McGinn Girls, wtf is up with electrolysis/hair removal? I'm getting totally conflicting advice.

7
u/Jiggy90
Sat Feb 6 21:13:11 2021 UTC
(20 comments)

So Dr. McGinn's office sent me a document saying that her office does 6 sessions, each 4 hours long, of electrolysis before operating, for a total of 24 hours of electrolysis. The document says that this is the average clearing time for her patients, and that some require more time, some less.

My electrolysis office, on the other hand, says their average clearing time for the area is at least a year, some as long as 3 (!???!?!!?). Mind you, I'm doing 2 hour sessions every week, so after 6 months I will have done a total of 48 hours of electrolysis, but I'm still being told it'll take at least a year, twice the amount of months I was planning on.

Girls who went to McGinn, how did this work out? How long did it take you to clear the area for surgery? My consultation is in one month, with surgery expected to be scheduled 3-6 months after that, and I'm really kinda freaking out right now. I explicitly changed a lot of my insurance planning on the surgery to be this year, I bumped up to a higher tier of coverage and I'm dumping a lot of money into my FSA which expires when the year is done, so I can't really postpone beyond that.

all 20 comments


10
u/[deleted]
Sat Feb 6 21:49:24 2021 UTC
(2 children)

Over 100 hours and 10 fucking grand and still have stragglers post op. Good times. Fuck my life

1
Sat May 1 07:21:00 2021 UTC
(1 child)

Where did you go for electrolysis?

1
Sun May 2 15:41:54 2021 UTC
(0 children)

Local to where I live

5
u/Forgetwhatitoldyou
Sat Feb 6 21:25:34 2021 UTC
(0 children)

I wonder about that too. I've been doing 2 hours/week with my local electrologist (not Dr. McGinn's office) since August. I've been at full clear for a month or two now. Note that before November we went much slower due to pain, but once I found out about 4-4-8 breathing things sped up a lot.

I have surgery in mid-June, so I'm stopping electrolysis in mid-May. So, 9 months of 2 hours/week, give or take, so about 75 hours total. The number of hours required can vary a lot depending on the skill and equipment of the tech, so maybe Dr. McGinn's office is just super efficient.

I have very clear genitals currently - I literally have not shaved them for 2-3 months, and they're baby's-butt smooth. There will still be regrowth over time, and nothing is ever 100%. I expect that Dr. McGinn will get much of the little that's left during surgery, and there will probably be a few stray ones that I just have to live with. I do know that reading experiences here of McGinn girls, that no one has complained about vaginal hair post-op, so I'm sure I'll be fine.

3
u/ashleyjm
Sat Feb 6 22:38:07 2021 UTC
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(8 children)

If you are interested, Here is a link to my first experience receiving genital electrolysis at the Papillon Center. My last appointment there was this past August, 2020. I had following appointments in October/November (that I foolishly canceled) and one more scheduled appointment in December, but the office called me to cancel due to rising COVID cases in New Hope. Up to the point of my last appointment, I had undergone over 24-hours worth of treatments there, with Ramona. What I can share with you is that the treatments I received there were what I considered (in a good way) on the aggressive side. (I have had treatments at another facility, so I have the experience to compare). Ramona doesn’t mess around and that is why having treatments there with the lidocaine injections is highly recommended.

You also have to take into consideration that different surgeons have different requirements for the genital area needing clearing. You also have to consider YMMV and some of us have more genital hair than others, some less. If you are prepping for surgery with Dr. McGinn and her office is telling you 6, 4-hr sessions, that is because they have tons of experience and know exactly what it takes to prepare you for surgery with Dr. McGinn.

I was not having my GRS with Dr. McGinn and my surgeon had different requirements. That said, Ramona had done such good work with me that when I had my consult with my surgeon, she was impressed, specifically asked where I had treatments and pointed out the small remaining areas I still needed to clear.

I did not finish my treatments at Papillon, mostly due to my own ill-advised rush to say I was finished, and partly due to the cancellation this past December. But one thing I can say unequivocally . . . Every area Ramona worked on has remained hair free. Hair grows in cycles and the treatments I had at another facility post Papillon Center, were to remove hair in areas Romona had not worked on.

Hope this helps, my best to you❣️ AMA 🤗s

8
Sat Feb 6 23:21:33 2021 UTC
(2 children)

Ramona is the best! I love seeing her on my monthly visits. My last one before surgery is Friday :)

6
Sun Feb 7 04:05:43 2021 UTC
(0 children)

Yay coming up on the finish line!!!! Ramona is fantastic and chatting with her makes the time fly. Just had my last session with her 3 weeks ago and I’ll miss the monthly chats.

