I am 8-weeks post op and everything is still 100% numb. Labia is numb, clitoris has no sensation at all. Completely numb. How long did it take some of you to regain any feeling in the area? I would have thought by 8 weeks some feeling would have started to come back.
im so sorry, i was feeling everything at the second week and i had to star remaping every feeling with a mirror :/
Do you think the feeling is gone forever?
It's very unlikely to be gone forever. Numbness is pretty common. I'm 5months out and I can only faintly feel most of things.
I've been telling my partners, as awkward as it sounds to tell me where they are touching so I can try to connect with the feelings a bit easier.
But yeah it can take around a year for a most of nerves to remap so as frustrating as it sounds. Your surgeon is right, prioritize healing as the rest should come with time.
Thank you, that’s good info to know. As for the depth it’ll never be functional for penetrative sex and I just need to get over that.
Do what you can to recover the best you can first and foremost.
Depth revision is absolutely a thing I know the idea of more surgery is scary and upsetting but you are not out of options.
So it will absolutely work out in the end as long as you keep fighting! 🫂
You’re right. I am so alone in this recovery. It’s hard to talk about it with anyone. I also feel like discussing a gender affirming surgery that didn’t go well isn’t good for trans rights. I feel miserable and isolated in this. It’s been an incredibly difficult 8 weeks and 1 day.
I've been doing my recovery completely solo since the hospital. Feel free to DM if you feel you need some support.
If you're concerned please talk to your surgical team? Hopefully they will put your mind at ease 🙂
Every technique and surgeon will have a different recovery process, and they will know what's normal and what isn't?
My surgical team told me to focus on recovery and won’t answer questions. I’m told to wait until March to discuss my questions. Even when I’ve explained that getting some answers would be better for my Mental health. They say “I’m sorry” a lot and they won’t give me answers. I don’t even know if these are problems they can fix. They won’t tell me.
I'm really sorry to hear they won't answer your questions 😟 I know it takes time for nerves to recover - it took over a year for my sense of taste to recover after my tonsillectomy. I couldn't taste anything sweet at all at first, which was really depressing as I love chocolate, but gradually my sense of taste returned to normal over the course of the following year. I guess what I'm trying to say is please don't give up hope? Healing is a slow process, nerves are tricky, and you need to give your body time to recover from the trauma.
This is completely expected and normal. Sensation should begin to come back starting at about 12 weeks, but will continue to develop from there for 1-2 years before stabilizing.
It's a long process. Hoping for the best for you.
Have you tried massaging the tissue? I was probably about 80% numb until about 6 weeks when I really started massaging the area. I found it very disconcerting to massage it directly due to the numbness, so I do the massages through a blanket. It seems to be helping. I think that trying to get in a fair bit of walking also helps. Good luck!
This! I'm at 4 months and my sensation has improved significantly since starting scar massage. Every week there is a new spot that sensitivity has been restored to that surprises me.
Well, that sounds very usefull to know.
Could you give me some detail about how you do it? Im just 4 weeks postop btw
I’m 5 months post operation and I’m still a little numb just on my labia minora area. Sensation has come back slowly since day one.
I know this might sound weird, but take the time and use the numbness for recovery. I had an unusual experience and had hypersensitivity from the day after surgery. So i could feel each stitch and every incision along with a ton of oversensitivity in the clitoral area. i also have full feeling of everything. It took 2 months to wear pants. Im currently 10 weeks and can only wear underwear for half the day before it becomes so painful that i have to take them off. They just got rid of my hyper granulation but i had that on my clit and near the gouch. It also almost closed my uerethra. It is very painful. I wish i had reduced sensation for the first couple of months so that i couldn't feel the pain. I dont know how fast sensations should normally come back, but take your time.
Hi! I was just wondering if you had an update on this subject? Did you ever regain any feeling?
Mons is numb. Clitoris has feeling but isn’t pleasurable and doesn’t feel good. I can orgasm vaginally.
where did you get surgery
Denver Health
Who was your surgeon?
I don’t want to talk shit about the surgeon. She’s really nice and I am guessing I’m just incredibly unlucky and SOL.
I don't think naming the surgeon amounts to talking shit about them.
People take a lot of factors into consideration when researching surgeons, and knowing that [ X Surgeon has at least one patient I know of who has sensation issues 8 weeks post op and the surgeon won't address their concerns] is a valid data point for someone to want.
Of course you don't have to give their name, but it would be helpful to others.
I’d probably share my surgeons name with people who came to give support and maybe reached out via chat so it wasn’t blasted everywhere. But standalone msgs of “who was your surgeon” don’t feel supportive. I’m uncomfortable having their name sitting here when this clearly is me and I’m not done dealing with them. When I see them in two weeks I don’t want them thinking I’m blasting them online when I still need their care. I know it might be selfish, and I’m sorry for that.
Sorry, I wasn't implying it's selfish at all. It's your info and you can do what you want. I sincerely hope you get your concerns resolved. I'm pre op so didn't feel it was appropriate for me to offer any real advice since I have no frame of reference. FWIW, I've read that sensation can take a very long time to return. I've read of ranges from a few weeks all the way out to a year!
