Not phallo itself, but directly related. Since I don’t often hear of people getting their vaginectomies with their hysterectomies I wanted to post about how mine's been for other people. I also have really severe dysphoria and was scared shitless over how everything was going to go, so I want to share for people who are/were in a similar situation. Feel free to ask questions
I got a total hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and total vaginectomy. The vaginectomy included only partial closure intraoperatively, but with the expectation that it would fuse completely during healing. The partial closure was to allow the blood in my abdomen to drain properly.
CW for anatomical terms and some nsfw stuff. Nothing outrageously graphic, just some info on masturbation after surgery.
March 28th (day of)
The hospital has been chill. The bleeding checks (where they just lift my gown and possibly move my leg(s) to see how much blood I have on the pad) haven’t bothered me as much I thought they were going to. I had two done by a guy while waking up in the PACU but I don’t remember the one, just that it happened. Then, a female nurse did one which I was scared about but she was really reassuring and said she wouldn’t touch me. She said she was going to treat me like her son, which made me feel better about it. Later, one of the residents I met before surgery came in to do one, that was no problem at all since he was in the OR anyway, so it’s not like he hadn't seen anything before. I had two more after that, one by my surgeon before he left for the day and another by a woman who's one of the night nurses. I’ve only had to change the pad once because my bleeding has been so minimal. At one point one of the nurses made me get out of bed to sit on a chair and that kind of sucked, I bled some while getting in and out of it.
I had local anesthetic shots done just as I was waking up so I don’t remember them too well. I’ve only been given tylenol and motrin so far and been fine with those. Lying entirely still is no problem at all, just slight abdominal pain. It’s no different than indigestion or gas pain. But, when I try to move I can feel the vaginectomy area, which hurts pretty bad. Luckily, my bed has up and down buttons so when I want to sit up I can just raise the bed. I’m more sore than anything. The acute pain from moving overzealously is stingy. This is going to sound gross, it feels like someone put blender blades in it . The catheter and packing (I have some thin silicone strips in the old canal) aren't bothering me. The whole area is sore so there's nothing that stands out as particularly painful or uncomfortable.
I’m not allowed to eat anything solid until later today so I’ve just been drinking juice and broth. I don’t really feel like eating anyway, so I’m not disappointed.
My phallo surgeon happened to be at the hospital today so he stopped by my room before and after surgery to say hi and check in on me.
(For context on this bit: I requested male staff) All but one person in the OR were men. Idk how my surgeon even pulled that together. The only woman was one of the residents, but I didn't even meet her and I was out before she came into the OR.
Also, I totally forgot to ask for pictures of everything that was removed! I'm really frustrated about that. I was really really looking forward to it and I asked my surgeon in advance but I wanted to remind him and the resident to take one today, but completely forgot. I haven't had the chance to ask them about it but since they haven't mentioned it I assume they didn't take one. (update on the 29th: they didn’t :/)
But yeah it hasn’t been horrible. I’m sure being on two different anti-anxiety medications and barely sleeping might’ve helped. No one’s touched my genitals while I was awake though so we’ll see how that goes. The guy who will remove my cath and packing is really nice. It’s the same person I mentioned earlier that assisted with surgery and did a bleeding check.
March 29th (day after)
I woke up around 3am after going to sleep at about 8pm. Every time I stood up blood would run down my legs and drip all over the floor, but walking felt okay. Getting in and out of bed was the worst. I’ve also noticed that I have anal/rectal pain, which I was not expecting. My operative report says they packed my rectum and that my surgeon did a digital rectal exam so I guess that’s part of why. Around 6am my surgeon and resident came in to check on me. He said surgery was fine, nothing remarkable and no issues. I double checked with him that even though I still have bartholin's glands I can expect way less mucus production, and he said yes, which is great because it's something I've been looking forward to. About an hour later, the resident came back to take my packing out. Which was disgusting. It was the first time someone was actually touching me, and also (not trying to be hyperbolic) it had to have been about 12" long. Every time I thought it was ending it kept going. It was like the scarf trick clowns do. After it was removed I actually felt a lot of pain relief. About 15 minutes later he came back to take my catheter out too. Before taking it out he put 300cc of water into my bladder through the cath line and then said I had 30 minutes to get out at least 200cc on my own. Having both out was much more comfortable and the least pain I felt in that area so far. I was only able to get out just under 100cc at first, and then later tried again and hit 200cc, but I think I took too long. My nurse scanned my bladder and I still had a lot, so I tried a third time. I got out 200cc no problem but the second bladder scan showed that I still had a lot left. Trying to pee after having the organ directly below your urethra and bladder cut out and sewn up is pretty difficult. I couldn't use any of my pelvic muscles due to them being numb or in stinging pain, so all I could do was just kind of let urine fall out. Because I still had a lot on the bladder scan they had to just replace the catheter and have me go home with it. Having the cath put back in wasn't absolutely terrible because the resident I trusted did it and I was on a strong anti-anxiety med. But, it was still really uncomfortable because for a female foley cath they have to spread the labia minora to clean it and see the urethral opening. The cath itself didn't hurt, but the spreading hurt and the bacitracin wipes for cleaning hurt a lot because they were kind of scratchy and he kept running them over the vaginectomy site. After he replaced it I was supposed to wait for my nurse to come in and teach me how to take care of it, but I was so tired that after waiting 5 minutes I fell asleep. I ended up being discharged 4 hours late because of my nap lol.
