Hi!
I'm 34 and I had my first SRS 16 years ago in my home country. The results were not great. I was left with many problems (bad aesthetics, no depth, problems to pee) but it's not what this post is about. It'll be about my experience last year with travel, SRS (PPT) and the results. Hopefully, this post is useful to other girls who are considering to travel for their surgeries.
In 2021, after lots of research, I decided to have a secondary SRS (Technique: PPT) with Dr Kamol in Thailand. I made this choice because Thailand it's known to be "the place" to go for such surgery.
Communication & Costs
I was in touch with Dr Kamol's staff for about 2 years prior to the surgery. All communication with them was on email and, at all times, they showed great confidence they could solve my issues. Their prices were as follows:
| Secondary vaginoplasty by PPT | 507k THB | ~14k USD |
|---|---|---|
| SRS Touch up | 157k THB | ~4k USD |
| Lab Tests, Chest X-ray and EKG | 5200 THB | ~150 USD |
There were other costs which I will not include here because they were specific to Covid (quarantine and tests)
Travel
My partner and I traveled to Thailand and arrived safely in April 2021. At the airport, someone from the health department was waiting for us (due to the pandemic). Everything went smoothly until it was time to go through an immigration officer.
I handed my passport, and they immediately noticed that my gender is marked as "M" even though there's a female name and picture. For context, the gender in my passport is "M" because my country still does not allow to change it legally -- but that's a story for another post.
In the next 10 minutes, over 15 officers came to my booth and at that point I was already very nervous. The interrogation proceeded to begin:
- Why is your name and photo female and sex, male?
- We need to see the man. Can you hold your hair up?
- Is it allowed in America for 2 men to live together? Is it legal? (These were after I told them I was travelling with my partner)
- Are you stealing someone's identity?
It all ended when a very nice female officer, the only one who could speak in English, came over and confirmed I am me by looking at my signature from my country's ID and matching it against my passport's.
I had never felt so offended in my life. I thought Thailand was going to be easy but, contrary to popular belief, it was one of the most terrifying experiences ever. I cried all the way to the hospital where my partner and I would be quarantining for the next couple days.
Admission to the hospital
Days passed and the day of the surgery arrived. Although everything had been paid for, they wanted to charge me 6k extra because of "high BMI". I objected not because I didn't want to pay but because I hadn't been notified of such additional charge, ever.
Surgery and recovery
The surgery (secondary SRS with PPT) finally happened and after 6 hours I woke up in the recovery room. A couple of hours later I was taken to my room and was reunited with my partner.
The first couple days I was in a lot of pain and it was difficult to explain to the staff that I needed stronger painkillers because only 1 nurse could speak in English.
During the first few days I was on soup diet and only had a bowel movement after the 4th day.
At the 7th day mark, I was discharged from the hospital and went to Dr Kamol's hotel: K-garden. Again, even though everything had been paid for, I didn't have a room. The hotel manager told me "I had to wait" because there was a person in my room. He offered to give me another room which was much smaller and I declined because that's not what had been previously agreed upon. I reached out to my coordinator and she talked to the hotel manager and had my room 30 mins later.
Dilations were set to start that same day. The first few sessions were very painful. And at no point I could ever go further than 5 inches. That was already concerning to me because I knew that over time I would lose depth. Over the next few days I noticed that in addition to not having much depth, I was also very tight and that there was no definition on the left labia minora. And, that one of the labia majora was bigger than the other.
On the bright side, the peeing problem I originally had was fixed so THAT alone was a huge win as it would allow me to have a "more normal" life. Also, I did not lose any sensitivity on my vagina so that was nice.
A few days later I had my final consultation with Dr Kamol. He said everything looked fine, even though there were clear issues, and that I could go back home. I did not communicate any concern because at that point I didn't want to extend my stay in Thailand -- I just wanted to go home.
1 year post op
It's been a couple months after my first year mark and now that the swelling is gone I can say I'm "ok" with the results. Did I expect more? Yes. Do I regret having gone to Thailand? No, because even though the surgery didn't go as I had hoped, my previous problems were fixed, allowing me to have a more "normal" life.
At this point I don't have a lot of depth left. So I'm now in the search of a surgeon here in the US who can fix that as well as the definition of the labia. Hopefully third time's a charm.
I'm attaching some pictures from different angles so you can see where I am at right now. Please be kind :)
Feel free to reach out if you have further questions.
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