Just be a strong advocate for yourself. If you're not satisfied with your doctor's responses or perceived lack of taking your concerns seriously enough be polite but adamant.
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Excuse you. This person elects to not share their private medical information with you. They are asking for support and advice for their situation. They owe you nothing and if you're not going to help them, please sit the fuck down, thanks.
I don’t mean to be aggressive and don’t believe I have been aggressive to anyone here. During surgery it was claimed that I was given 14cm depth. The surgeon did not know why I lost all that depth while the packing was in. She was at a loss. Again, I’m sorry if you felt I was aggressive. No one wants to deal with aggressive people on Reddit and I’m sorry I came off that way to you.
Did you look here up in the wiki here? With a web browser, not an reddit app?
It’s might give you some insight into the issue.
Dang girl, I hope you recover your feeling. I had bottom surgery on January 4th and never lost feeling except on the clitoral hood right above the clit, its about 50% feeling. The clit is highly sensitive but even with not losing feeling I am unable to orgasm yet. Hugs
I could take a razor to any of my parts and I wouldn’t feel a thing. My depth wasn’t successful either. It’s hard not to think it’s been a complete failure. It’s hard to get excited about the future when 50% of the depth they put in is gone, depth is tiny and I have no feeling. I want to be optimistic about something.
I'm sorry, hopefully it does return. The depth issue is a big deal, are you dilating as you should? I would work on getting that back even though it hurts.
Also if you have any hair down there that you want gone I would take advantage of the no feeling and get electrolysis done as that hurts a lot normally.
I was given 14cm during surgery. Then when I was shown how to dilate with PT after packing was taken out we struggled to get to the first dot on the dilator. The NP tried and couldn’t, so then the surgeon took a look and confirmed that 7cm had been lost already. I dilate 3 times a day, 15 min at full depth with the purple, then 15 min with the orange. The depth is done. I have a 7cm vagina and absolutely no feeling anywhere. I’m not comfortable with how it looks to let an electrolysis person anywhere near it. I regret the surgery and it’s completely sunk my MH. Lots of SI and SH thoughts.
My heart goes out to you. Hopefully you can get a revision in the future with a different surgeon.
I don’t think I can handle surgery again. This has been so hard and made my life worse. I would give anything to undo it: I went to a reputable surgeon at a reputable facility part of a reputable system. I’m just unlucky. My current team won’t tell me what it would entail to fix the depth. But with how shitty my luck is I’ll do a revision and then I’ll have a colostomy bag the rest of my life. I just want to die all the time. This has been so hard. I really thought going into this that it would all work out too.
Sometime down the line, if you feel up to trying a revision, I cannot more highly recommend Dr. Bluebond Langner and Dr. Zhao. They're known for performing revisions on cases that may be complicated, and the entire team is incredible. None of that helps now though I know, and I'm so, so sorry love ❤️
I had similar feelings during what I'd consider an incredibly unlucky FFS with a reputable and known surgeon, where a genioplasty and jaw shave severed a main nerve or something and I've had numbness on the right side of my face ever since. With that, even with complete numbness at the beginning (to the point I was sobbing and considering SH as well), a decent amount has returned over the years. To add to that, the pelvic region is rich in blood vessels, nerves, and constant movement that should promote better healing. The truth is you shouldn't be completely numb at 8 weeks though, and you may have to measure progress more in quarterly increments as opposed to weeks.
Sending you all the love I have in the world. This type of thing is so fucking isolating and hard to get any support on (I had that same fear of talking about a bad surgery somehow giving transphobes ammo). Please treat yourself in anyway you can and do anything possible to pass the time and just hang on to let your body work on healing in the meantime. I'm sorry sister, you deserve the world.
I hate when doctors do that and don't tell you the truth. Don't be fooled just because they are nice. I personally think surgeons who do something wrong or hide the truth should be held accountable for what they do. Unfortunately here in Maryland seems like this butchers can get away with anything
I had a similar thing happen to me with depth. At about 4-5 weeks the dialator suddenly popped much deeper one day. Blood pooling behind a layer of my pelvic floor had it swollen shut and it wasn't till it had been reabsorbed that I could get in there. Hopefully something similar is going on with you.
As for the nerves, I haven't had this issue, but I've been out a long time and nerve damage used to be much more common. Most people I knew did get some feeling back, but it takes a long time. 12-18 months. I'm really sorry you're dealing with this.
The depth has been measured by the doctor since. Since dilation day 1 the depth was 50% gone. 7 weeks later and it’s the same. The depth isn’t changing. I just have a non functional depth and zero feeling.
I'm sorry. Just sharing my experience, not like trying to get a leg up or lecture you. When they put the dialator. On for me, it was at the second dot on the dialator at the entrance of my vagina. She told me it was the bottom. When it finally got deeper a month later give or take a few days, it was fully past the last dot. So like it definitely can happen that way. And the change was very sudden because it was the muscle clamping around it that formed the false bottom.
I really hope you have some function return over time and that it has at least helped the distress that was there before.
It has made the distress worse and I feel more dysphoric because of the results. It feels like an absolute failure. I can’t think of any positives that have come from it so far.
I woke up from surgery with sensation in those areas. Depending on surgeon skill and how many nerves have to reconnect it may take some time for feeling to return to the skin.
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