Earlier this month I had a consultation for SRS/Vaginoplasty with Dr. Dany Hanna of the Hanna Gender Center in Dallas, TX.

Based on my consultation with him, the testimony of one of his past patients who I contacted individually (of course a friend of a friend just happened to be one of his first patients...the trans world is small), and a few secondhand glowing accounts of his results available elsewhere on Reddit, I've decided to proceed with him as my surgeon.

I have a marketplace plan from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois. The Hanna Gender Center submitted and received preauthorization for the procedure based on a HRT letter (I was 19 months on HRT at the consultation) and two letters from mental health professionals (my therapist and a psychiatric NP). Dr. Hanna said in the consultation he loves working with BCBS because all of the people he works with are in-network.

I was mostly drawn to Dr. Hanna because his practice works exclusively with trans/nb patients (this is all he does and trained for), his method doesn't require prior hair removal (difficult for me to obtain because of my financial situation and expensive because of how far I live from anywhere that does it), and his timelines are much sooner than other surgeons I had contacted already (I really want to make sure I can schedule my surgery around the middle of this year so I have time to reschedule if necessary and have it done this year while I have the insurance I'm on; my current financial opportunity is probably once-in-a-lifetime, not getting it this year probably puts it off another 3-4 which I know I can't handle at my level of dysphoria/function).

He called me personally the day after I made inquiry using the form on his website. He's very friendly and personable and very compassionate; all of my contact with him and his office has been a really pleasant contrast to the other offices I've been in contact with who tend to sound rushed and dismissive. One of his assistants called me early the following week and I was able to schedule a consultation for early in the week after, so time from inquiry to consultation was a little over two weeks. Even now that I'm becoming an established patient his office is still very friendly and responsive, by phone and through the Messages tool on their patient portal website.

Dr. Hanna was incredibly confident and self-assured when talking about GCS and SRS. He responded to all my questions with really quick and full answers; my only question when leaving the consultation was "what do his past patients themselves have to say?" I had some questions about what I can respect for results and recovery for my being a lifelong competitive cyclist, and he about gave me a fifteen minute lecture on how it will effect the likelihood of encroaching from the pelvic into the abdominal or rectal cavities during the procedure, what special considerations I should give to preparation/recovery (no cycling for three months before or after ^{idk what to do with myself now} , increased pelvic and pelvic floor muscle strength that could make dilating more difficult, I should try and set up appointments with a pelvic floor physiotherapist before/after surgery), and used some words I barely recognize from my semester teaching Anatomy and Physio.

His results are aesthetically phenomenal . He only showed four but I was really, really impressed with what I saw, and he insisted these were typical results I can expect so long as I follow his prep and recovery instructions well (yeah I know they're probably actually above average, but that makes his average still a lot better than most other results I've seen/been told I can expect). He said explicitly he had performed 450 SRS surgeries in 2021, and put a lot of emphasis on his education and specialized training and his being a urologist, not a plastic surgeon, when describing his experience. Upon asking he said he hadn't had any patients report hair still growing in their vagina after surgery, and when I asked about complications he said only a small percentage of his patients experienced any kind of major complication (idk why I didn't write the number down, it was in the single digits I take notes neurotically, idfk how a specific number escaped me) of which only a fraction were lasting (i.e. his rate of complication is similar or slightly less than those of SRS overall). He said his patients retain excellent sensation and depth, both of which are confirmed with the past patient I got to speak with.

"Not computer savvy" checks out, idk if he knows how Powerpoint presentations work, he seemed to fumble with it a bit during our consultation. But my general impression is that he's only a "new" surgeon inasmuch as 3-4 years of experiences is "new" compared to others, and he only just opened his own practice last October after training with multiple ( ^{at least one} very positively) reputable other surgeons. I'm confident that I'm as likely to experience complications with him as I would most other surgeons I can feasibly get surgery from right now, which is all I can really ask for.

I'm caught in a weird limbo right now between preauthorization and scheduling because we're waiting on the hospital to give a list of available dates, but his office says I will be able to schedule for May (possibly late April). I'll update dates in this post if I need to, but if all goes well by late this spring I'll be sharing one of the first testimonies on r/transgender_surgeries of Dr. Hanna.

edit: the delays are because of nurse shortages at the hospital. I hope the nurses that left get better, humane wages and working conditions but also asdfghjl I need this

edit2: my surgery is scheduled for mid-July. I'm also considering getting top surgery from Dr. Hanna at the same time, and have a consultation for that scheduled for next month! His office told me it would be done at the same time as the vaginoplasty.