Gender Reassignment Surgery

Overview :

Converting male to female anatomy requires removal of the penis, reshaping genital tissue to appear more female, and constructing a vagina. A vagina can be successfully formed from a skin graft or an isolated loop of intestine.

Female to male surgery has achieved lesser success, due to the difficulty of building a functioning penis from the much smaller amount of erectile tissue available in the female genitals. Penis construction is not attempted less than a year after the preliminary surgery to remove the female organs. One study in Singapore found that a third of the patients would not undergo the surgery again. Nevertheless, they were all pleased with the change of sex. Besides the genital organs, the breasts need to be surgically altered for a more male appearance. This can be done quite successfully.

Orgasm, or at least a reasonable degree of erogenous sensitivity, can be experienced by patients after surgery.