After the operation, do transsexuals experience normal sexual function, including orgasm? If not, what’s the point? –Brooks Magruder, Singapore
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(2) One might suppose that sexual responsiveness would depend on the surgical technique used, but if there is a consensus on the best way, you can’t tell from the medical literature. The procedure used by Dr. Biber is called penile inversion: removing most of the penis’s innards and turning the skin inside out, like a sock, to create a vaginal pouch. The glans (tip) of the penis winds up at the bottom (far end) of the vagina. A clitoris can be created from the corpora spongiosa, the erectile tissue that causes the penis to stiffen during arousal. Advantage: simplicity. If it worked as a penis, it’ll work as a vagina, right? In addition, sensitive tissue at both ends of the vagina doubles one’s opportunities for pleasure. Disadvantage, according to the journals: the resultant vagina often atrophies (too shallow, too narrow, etc). Yet Biber says he’s had good success.
(3) Other surgical techniques include the sigmoid neovagina, made from a chunk of the large intestine (which supposedly won’t shrink, a common complication), and sensate pedicled neoclitoroplasty, in which the glans, with nerves and blood vessels intact, is whittled down and reinstalled at the vaginal opening as a substitute clitoris. The remainder of the penile skin and the skin of the scrotum are used to fashion the vagina.
(8) So are one’s second, third, and fourth thoughts. Not to make light of the situation, but what’s so bad about being male? At least you get to pee standing up.
