I Got An Orchiectomy, Here’s What It Was Like

There are many surgeries a transgender person can choose to have to help their body align with how they feel it should be, this is just one such surgery.

CONTENT NOTE: mentions of and discussions of various surgeries, but nothing in graphic detail. This article is mostly about the recovery process.

When it comes to transgender people and surgeries, most people know about “Bottom Surgery”. An orchiectomy is not full “bottom surgery”, but is an option. It removes the testicles but leaves the penis intact. More on that later.

Side Note: Unless you’ve been given permission, it is extremely uncouth to ask a trans person if they’ve had surgery, so pretty much don’t do that.

For the purposes of awareness, context, and comparison, I’ll be talking about both types of “bottom surgery” for trans women in this article. I’ve also written two previous articles about trans surgeries, links at the end of this article.

Bottom surgery in the case of trans women and/or trans feminine people, is a vaginoplasty, which is a full conversion from penis and testicles to a vulva and vagina.

For trans men, bottom surgery would be either a phalloplasty or a metoidioplasty. A phalloplasty is a full conversion from vulva+vagina to a penis made…