You dilate until you consider that having a full depth vagina isn’t worth it anymore. People at my clinic (Suporn) say they dilate once every 2 or 3 months after 5 or so years post op. That frequency, to me, is “almost never” xd so no biggie. Also it can be substituted by penetrative sex, so yeah. 4 dilations a year is almost nothing anyways 😅

Edit: don’t forget that it all depends on the technique as well, so it may be different in your case!

On a rigid daily schedule? I'm supposed to go a year doing that (3x per day). Once I've made it through, then I can taper it down to once a day and eventually (hopefully) once a week after more time has passed. You have to keep doing it for the rest of your life though.

Dilation is lifelong, though at the end of the first year assuming you have have reached your size goals you can drop down to about once a week for about 15-30 minutes. Its a chore for sure but not that bad of one.

I had surgery 2 weeks ago, dilating three times a day and here are my instructions:

DILATION PROGRAM

To keep the vagina open, patients must dilate the vagina with the dilators provided by the clinic for a minimum of 6 months.

A set of 6 dilators made from hard transparent resin plastic will be provided free of charge. The diameters of the dilators range from 26 mm. (No.1) to 34 mm. (No.6). The surface of the dilators is very smooth and can be used directly.

During the first two months, it is recommended that patients dilate the canal every day, 3 times a day. After 2 months, the patients can reduce dilation to 2 times a day if they find that there is no difficulty in keeping the vaginal canal open. After 6 months dilation should be continued once every other day, although patients who have sexual intercourse with a male partner regularly might not need further dilation. The vaginal channel should be cleaned regularly.

The dilators (stents) must be cleaned by antiseptic such as Dettol or Betadine before use, and the vaginal orifice should be cleaned before and after dilations by using a diluted Dettol solution. For the first dilations, patients may find it useful to use a mirror to localize the vaginal opening. Users should apply a water based lubricant such as KY jelly either on the dilator or to the vagina and then direct the dilator towards the navel (forward) rather than towards rectal wall. The more relaxed, the easier the dilations will be.

During the first week of dilation, the skin graft along the vaginal canal is not strong enough to tolerate too much pressure and friction from the dilators and, therefore the dilators should not be held inside the canal for too long. Patients should insert and remove the dilator slowly and gently, starting from the smallest dilator and working up to the larger sizes. Patients are encouraged to use the larger dilators provided there is not too much pain.

From the second week, after the skin graft has become stronger, the dilators can be retained inside the vaginal canal for longer periods. Again, patients should dilate from the smallest up to the largest that can be accommodated. It is recommended that users should retain the largest dilator for 15 minutes. It is common that a small level of pain or discomfort will be felt and possible that some blood spots and discharge will occur during dilation. If more bleeding occurs, dilation should be stopped for one day and tried again once the bleeding has stopped.

It is important that the dilation process is not rushed, and if insertion of the larger dilators is difficult it should be delayed until it is more comfortable. If the patient is relaxed and the vaginal swelling is not too bad, the dilation will be easier. Note that the small dilators help maintain the depth and the large one will maintain the width.