Can I get a quote on why surgeons generally do this?
I mean the troons/surgeons saying why.
I don’t know if it’s possible to find a verifiable quote from an actual doctor, only hearsay from prospective patients who’ve been rejected (there are loads on the transgender surgeries subreddit). If I come across anything useful on my Internet travels, say, a screenshotted email, I will post it here.
I’m sure there are very practical reasons for surgeons to not take on this work, it‘s probably harder to get paid via insurance/Medicaid for starters, and as Cuddle says above, they all know they are at risk of being shut down for malpractice, so they all have an unspoken code of never admitting they fucked up and by extension, not admitting someone else fucked up either. Bear in mind that they are all members of the same hooky ‘professional associations‘ and will know each other at least tangentially.
Plus, trans surgeries operate like cosmetic surgeries, rather than necessary ones. Cosmetic surgeons have a vested interest in keeping their own techniques secret, if they are good at what they do, people will go to them for their special service and pay extra for it. Sharing info creates more competitors. Cosmetic surgeons are the KFC of the surgery world.
So if no one really knows what other surgeons are up to, no one is gonna wanna go back in and open that
thing up again, because you’re flying blind and have no way to judge if you are capable of fixing it or not until your patient is on the slab and by that point you’re already up to the eyeballs in theatre hire and associated staff costs. Anaesthetists in many regions cost as much as surgeons do, and they want their slice of the cash regardless as to whether the the rest of the surgery is successful or not (the surgical outcome is a ‘Not my circus, not my monkeys’ situation for anaesthetists).
In actual, serious, life saving surgeries, such as organ transplantation, there is far more motivation to share what works, because long term patient survival is the common goal (can’t really doctor shop if you are at death‘s door) so research is thorough and collaborative, and the surgeon’s success or failure is more quantifiable. If something goes a bit tits up and needs a second op, the collaborative relationship already exists and doctors have colleagues, superiors and former teachers to turn to.
NHS SRS surgeons (there are only a handful) are generally urologists, rather than cosmetic/plastic surgeons, so they tend to a) have less disasters and b) get sneered at by troons because they aren’t promising the moon on a stick in terms of creating a pornworthy vag.
UK troons who can afford it often fly to Thailand believing they’ll get a Rolls Royce aesthetically and then whinge because the NHS won’t fix problems with excess erectile tissue or misplaced urethras resulting in uncontrollable urine spray.
The main reason NHS wait lists are so high for troon related stuff is because no sane doctors want to work with this patient group. Take a look at the U.K. freedom of information website (using a variety of trans related key terms) and it’s clear why. Troons be crazy. Can’t wait for Adrian Harrop to become a trans specialist!