Thought I would share my experience getting FFS with Dr. Bensimon. The procedures I had done were forehead reduction with brow lift and hairline advancement, open rhinoplasty, and v-line (chin and jaw reduction). Overall I'm very happy with the outcome of my surgery and have had no major complications.

Changes From Procedures

I don't want to post any before and after pictures as I am semi-stealth irl and wish to remain that way. I will do my best to describe the changes of each procedure over text.

My forehead is now flat with no brow ridge anymore and my eyes look quite a bit more opened up. They have been "dehooded" and my eyelids are way more visible now. My hairline scar is healing quite nicely with the silicon scar cream that Dr. Bensimon gave me. The brow lift did a great of raising my eyebrows to a better position (My mom keeps jealously commenting on good they look now).

The rhinoplasty is exactly what I wanted. Pre FFS I had a convex nose with a hump on it that I wanted changed. I didn't want an upturned appearance to my nose that I usually see from other feminizing rhinoplasty. I wanted a fully straight nose bridge while making my nose more feminine to fit in with the noses my family has. I got this with my nose being smaller and base being tilted noticeably upwards. The scar on the base of the nose is healing as nice as the forehead scar is.

V-line surgery was good at reducing my jaw and chin height by a noticeable amount. My chin is less wider than before giving it a much more feminine appearance.

The changes all together make a good difference in making me have a more feminine appearance overall. I mostly passed before FFS and I now pass even more. I have very little facial dysphoria now and don't worry as much about makeup and hair.

Complications

I had only minor complications with these surgeries. Numbness from surgery was one that has mostly disappeared now. I only have some numbness on the top of my scalp that is slowly disappearing as the days go by now. I did have numbness in my jaw and chin but have regained full sensation.

Pain was not much of an issue for me after surgery. After the first night I was just taking Tylenol and Celebrex to control my pain. Also applying ice packs to my jaw and chin was super helpful.

There has been some noticeable minor shock hair loss from surgery but I'm sure those hairs will come back over time as they have a chance to grow back.

Experience

Pre-Op

I consulted with a bunch of different surgeons from all over the world. I chose Dr. Bensimon due to the fact that he is experienced craniofacial surgery and during the consult he thoroughly explained the procedures he would do to me. Another surgeon in Canada that is highly regarded did not do this and came off as too cocky for my liking so I ruled him out. Dr. Bensimon was definitely not a salesman when comes to procedures and was honest about what he could do. He was also close to where I am located in Canada so it was easy to travel there. The cherry on top was that my work insurance would cover part of cost of procedures (Very rare in Canada for insurance to cover this) if they were done in Canada. I also saw some results from other people that were great and had nothing but good things to say about him. It was a no brainer for me to pick him.

Once I got my CT scan done and insurance pre-auth completed (What a pain in the butt this was to get completed) I was finally ready to reserve a date. I got a date that was less than 6 months away which was nice as I didn't have to wait for too long.

Dealing with staff at Dr. Bensimon's office was always pretty good and they were responsive to any inquiries and questions I had. A much better experience than the staff at GRS Montreal who are quite disorganized in comparison.

I traveled to Montreal on the weekend before surgery so that I could get some sightseeing in before I was incapacitated. I had to get a PCR COVID test before surgery that thankfully came back negative which meant I all ready to have surgery

Operation Day

I woke up pretty early as the admission time was at about 8 am and it was a bit of journey to get there. I hopped on the metro from the downtown apartment I was staying at to go to the private hospital I would have my FFS at. The hospital was near Université de Montréal in a medical center. The hospital is quite small with about 6 beds in the recovery room I was in. The nurses there were excellent and super nice, while their English was not perfect I got by quite fine being a mostly English only speaker (My French is terrible). They went through all the forms to sign with me, chatted with me, and even gave me something to read while waiting for my surgeon (Was hard to read though because it was in French lol). Dr. Bensimon eventually came with a resident in tow (Who would be assisting him) to take before pictures of me and have a final discussion about the procedures to be done. The anesthesiologist came shortly after to quickly discuss anesthetic with me. Eventually around 9 am it was my time to go into surgery. I walked over to the OR and lied down on the operating table in a familiar position to when I had bottom surgery. I was given anesthetic and was quickly out like a light. I woke up 7 hours later at about 4 pm feeling quite groggy and nauseous in the recovery room. The nurses checked up on me constantly and gave me some anti nausea medication to deal with the nausea. I hope never again to need general anesthetic as I really hated how I felt in those initial hours post op. I got to see myself in a mirror and even though I was all bandaged and swelling up I was euphoric about my temperance. After about 4 hours in the recovery room I went back to the apartment in a Taxi with the family member taking care of me. I got some prescriptions, written instructions that were explained to my family member taking care of me, and a nice chin strap to wear for at least a week.

Post-Op

Post-Op recovery was really smooth. I was given a phone number to call of case of any issues but I never needed it. My pain was never really that bad and I was off opioids after the first night. I was on a liquid diet for the first few day that sucked, I was so happy when I ate solid food gain. My chin was the most painful part of my face that got operated on and was usually what limited what and how fast I could eat. My jaw wasn't as bad but I had quite bit of swelling in my cheeks that made me look like a chipmunk. My eyes had bruises around them that went away after a few weeks. My forehead incision was nicely held together with dissolvable sutures and staples. My results improved as the swelling went down over the next week. I was able to start being more active around day 3 and it allowed me to go out and enjoy the city yet again. By day 5 I was able to have a multi hour walk around Mount Royal and downtown. I certainly got some stares with my bruised face and chin strap I was wearing. On day 8 I had a post-op appointment with Dr. Bensimon at his office. The nurse there took off the nose cast, removed the staples in my forehead, and took some pictures. It was great to see the comparison. I chatted with Dr. Bensimon for a bit about the outcome of all the procedures and left feeling really good about myself. The next day I left to go home. Things continued to get better and heal as the weeks went by.

TLDR

I had an excellent experience with Dr. Bensimon. I had no major issues and the outcome of the surgeries is what I wanted. My face has been noticeably feminized by the procedures while still looking like me. I would recommend him to other people looking for the same kind of results.

Feel free to AMA