Gender-Affirming Surgeries: Women

There are a number of gender-affirming surgeries available for women. The most common gender-affirming surgeries include vaginoplasty, breast augmentation, hair removal, facial feminization surgery, and tracheal shave/thyroid chondroplasty. Not all transfeminine persons are interested in all, or any, of these surgeries. However, the 2015 United States Transgender Survey found that 95% of trans women either wanted to have, or had already had, vaginoplasty. This entry first describes the various techniques used for vaginoplasty and explains their relative merits, then describes the procedure for bilateral orchiectomy, the removal of both testicles. Next, the options for breast augmentation, body contouring, and hair removal are discussed in turn. The entry continues with a description of facial feminization surgery and the procedure called tracheal shave, which is used to ...