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I know common knowledge says that you can’t gain depth after surgery, but my surgeon (Dr. Katherine Gast, UW Health, Madison, WI) disagreed when I asked her about it. She said women who have started very little can get full depth via dilation given enough time/effort. We didn’t discuss it extensively, so no idea if it’s true, what the protocol would be, or how long it would take, but she actually seemed surprised I thought it wasn’t possible. She completed her training in Europe in 2016 and I saw her late last year, so I assume she’s up on the latest research. You should definitely reach out to her team or other surgeons for a second opinion before you give up.
It's not just common knowledge, almost every surgeon will say that you can't get depth back.
Unless Gast has a method that's worked with several patients and has been repeated by other doctors, that sounds more like false hope.
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How much depth?
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While I understand not wanting to take your time to educate others as it can be exhausting, reddit's search function is broken as heck.
Even searching your name here with only posts by you in this sub? I cannot find the information. i would love to be able to read it though as I too have minimal depth from a lack of available skin.
It’s probably in the wiki on the SRS intro page.
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No, you shouldn’t mention info you’re not willing to talk about. Why are you here? You’re accomplishing nothing. You’re helping nobody. The fact you’d rather see people asking questions suffer shows what a waste of time you are. Good riddance. Also, assuming I’m a millennial is hilarious and immediately shows your bias and that you’re clearly not here to help in any way. Grow up.
Rule 1. Be respectful to others, including identity and choices in surgery. Be polite and engage in civil discourse.
I can’t defend it, just passing on what I was told. Why is depth special though? You can get width over time, and people stretch out their lips/ears/stomachs, plus things like braces. Seems like if there’s any unscarred tissue to stretch, it would be possible, but might take significantly longer than any surgeon would want to deal with
I didn't mean to imply it's wrong, sorry. I was saying it's not just a reddit rumor that you can't gain depth, most surgeons would agree.
Conceptually, I could see it being possible but slower. While girth stretches it out evenly through the vagina, depth pushes on one far end. Scarring could also be a factor, so maybe technique could be a variable if it's possible.
I think what I was pushing for would be for any method to regain depth to gain more support from other doctors before we say it's absolutely possible. I'm sorry if I came across as critical of you or dr gast
I went to Dr.Gast too! I haven’t come across anyone else who’s been to her on this subreddit. I loved her! She also told me with consistent dilation you can stretch the neovagina
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This. She needs donor tissue, so regular skin or sigmoid
Hey there,
I'm sorry you've had a lot of crappy people on this thread but I want to offer you a little solidarity. I too had very minimal depth from surgery. (I had a scrotectamy many years before vaginoplasty because I simply thought I could never afford it, so it limited my results.)
I will echo again that Dr. Gast, my surgeon, seems incredibly confident that depth CAN be gained post-surgery with dilation techniques. She discussed with me in the hospital a little about studies that had been done.
When I see her next, if you are comfortable with me messaging you, I will directly ask her for any data on the subject and if there are specific techniques since I'm in the same boat as you are.
I wish I had a better answer for you, I just want you to know at least you aren't alone and there may be some hope for something less drastic.
Thanks for your kind message, it's comforting to hear that I'm not the only one. I'd definitely be up for any kind of info that you hear, drop me a PM!
Why did she do that! What a nonchalant surgeon!! I hope you can fix this
What went wrong that caused it to be almost zero depth
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Im sorry that this happend to you, hopefully you will be able to get it fixed. was planning to get ppt by wittenberg myself but im not so sure anymore
My result is really rare tbh. I don't think that you should worry about this in general, and if it weren't for the depth, I would be pretty happy
Did your surgeon suggest a scan of your hips and lower organs? I wonder if there's development of scar tissue that shrunk your depth or prevented greater depth initially?
They definitely didn't do a scan, though I would hope that they'd check for something like this at the beginning of the surgery, before any changes are made
Yeah, if your insurance covers it and it's all affordable, it may be helpful to get a scan to get an idea of what's happening in between your hip bones or if there is a lot of scar tissue development surrounding the vagina your surgeon made.
I don't have any personal experience with this that would help but I do want to express my sympathy for what you're going through.
💖
Thai surgeons have experience doing the colon vaginaplasty. I think I would be looking into that direction for getting more depth.
Did you dilate 3x a day every day?
It's very hard to believe you had 9cm of depth after the bolster was off and everyone said things are great. Really either there was more initial depth or they would have explained why it was nearly half of what's expected.
Dilating initially for PPT seems to be more complicated in some cases than PI. Some have mentioned using a size smaller than the starter from soul source to make it work in the beginning.
No, I actually stuck the dilator in my ear! I've got a really wide ear now 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃
well, now i know not to put the dilator in my ear post-surgery ;)
i think some of the people are asking about how things happened cos they're pre-surgery and are looking to avoid what happened to you.
i'm curious about how it happened more to see if I can think of how to deal with it (knowing the 'how' might help figure out the solution).
i would start by consulting with another doctor to get a fresh set of eyes on the issue... they might think of something your doctor didn't.
i'd also check u/darthemofan for her post on post-surgical dilation as she had a depth issue that she was able to solve. of course, the root cause might be different so it might not solve things for you... but i'd read it just in case it might be helpful.
i hope you're able to find someone who can examine and come up with a way to get you the depth that you would like... and sorry this happeend...
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she did nothing wrong. sometimes you just have bad luck. I couldn't dilate for a while when I was seriously sick, bc at the point death is a serious possibility and consideration, some things are deprioritized. that's nobody fault too, just bad luck. I was lucky it wasn't for too long and could regain some, but it's just luck - and even if luck favors the prepared mind, sometimes you have it, and sometimes you don't.
Thanks for understanding this and saying it, I genuinely appreciate it
sorry that you had the experience where life intervened... glad that you're okay now :)
i didn't think she did anything wrong. was thinking more from a perspective of the physiology and what contributed to depth not being surgically attained as that would indicate what options there were. I had presumed that those options were all surgical, although I misunderstood your post to mean that perhaps there might be other non-surgical interventions. With a starting point of 3.5" I couldn't imagine that she'd get suitable depth no matter what she would do herself.
I can understand how my comments could have been understood differently than i intended and i'm sorry for that...
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Please excuse my ignorance here. You had a zero-depth SRS and are dissatisfied that you don't have more depth? Am I following this right? I feel I must be missing something.
Yes, you're missing the first sentence.
ended up with a vagina that by most definitions is zero-depth (I didn't ask for this, I just ended up with it). My depth is roughly 2.5", stretching to 3" at the very max.
How did you start with 3.5"? That doesn't seem right at all. How tall are you and what's your hip circumference?
I'm 5'7" and I have no idea what my hip circumference is.
K, what was your initial depth the first time you dilated in the office with the team?
fam I actually don't need any navel-gazing as to why what I currently have has happened, what I need is to figure out what to do about it
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I literally followed the schedule to the letter. Your rude accusations and victim blaming are wholly unwanted and unwarranted.
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Don’t comment in this post any more.
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