Gender Affirming Surgery Process and Information

Many folx choose to pursue gender confirming surgery as a part of their gender journey. One does not have to identify along the gender binary (e.g. trans woman, trans man) or have taken hormones in order to pursue this step. 

The overall process typically involves:

• Meeting with a qualified mental health care provider, which can be a CAPS or Weiland clinician, for an assessment and discussion about the process of preparing for surgery, plus to get a letter of support. This is likely to take more than one session. We suggest you request a clinician who is a gender specialist/Weiland clinician. To schedule an appointment, visit VadenPatientPortal.

• Determine your insurance coverage and research surgeons to decide which surgeon you would like to use (your CAPS/Weiland provider may be able to help you with this)

• Obtain a medical referral to a surgeon, which can be done by your Vaden Medical provider once you have your letter of support. You will need one letter for top surgeries and two letters (from two different providers) for bottom surgeries. You can use the “preauthorization appointment” option in VadenPatient. 

• Hold a consultation session with your surgeon. Here is some information to guide your consultation. 

• Schedule surgery date (make sure you’ve built in plenty time to recover).

• The surgery/surgeries themselves, and follow-up medical and as-needed additional care.