Revision questions

7
u/OhDaniGal
Mon Feb 8 02:17:28 2021 UTC
(10 comments)

I had SRS with Brassard in 2013 and had some problems with regaining sensation, including some particularly unpleasant sensation in my clitoris, and I had a complication which began 1 year after surgery that made penetration extremely painful. Brassard rejected my request for a consultation about a possible revision advising me that surgery could not help and only more lube and getting more relaxed could. I gave up on dilation 6 months later (18 months after surgery.) I did try to resume dilation in 2017-8 and while full depth with the #1 dilator was possible the pain returned.

For years I was in a marriage where there was a refusal by my spouse to allow me to have the budget to address this with another surgeon, along with refusing to allow me to have BA and FFS (both of which I want) so I shelved as a future plan until I can someday escape.

I got out of that marriage nearly 5 years ago and now am in better financial position so I can begin to consider revisions. Obviously, I'm in the position of having to go to a surgeon who did not do my original SRS and I would be interested in both information about surgeons who do so and experiences of anyone who did that. I'm hopeful for improvement but terrified about ending up with an even worse sitaution.

all 10 comments


3
u/TragicNut
Mon Feb 8 06:52:50 2021 UTC
(5 children)

If you're from Ontario and are comfortable going out of country, you may be able to get approval to have a surgeon in the US do the revision work.

I just had a revision done by Dr. Satterwhite following my primary procedure with Dr. Krakowsky. I consulted with Drs McGinn, Satterwhite, and Wittenberg. All 3 of them expressed willingness to do the revisions and to work with OHIP for funding.

I also reached out to Drs Bowers, Avanessian, and Bluebond-Langner, but decided against going with them as their wait lists were... Long.

In the end I chose Dr. Satterwhite because he was able to propose solutions to all of the issues I had with my primary procedure. If I hadn't had 2 particular complications that Dr. Wittenberg wasn't able/willing to deal with, I may have gone with her instead, but shrug

I really like Dr. Satterwhite as a person, and he is a good listener. He's also flexible and is open to alternate approaches (I proposed a different way to reduce my clitoris size without sacrificing more tissue, he saw what I was getting at and ran with it.)

I've still got a lot of healing to go still, but I'm cautiously optimistic.

2
OP
Tue Feb 9 23:21:11 2021 UTC
(4 children)

I'm in the US and was then. I went with Brassard because my therapist refused to write a surgery letter for me to go to my first dozen choices of surgeon - only him or someone in Europe who nobody I knew had ever heard of. So I got to pay about $25k out of pocket to Brassard for this.

I think one of the hard things for me is figuring out how much improvement is reasonably possible and likely (because I'm definitely not going to have the perfect result I was sold to get me to have SRS in the first place) and if it's worth doing.

2
Wed Feb 10 02:16:54 2021 UTC
(3 children)

Oh wow. Your therapist sounds like an asshole for doing that. Without knowing your starting point and your goals it would be more or less impossible to say whether or not a revision would help.

What might help would be to look at the revision galleries on the surgeons' websites to get a sense of what they've been able to do for other women and see if it is similar to your situation.

Beyond that, consultation time... Talking with the surgeon(s) about your particular case and hearing what they have to say.

I can say that, so far as I can tell while absurdly swollen, there has been a definite improvement. Whether or not it lives up to expectations is something I won't know for a little while yet.

Edit: I know that Drs Bowers Satterwhite and Wittenberg have revision results galleries online. I don't know of other such galleries.

1
OP
Thu Feb 11 00:11:42 2021 UTC
(2 children)

Aesthetically my original result was perfect, but that was never my concern. I'd be happy with my vulva looking bad if my result was functional, and that's likely down to nerve damage and from what I can tell there's no way to have any real certainty of what revision will do, plus "not losing what you already have" seems to be the level for "a great outcome."

1
Thu Feb 11 01:46:20 2021 UTC
(1 child)

Oof, yeah, that's a very different situation than mine; I had good sensation once the nerves recovered, but I had other functional problems that drove the revision.

1
OP
Thu Feb 11 03:26:08 2021 UTC
(0 children)

I understand that. I did recover enough sensation to be able to orgasm, if not with any partners doing anything, and that's part of the difficulty - it's unlikely that I'll get enough better if I have a revision and I have a lot to lose.

3
u/OhDaniGal
OP
Thu Feb 11 03:38:11 2021 UTC
(0 children)

This adventure came to an end for me: it's not worth the expense, pain and risk.

I am having a consultation next week with one surgeon mostly to confirm a lot of answers for the next time the "what ifs" pop up.

2
u/MillionaireBitches
Mon Feb 8 02:35:27 2021 UTC
(1 child)

It’s common practice for surgeons to refuse to touch complications from other surgeons in fear that they’ll make it even worse. Hopefully there’s somebody who can recommend a surgery ❣️

2
OP
Mon Feb 8 06:29:25 2021 UTC
(0 children)

That's the thing that majorly sucks when the original surgeon refuses to touch their own screw up.

2
u/shovellove
Mon Feb 8 06:57:51 2021 UTC
(0 children)

I would recommend reaching out to Dr. Jess Ting at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. He does revisions and you cold get a PPT revision which could help with taking away pain from penetration. HES a really good surgeon who’s conquered a lot of issues with previous surgery. Best of luck!! So glad you’re out of that marriage