Update update

In reviewing my long long term update I realized I didn't mention any 'negative' aspects of my long term surgical results. I didn't even think of them when I was writing my update, because they're fairly trivial, but I thought I should mention them to be complete.

First, I have hair in my vagina. The hair seems to be located at the very deepest part of my vagina. Actually confirming their existance is fairly difficult, as I have to *cough* grope myself quite deeply to be able to feel them. Occasionally one will come out on my dialator and...strangely...they're completely white. I suspect their origin is scrotal skin used to 'cap' my vagina, which I seem to recall is part of Dr. Meltzer's method. This could probably be avoided by having scrotal electrolysis prior to SRS. I'm not sure if it's worth the bother or not.

Second, I have some numbness. Unfortunately I have to be fairly cryptic here, because the numbness itself is quite cryptic. Just after surgery I had a fair amount of numbness in random places, while other parts of my vagina were very sensitive. The skin directly surrounding my clitoris was quite numb, but my clitoris was very sensitive, which gave overall a very bizarre sensation (I would touch the skin near my clitoris, and feel the sensation in my clitoris, and not anywhere else). Since surgery the numbness has generally faded away. There seem to be some parts of my vagina which are insensitive, or less sensitive, but it's very hard to quantify. Just prior to writing this paragraph, I actually attempted to explore (by poking myself) my vagina to see what parts were sensitive, and which were not, but I was not able to come up with any real conclusions. I generally have sensation everywhere, but in some places it seems muted. This hasn't had any impact on my life or sex life as far as I can tell. I've spoken with one other TS about numbness (she went to Schrang) and she has confirmed similar long term numbness. Unfortuantely, I haven't spoken with many other post-ops regarding this. In general, post-ops don't talk about their long term results beyond saying "I'm very happy".

One positive long term result is that I basicly have no scaring. There are a couple of lines that I could point out to people if I wanted to, but nothing that anyone could immediately notice, even when my pubic hair is entirely shaved. Actually, now that I think of it their is a line going straight up from my labia where they were joined that looks a bit weird. It's basicly a line of 'pinkness', and slightly raised skin. I suspect this will fade more in time (It's only been eight months or so since my labiaplasty).

I should also mention that I had genital electrolysis prior to labiaplasty. I was primarily concerned about having hair trapped under my clitoral hood. I'm not entirely sure now if it was necessary or not. Dr. Meltzer provides a diagram which suggests how hair should be removed. I believe the diagram is designed for the best cosmetic result, as opposed to to ensure that hair is not trapped under the clitoral hood. Certainly, the cosmetic results of my zapping are excellent, but ultimately...unless you have black hair on the inside of your labia or something (which I didn't) does it really matter? If I was making recommendations about genital electrolysis, I'd say do so only if you have pubic hair near the clitoris, and then only do the minimum you need.

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