The catheter sucks. It's not extremely uncomfortable or anything but I hate needing to be mindful of the tubing, and while it was out the first time I was in less pain, so I know I could feel a little better without it.
I have to go to my surgeon's office Monday to have the catheter removed again and do another void trial. Since both surgeons won't be in the office, and they’re the only men, the resident that saw me in the hospital said he would come over to the office to remove it. I don’t know how to properly express my gratitude for him. He has zero obligation to leave the hospital, especially just for something as simple as cath removal, but he is for me. The office is only across the street from the hospital, so it’s not like he has to drive three hours to it, but it's still incredibly kind of him. Doctors usually don’t remove catheters anyway, so him removing and replacing it was already something I was really grateful for.
I'm just rotating between motrin and tylenol (nurses recommendation to rotate them) and have been great pain wise. I'm annoyed with the cath but it's not horrible and it's only until Monday. I'll need at-home catheters for weeks after my 2nd and 3rd stages of phallo so I'm considering this a practice run.
So yeah I had to be re-cath’d but otherwise all good. No panic attacks or severe anxiety throughout the whole stay. Having a catheter in for another 2 days will be annoying but my pain is already significantly better than before and hopefully once it’s removed I’ll feel even better.
March 30th (2nd day)
I’ve slept most of the day. My pain has gone down a lot, to the point I forgot to take my tylenol and didn’t even notice. Cath is still annoying and gross. I’m really really looking forward to getting it out. I can sit mostly comfortably. I can always feel pressure in my pelvic area when I’m sitting but not always pain. The rectal pain is more noticeable now because the pain across the whole area is going away. Hopefully that will ease up when I take the pain medicine again. My abdomen is still a little tender and bloated but nothing crazy. I’ve been changing pads every few hours to keep everything clean but I haven't been bleeding a lot. The blood doesn’t look or smell like menstrual blood btw. It has a distinct wound drainage smell and as I get farther from surgery it’s looking more yellow (serous fluid, not pus) instead of bright red. I wanted to include that in case anyone has bad dysphoria around menstruation and is worrying about post-hysto bleeding. Even though it is blood on a pad it just feels like a surgical wound (because it is). It's the same fluid you drain after top surgery.
Update: April 1st (4th day)
I had my catheter taken out today and passed the void trial, so I got to go home without it. Peeing is a little difficult, but I think I just have to get used to it again. I still have a lot of rectal pain, which I didn't bring up during the appointment. I see my surgeon on Friday so if it's still happening then I'll let him know.
I masturbated for the first time post-op now that I'm in much less pain and my cath is out. I didn't get as hard as usual but had no trouble orgasming. It does feel a bit different, there's much less of an internal sensation, which I was actually hoping for. The feeling itself isn't better or worse than before, just different. Masturbating is more enjoyable now though because I can't feel a hole, and from what I can tell there isn't any mucus production anymore. So far so good.
Update: April 3rd (6th day)
I'm still having rectal pain. The pain has also moved into the vaginal area more now which from Saturday to Tuesday had been barely noticeable. It feels like I've been hit with a baseball bat. I needed to start taking ibuprofen again to manage it. The rectal pain is worrying me because I have not heard of other people experiencing this. I'm hoping it won't necessitate an exam on Friday. A rectal exam wouldn't bother me mentally, but it will probably hurt considering just existing hurts right now.
Update: April 7th (10th day)
The rectal pain is mostly gone now. On Friday my surgeon said it was because of the sutures near my rectum, and that I didn't need to worry about perforation because he checked for it during surgery. So I didn't need a rectal exam. I'm also still having trouble peeing, which I thought was from the catheter, but my surgeon said that could be from the sutures as well.
