Is an angled vaginal canal common immediately post-vaginoplasty? Will it fix itself over time?

8
u/angledvagina8008
Thu Jun 16 17:16:47 2022 UTC
(16 comments)

Hey all! i'm 8 days out from vaginoplasty and just got my packing/woundvac taken out a couple minutes ago and did my first dilation with my surgeon. When he got to full depth with the dilator, it was noticeably angled inside of me? Like maybe 30˚+ of angle at max depth, making the deepest part of the dilator a couple inches closer to my right hip bone than my left.

This was concerning to me, because every vagina i've ever seen or interacted with, cis or trans, have never had an angle to them. Any toy/penis at full insertion is always exactly in between the two hip bones.

i'm wondering if anyone else who's had vaginoplasty had this happen to them, and if so, did it eventually even out and lose the angle? My guess is that it's a temporary thing caused by swelling/being backed up intestinally due to surgery, but i just wanted to make sure so i can settle my anxiety. My aesthetics/depth/dilation-width are all marvelous and i'm really happy with them (as much as one can be 8 days after surgery and 1 dilation), but just this one little thing has me worried.

Sorry for the trouble and thanks so much everyone!

all 16 comments


5
u/damnationdoll99
Thu Jun 16 19:33:10 2022 UTC
(2 children)

Im pretty sure it's going to end up being swelling and issues caused by being backed up so pls chill.tf out and try not to worry about every single detail until you're at least 2-6 months from now

1
OP
Fri Jun 17 04:34:09 2022 UTC
(1 child)

Okay, that's reassuring to hear. i'm definitely a pretty extreme worrywart in most of my life, but especially when it comes to trans medical things. i'll do the best i can to just observe how things change over the next few weeks and months i guess!

1
Fri Jun 17 06:40:36 2022 UTC
(0 children)

Try to find an ex patient who's had a successful or even better, a difficult recovery from the same surgeon and ask for advice if you can x

2
u/qt_bea
Thu Jun 16 18:59:22 2022 UTC
(2 children)

Contact your surgeon asap! This is worth asking about!!

1
OP
Fri Jun 17 04:32:23 2022 UTC
(1 child)

i did! The angle was one of the first things i noticed after he got the dilator in me, and when i asked him about it, he said "it could just be your anatomy right now". It didn't seem to phase him, but also he didn't really give any suggestions or reassurances or anything. i'll make sure to ask again at next week's followup!

1
u/qt_bea
Fri Jun 17 06:14:03 2022 UTC
(0 children)

Yeah if it bothers you definitely bring it up in that context. If you need revision, I think it better to know sooner rather than later.

1
u/whoremoanalrage
Thu Jun 16 18:26:50 2022 UTC
(1 child)

Could be some swelling causing things to sit at an angle. Mine's been really swollen on one side more than the other and it made my dilators sit at an offset for quite a while. It's gotten better though over the past few months. Keep an eye on it and see if it begins to resolve as the swelling goes down after a couple months of recovery.

Hip posture could also be a contributing factor (lots of people have uneven muscles in their core and their hips which can cause one side to rest higher/lower or more forward/backward than the other). Along with the swelling, I've noticed that my dilators sat at a slight angle until I made a conscious effort to align my hips with the rest of my body while dilating. A physical therapist or even a chiropractor (not one of the woo woo kinds) would be able to tell you if your hips are out of alignment and help you work on fixing them.

1
OP
Fri Jun 17 04:30:35 2022 UTC
(0 children)

Thank you for your response! It's reassuring to hear that someone else had this issue too, and that it cleared up as the swelling went down. i'm really hoping mine goes away too over time because woof, i really hope i don't have to have sex at an angle for the rest of my life :/. i'll just keep monitoring it over the next couple weeks/months and see how it progresses then!

As for hip posture, i don't think it's that - i used to absolutely fill my days pre-surgery with hours of full body stretches and hip openers for ballet and yoga - but i could be wrong! might look into it later on when i get a bit more settled and everything isn't so fucking awful every day haha.

Thanks again!

1
u/gladamirflint
Fri Jun 17 02:37:39 2022 UTC
(1 child)

Ask your doctor to be sure, but I believe it could shift around a bit at first until it’s settled.

1
OP
Fri Jun 17 04:35:17 2022 UTC
(0 children)

Based on a couple other responses and yours, i think this might be it. i'm really hoping things even out sooner rather than later but i guess this is just one of those things where i gotta wait and see what happens :/

1
u/vagpatientzero
Fri Jun 17 03:36:50 2022 UTC
(3 children)

not nearly as severe, but i have a slight angle. you can see it more on the small dilators. the orange one is basically straight in. ask your doctor about dilating techniques you can use to try and work out some of the swelling/tension on the sides of the vagina. 30 degrees is a lot and i tend to say that's from swelling. i bet with time, proper dilation, and moving up to bigger dilators, it gets a lot better.

2
OP
Fri Jun 17 04:38:27 2022 UTC
(2 children)

Thank you very much for the reassurance, that really means a lot to me right now <3. i'll just do my best for now and hope things will get better as i size up, and i'll talk to him next week to see if there's anything i can do in the meantime. He was gonna start me on green cause he seemed to think i was, i guess pre-dilated enough would be the term? But we ultimately settled on blue for now, so hopefully when i go to green and orange things will be straighter. Fingers crossed!

1
Fri Jun 17 15:19:43 2022 UTC
(0 children)

the surgeons basically "build you" big enough to take the orange one. and the packing that goes in there during surgery is pretty big. but they tend to start you dilating with the smaller dilators both to accommodate swelling, and to let you adjust to this new way that you are working your pelvic muscles. my surgeon had me start on just the little purple one.

depth is your main goal right now. girth can be trained later on, but depth has to be maintained from day 1. you got this

1
u/TaxIntelligent8713
Fri Jun 17 04:32:02 2022 UTC
(1 child)

Almost 3 months post-op. When dilating, the first 5cm or so go in a 30º angle as well. The remaining 7cm go more or less parallel / straight / 0º. That varies depending on how I'm doing pressure or not with my muscles and the curvature of my back. It helped a lot during the first weeks to place a pillow under my low back and pushing my diaphragm down and out. Hope this helps.

Anyway, better ask your surgeon 🖤

1
OP
Fri Jun 17 04:41:26 2022 UTC
(0 children)

Oh fascinating! Huh maybe you and that other commenter are onto something - maybe i should be playing around with my hip angles and seeing if that makes any kind of difference. Thanks so much for the info! i'll talk to my surgeon too and see if he has any other ideas!

If you don't mind me asking, did your vagina always have that property to it, or did it change over the course of your recovery?

1
u/MaybeSpecialist3231
Fri Jun 17 06:38:47 2022 UTC
(0 children)

Being new to the vagina world, I find if I dialate with my legs up it's fine until I get to the end then if I stretch out and lay down it's much easier and I get full depth, my surgeon told me that my vaginal canal runs with the angle of my pelvic bone,Idk if this helps u but I'm not sure that I have a angle or mine is straight in. Seems a slight upward angle. Anyway that's my two cents.