2
OP
Sun Feb 7 05:17:29 2021 UTC
(0 children)

Congrats!

My consultation is next month. I can't wait to be in your position (and after!)

Good luck sis :)

1
OP
Sat Feb 6 23:31:15 2021 UTC
(0 children)

Sounds good. I'm doing 8 hours a month instead of the 4 hours a month Papillon would do, so I'm seriously praying 6 months will be enough given that my surgery should be scheduled in 5-8 months out.

My electrolysis people just scared the shit out of me when they said a year to three years before clearance. I'm going to email Papillon center on Monday, see if I can get any better info :/

1
Sun Feb 7 00:50:53 2021 UTC
(3 children)

I tried so hard to go to Ramona, but I had a major panic attack trying to do the lidocaine injection. Her social worker ended up contacting my therapist about it. I found out about 4-4-8 breathing after that, which maybe would've helped me get through the injections. Oh well.

2
Sat May 1 05:10:36 2021 UTC
(2 children)

The injections were definitely tough, I did everything from exhaling through the pain, swearing in multiple languages. I'd even grab and hold onto the head rest when i could. If you get through the first few Kristal or Alyssa will work in the areas already numbed which is a huge plus. Maybe talk to your family doctor about a prn anxiety medication to help with the panic attacks prior to it? if you only go for like 6-8 4 hour sessions that would be less than ten pills in total!

1
Sat May 1 09:58:35 2021 UTC
(1 child)

Thanks, but I'm nearly at the end of my genital electrolysis journey. 2 more weeks, then GCS 4 weeks after that. I am on a prescription amtianxiety med, which along with 4-4-8 breathing has helped a lot.

2
Sat May 1 15:43:51 2021 UTC
(0 children)

so soon! I'm 6 weeks postop this Tuesday! good luck!

2
u/proteannomore
Sat Feb 6 21:41:24 2021 UTC
(0 children)

My electrologist and I have wondered ourselves. I get similar time frames from local techs and we wonder about their techniques and such

2
u/Andrew_ftm
Sat Feb 6 21:43:04 2021 UTC
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(0 children)

Im having phalloplasty which also requires electrolysis on the donor site and they always tell us it could take from 1-2 years of electrolysis. It’s also based on the hair cycle(4-6 weeks), some hairs will grow back and need to be zapped one more time to be completely kill them off. After a full clearing some hair will grow back due to the hair cycle. My surgeon requires us to do electrolysis and once we believe we are done to wait 4 weeks to see any regrowth and she has us go in and check our donor site and “clear” us for surgery or either have us do more electrolysis and do it again. I have done over 70+ hrs on my arm already and I have very very little regrowth now but I’m still going to electrolysis to clear any little regrowth still. Mind you I’m very hairy so it will vary from person to person also.

2
u/jlynnprz
Wed Mar 17 15:52:29 2021 UTC
(0 children)

I just had surgery with Mcginn , I scheduled my surgery in January, which is when I started my electrolysis also , so l was only able to do 2 Six hour sessions of it . So 12 hours total . I only had 2 months to do it . She doesn’t really require it to be completely cleared. They take whatever is needed during surgery. Don’t hold back your surgery date because of this . I was able to have mine done in 5 months , consultation-booking -surgery.

u/[deleted]
Sun Feb 7 03:35:08 2021 UTC
(2 children)

[deleted]

2
OP
Sun Feb 7 03:52:19 2021 UTC
(1 child)

I'm going heavy on initial sessions, then four sessions a month, each two hours. That's double the hours of electrolysis that Papillon does, so I seriously hope it's enough!

1
u/[deleted]
Sun Feb 7 16:50:39 2021 UTC
(0 children)

Ok... McGinn girl here. I only did laser hair removal. McGinn’s exact words before my surgery “Well (name) if you’ve already done 6 laser treatments, I don’t see why you’d need to do electrolysis”.

I opted out of electrolysis because I just didn’t care to do it. Laser is quicker and I could afford the costs. So I did full body and I’m smooth and soft like a baby. Or so I’m told. 😂

She used to require electrolysis years back. Now as long as you’ve had some hair removal to reduce the chances of hair growth in vagina, she isn’t too strict. They do some follicle zapping during surgery as well.

1
u/DRain64
Fri Feb 12 00:25:09 2021 UTC
(0 children)

It took me 8 months, with a combination of electrolysis and laser. Most important is to completely clear the shaft, then do as much as you can on the scrotum.