GENDER CONFIRMATION SURGERY | BEGINNING YOUR TRANSITION | SCHEDULE A CONSULTATION

Gender Confirmation Surgery in New Orleans

Gender Confirmation Surgery — also known as transgender surgery, gender reassignment surgery (GRS), sex change surgery, sex reassignment surgery (SRS), MTF surgery, or FTM surgery — is a suite of elective plastic surgery procedures. Our team at New Orleans Craniofacial is an experienced and diverse group of surgeons providing gender confirmation surgery in New Orleans.

Transgender patients may choose gender confirmation surgery in order to more closely align one’s physical self with one’s psychological self when it comes to gender identity.

Phalloplasty (female to male surgery), vaginoplasty (male to female surgery), breast augmentation or chest masculinization, facial procedures, fat transfer to change the shape of one’s figure, or all of the above, may be part of a gender transition plan — everyone’s process is their own.

Whatever your path, our team of specialists at New Orleans Craniofacial is dedicated to attentive, personalized care for every patient.

New Orleans Craniofacial team surgeon Dr. Gerhard Mundinger is aboard-certified member of the World Professional Organization for Transgender Health (WPATH) and adheres to their surgical guidelines for transgender surgery. With vast experience and training in both plastic surgery and microsurgery, Dr. Mundinger can address a range of needs from cosmetic modifications to post-traumatic reconstruction. 

To learn more about these procedures, and what may be best suited to your transition journey, schedule an in-person consultation with a member of our surgical team at our New Orleans office to receive caring, personal, confidential, and expert guidance on your options and to determine a treatment – or series of treatments – that’s right for you.

Learn more about Dr. Mundinger’s work and the
New Orleans Transgender surgical team at
NOLATransgender.com

Defining Transgender

The American Medical Student Association defines “Transgender” as 

An umbrella term for a diverse group of people—such as trans women (male-to-female) and trans men (female-to-male), genderqueer individuals, and many others—whose gender identity or expression differs from societal expectations of how they should look, act, or identify based on the sex they were assigned at birth.

“Gender incongruence” is a term supported by members of the medical community to label the physical and psychological distress that accompanies a disconnect between one’s assigned sex and gender and one’s gender identity.

Gender dysphoria (GD) — also known as gender identity disorder (GID) — is the psychological condition of emotional and social discomfort accompanying gender incongruence.

Types of Gender Transition Procedures

  • Facial Feminization or Masculinization, which may include:
    • Enhancing or reducing the prominence of the brow
    • Reducing the prominence of the Adam’s Apple
    • Adjusting the jawline
    • Rhinoplasty to make the nose more masculine or feminine
    • Skeletal augmentation to alter the shape of the face
  • Breast Augmentation and Chest Masculinization
    • Subcutaneous Mastectomy (Breast removal)
    • Male chest contouring
    • Free nipple grafts
    • Nipple or areola resizing
    • Nipple or areola repositioning
    • Pectoral implants
    • Breast enlargement / breast implants
  • Phalloplasty
  • Vaginoplasty

To learn more about working with New Orleans Craniofacial on an individualized path of care for your transition, meet with our team one-on-one for a private consultation.

Complications from Gender Reassignment Surgery

When choosing a plastic surgeon for your gender reassignment surgery, here are three things you can do to ensure the most optimal outcome:

  1. Look for a board-certified plastic surgeon in order to ensure the highest standard of education, training, and experience. You can browse for board-certified plastic surgeons on the website of the American Board of Plastic Surgery.
  2. Ask your surgeon about his or her experience and comfort level with breast augmentation and with gender confirmation surgical procedures.
  3. Choose a local surgeon. Patients may travel for care for various reasons, but we encourage you to remember that distance between you and your surgeon or surgical team decreases your access to ongoing care.  No surgery is without some degree of risk: Think carefully about the possibility of complications and how those potential complications might be treated. A minor setback could become a severe problem if left untreated for any length of time.
  4. Find out what may be covered by your insurance. We are happy to help you review your options via a private consultation. Schedule one here.

Candidates for Gender Transition Surgery

Patients who will find the most success in gender confirmation surgical procedures are happy, healthy, self-assured individuals who are committed to a gender transition and well along in their journey.

Our group abides by WPATH standards.

  • For some procedures, patients are required to have undergone hormone therapy for a period of twelve months.
  • For breast augmentation: Patients ages 35 years and older must have a normal baseline mammogram prior to surgery.
  • Patients must undergo medical clearance by their primary care physician prior to surgery.
  • Patients are required to have a letter from their gender therapist, psychiatrist, primary care physician, or psychologist stating that transgender surgery is the next step in your transition process.

WPATH