I had to skip some parts — the embarrassment squick was too much — but I really liked how it ended, and it made me like everyone involved more.

Insurance covered 90% of the total, so I paid about $4000 US for the surgeon and facility fees. The clinic the surgeon works at has good insurance wranglers who made sure my two therapist letters said exactly the right thing to satisfy the insurance company.

For me, the dysphoria was around not having a penis, rather than having a vagina, so I didn’t feel the need for vaginectomy. I’m nonbinary transmasc anyway, and my kind of ideal was to go for “best of both worlds” rather than cis-equivalent. (Also, I knew meta probably wouldn’t give me enough size for penetrative sex, and I didn’t want to make that otherwise more difficult.)

So far recovery is going well! I’m not in much pain and have been able to waddle around like a penguin from basically when I woke up after the surgery.