I'm still not 100% pain-free, but it's more of a discomfort than outright pain. It's just a soreness that comes and goes, and moves around in different spots. Getting in cars is still difficult, but I'm able to sit upright and even lean forward without significant pain.
For the past few days my drainage would fluctuate between yellow and red/orange throughout the day. But as of today it's totally yellow/orangish. No actual blood anymore.

(Edit: of course a few hours I said this I had bloody drainage again. Although after that I really was blood-free)
Masturbation has been mixed so far. Masturbating the first time after surgery was fine, and it's been getting better as I move farther from surgery because I have less pain and swelling. But twice my orgasms were totally mental, not physical. As in I felt a release mentally, but with zero physical reaction. I've experienced that before but it's really rare for me, and pre-op only ever happened with anal penetration, which I haven't tried since surgery. I'm hoping that won't be a regular thing because I don't find them satisfying. Other than that it's been fine though. I really like that there's way less of an internal feeling during orgasms. Having no natural lubrication is a mixed bag. On one hand I really like it because I hated the feeling of mucus, and it was really annoying that I kept producing it even after finishing. But also I now need to use some kind of external lubrication or the friction is kind of painful. Although, I've noticed I've been oversensitive since surgery, so maybe that pain will lessen in the future.
April 11th (2 weeks)
Just some minor things. I started having symptoms of a UTI on the 5th. Then I started getting new ones, so I called my surgeons office on the 9th. They ordered antibiotics for me and told me to get a urine test. Strangely, both the rapid test and culture came back negative for UTI bacteria, but I felt better after starting the antibiotics. After getting the culture results I called the office again to ask what that could mean, and an MA told me it was probably just irritation from the catheter, but to keep taking the antibiotics just in case it is an infection.
I think I might have a little wound separation in the fourchette area (very bottom of the vulva), but I’m just keeping an eye on it and hoping it heals okay on it’s own.
Also, I think I might’ve gotten more bottom growth. I usually get more when my t gets higher so I wouldn’t be surprised if it increased after surgery. I’m getting my levels tested next week so I guess I’ll find out then. I’m really relieved by this because for the first few days after surgery I looked smaller than usual, and I was worried about that. But it must’ve just seemed smaller from the nearby tissue being swollen.
Apart from the UTI related issues I’m pain free now.

Still having serous fluid but it’s been very light as of last night. I’m hoping I can stop wearing pads soon. I think they may have something to do with the irritation. (edit from later: I stopped wearing them on the 13th. So I only needed them for just over 2 weeks. Absolutely zero drainage since then. No more pads for the rest of my life.

Good riddance)
April 23rd (nearly 4 weeks post-op) - Final update!
I'm basically back to normal now! The only thing I still have a little bit of trouble with is getting in and out of cars. Those low seats are hard to navigate after genital surgery. But apart from car difficulties I'm pain free. Urinating isn't totally back to normal, but it's getting better every day.
My testosterone levels went up on their own. I'm usually in the low 400s, but I got tested on the 16th and it was 561ng/dL. My e had zero change, which I was expecting since it was in male range before surgery anyway. I had been wanting to ask my endo about upping my dose for a while, so I'm glad it just went up on it's own.
I haven't had a change in my libido but I've been masturbating more often recently because it's so much more convenient without vaginal secretion. I'm not as oversensitive as I was for the first two weeks anymore. Overall, being post-op has had a massively positive impact on my sexuality. The trouble I had with some orgasms being only mental has gone away. I also got feeling back in my pelvic muscles, which had a lot to do with the previous lack of physical response. So now I get contractions in my pelvic muscles, but don't feel the deeper contractions I had pre-op, which I am really happy about because I didn't like the deeper ones. The only thing I'm not totally happy about is that I seem to barely have skene's fluid, if any, which means post-phallo I probably won't have ejaculate fluid. That's disappointing because I was really hoping I would. But oh well, at least I don't have a vagina anymore.
The suspected wound separation at the fourchette seems to be going away on it's own. I'll continue to keep an eye on it but I doubt it'll get worse at this point.
The UTI, or whatever it was, cleared up fully and I haven't had another issue since.
This will be my last update. Like I said at the top, feel free to ask any questions you'd like. I'll probably answer anything. Also, on my profile I have a layout of my surgical staging and some FAQ if you'd like to check that out.
