunately but they found a new team to finish up and never have to see them again either.
Can I ask how the surgery turned out, looks/function wise? Is your friend satisfied with end result?
I was a patient of theirs. I regret choosing them.
I specifically went with Skokan / Morrison at UW Seattle because they offered to work with me on labia appearance. I'm aware producing any inner labia is difficult. Skokan and I discussed this at length and he offered to try a specific technique to provide more tissue there, and I was happy to accept smaller outer labia as a tradeoff.
I feel it's become clear they did not attempt those goals, and I feel they instead attempted "cosmetic" and exaggerated outer labia instead. I am more swollen at 6 months than even peers at 3 weeks recovery, contrary to the agreed upon goals. My inner labia were miniscule, and effaced entirely within the first three weeks, I suspect due to extreme swelling.
During postop checkups, I expressed concern about swelling, and loss of inner labia. Morrison pushed me twice to read his paper on outer labia fat grafting, for making more swollen/thick outer labia. In recent consultations for revision, he clarified he had performed this fat grafting on me and didn't understand why I wasnt happy with the very swollen appearance. I felt he was trying to tell me I should like this exaggerated appearance because he considered it desirable.
My advice would be, demand photos of their technique, and make sure you like what you see.
Thank you very much for your response. I requested photos specifically from him and he referred me to the "wall of vulvas" art piece. This seems particularly callous as a bottom surgeon who has very little experience. At the time he told me he has personally done 10 to 12 bottom surgeries.
Seeing how shady he is I decided to go elsewhere and have a consult with Dr Ting this fall.
With what I experienced, that doesn't surprise me.
this isn’t about dr. shane douglas morrison with Seattle children’s hospital, right? i’m thinking about going with him, but i’m not sure now lol.
That's him, I would avoid him
New surgeon, no info, high risk of poor results, complications.
If you do have surgery could you please post a review to help those who follow.
Following. Any updates?
I realized my insurance won't fly in Oregon, so he may be my only option without suddenly being independently wealthy.
I've heard he is taking feedback to heart, and my partner is a very DIRECT woman, so I feel like I could count on her to help me also be very DIRECT.
Hearing Morrison really scared me a lot now
Any update on this? Any significant changes to his behavior and finished results?
I've recently finished surgery with him. He was overall very kind and respectful to me. Respectful of my cognitive difficulties. I had a very hard journey with phalloplasty. But him and his team have been with me every step of the way. I've posted pictures of my penis on my reddit page. Morrison can be matter of fact at times, but it didn't bother me. It was when he really wanted to stress the importance of something. I'm overall very pleased with my experience with Morrison. Skokan is now working with me and he has helped me through some surgical complications as well. He's been nice and I hope we can come up with a plan on how to address some issues I'm having currently.
would also love to hear updates on this! I hate that you’ve had to go through these negative experiences and am so grateful that you’re sharing to help others who follow. i’m a queer cis woman and have experience being the necessarily aggressive advocate to my trans partner. i’m also a nurse and my unit is going to be taking care of post-op trans patients soon. i’m hoping to help educate my colleagues so that we aren’t as messy and harmful as it sounds like these other new programs have been 😭
Please read the rules of the sub, especially rule 5 as it applies to you
this sub is for trans people “plus partners and carers with legitimate interest in the surgery” — what am i missing?
Nothing I hope, but this bit is relevant.
Partners, carers, etc, with a legitimate interest in surgery may post if its of clear benefit to a trans individual or the community.
yes, my entire hope in being in this group is to learn what went sideways for some folks, and ensure that trans patients receiving care at swedish will benefit from my personal knowledge as a partner and also as a nurse with vested interest in the community.
maybe the takeaway is: it’s okay for me to be here, but to listen only, and not post?
If there's a really good reason you can. If not don't. i.e. general chat.
A lot of the comments here's wouldn't fall into that category, but they are all trans so it doesn't apply.
The problem is mostly bad surgeons, and there's not a lot you can do about that.
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