It was brought to my attention that one of my recent posts left some of you scratching your heads, for which I apologise. The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has a long and very thorny history with the trans community. That’s putting it mildly.

Between the oral history and what I’ve gathered from Viviane Namaste’s work, I’ll construct a portrait for you. I am sure that it is romanticized and sensationalized but the key points ring true to this day: the trans community had to be very resourceful, self-reliant against an apathetic on the best of days, typically demoralizing medical industry and displayed its incredible resilience through the ongoing adversity.

At the onset there were determined and clever trans people, most of them women. They approached what was then known as The Clark in hopes of getting medical assistance in Canada, rather than trekking across borders. Read the full story

I have been working towards bottom surgery for years. Having done much research and extensive soul searching, I have decided I want phalloplasty (phallo for short) with urethral extension (aka u hook-up) and scrottoplasty. In other words: I want the ability to pee my name in snow. It’s the little things in life, right?

My top priorities are size and ability to pee out of my dick. A close third is least visible scars as possible. Other priorities that can be more important for other guys include erotic sensation, number of procedures (their toll on body and mind), existing tattoos and scars placements (when deciding donor site, though this is not a concern to all) as well as cost. There are also with all donor sites potential complications (in terms of swelling, grafts not taking, and so on) and it is wise to factor in where one is more wiling or able to handle that. (e.g. I need maximum dexterity in my wrist but I’m not as concerned with my thigh given my lifestyle and hobbies) Also, each procedure (the forming of the phallus, glandplasty, u hook-up, testicular implants and stiffener) comes with potential complications, and not everyone has the same comfort level with those individual risks. In short, not everyone getting bottom surgery gets “the works” even if they can afford it and on some level want it.
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