My abdominal phalloplasty (English version)

This blog is about my abdominal phalloplasty that I have had with Doctor Miro Djordjevic. I’m from the Netherlands, so English is not my first language, sorry if there are spelling or grammar mistakes in this text.

First, I will tell some things about myself, my situation and previous surgery’s. 

I am a 23-year-old transman from a village in Holland, with the hypermobile version of the Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. 

I started my transition 2013/2014, when I was 15/16 years old. I got puberty blockers a few days for my 17^th birthday and a few months later on the end of the year I started with testosterone gel. Later in 2017 I got Nebido testosterone injections every 12 weeks. 

In July 2017 I had my chest surgery here in Holland at the same time as my hysterectomy and removal of the ovaries. 

Later in 2019 I had my meta (metoidioplasty) with UL (urethra lengthening) in Gent, Belgium at the same time with the colpectomie/vaginectomy with Doctor Hoebeke, because my surgeon was ill. 

I started to get wishes for a phallo, because I wasn’t happy enough with my meta. I missed the ‘filling’ in my boxers, having a penis, the image in the mirror was wrong and I didn’t feel complete. So, I started to look for surgeons, first in Holland and Belgium, later in the rest of Europe. 

The reasons I didn’t get surgery in Holland or Belgium are:

-The long waiting lists

-Most of the surgeons aren’t very experienced with phalloplasty

-They didn’t listen to me about the risks with my syndrome

-They didn’t perform the technique I wanted

I didn’t want RFF, because of the big scar on my arm, and for what’s called the ‘’scip technique’’ here there are really strict conditions. I had to lose a lot of weight, even when I lost already 15 kg. Here the conditions are a lot stricter then in America. 

I looked up other techniques and found out that I really wanted the abdominal or MLD (skin graft from the back) phallo. I found a few surgeons around Europa, Doctor Djordjevic, Djinovic and some others in Germany. 

After I read some stories about Doctor Djinovic I decided not to go to him. I send many emails to surgeons in Germany, but only a few surgeons perform the abdominal and some didn’t even respond. 

I also send an email to the team of Doctor Djordjevic and the responded after a while. Sometimes Marta or someone from the team reacts really late, but I always got an answer. I could facetime with Doctor Miro Djordjevic, so we made an appointment. He called me on Sunday, which is very unusual here in the Netherlands! I immediately had a good feeling about him, he listened to my personal wishes, was friendly and immediately asked colleagues information about my illness!

Then I had more contact with Marta and Doctor Korac the anaesthesiologist and got a surgery date. I spoke for the first time with Miro on December 13^th and my surgery was on March 16^th. It depends if there is a waiting list, because Miro also works in New York. 

My insurance did cover the surgery, but since they don’t have a contract with the clinic in Belgrade, I first had to pay the surgery myself. Marta will send you a budget with how much the operation approximately will cost. 

I had to pay my surgery maximum two weeks before my arrival. 

My surgery costed less than expected and I got this money back in cash (euros) when I left the clinic. 

I took my sister (18) with me to Belgrade, since she speaks the best English of my family. After I send our flight details to Marta, the Taxi driver that works together with the clinic picked us up at the airport and brought us to the apartment. 

In the apartment we had 4 rooms, a bedroom with 2 separate beds, a bathroom, a living room with 2 couches and a kitchen with table. We also had a washing machine. Our apartment was close to the city and a supermarket. 

The costs for the apartment were included in my surgery costs, we had to pay for the groceries and taxi rides that were not medical. My sister could visit me ones a day due to the corona virus, but she could stay as long as we wanted. 

I flew to Belgrade on Friday March 12^th with my sister. On Saturday and Sunday, we were picked up at 8.30am both days by a doctor from the clinic for examinations on Saturday and consultation with Doctor Djordjevic and the anaesthetist Korac on Sunday!

I had the be in the clinic on Monday afternoon March 15^th around 1.30 pm for my surgery the next day. I was in the hospital until Saturday morning March 20^th. On day 2 I was allowed out of bed with the help of nurses and on day 3 independently. I then stayed in the apartment with my sister until Friday morning March 26^th

I think it’s personal how long to stay in Belgrade, my flight was around 4 and half hours. 

My doctor at home did my check-ups here in Holland, every week. He removed my stitches, staples and catheter after 3 weeks. All my wounds healed up very nice. My scars are below the elastic band of my boxer, but that also depends on your anatomy and previous surgeries. 

How many staged you need also depends on previous surgeries and Marta and Miro discussed this with me. 

I’m now talking with them for my stage 2, this will probably be the urethra extension and burying my meta into the phallo. I don’t have an erection prosthesis or ball implants yet and I don’t know if I want this.

The contact form to contact doctor Miro Djordjevic can be found here:
https://genitalsurgerybelgrade.com/contact-us-2/

If you have more questions, you can send me an email:

ive.online@outlook.com

Or send me a private message on Facebook, my name there is Ive Schrijen 

This is my profile picture: