For many transgender people, surgery is something they want to pursue—lots of the time, it helps with gender dysphoria that trans people face daily. Pursuing sex reassignment surgery often helps trans people feel at home in their bodies, and like the gender they really are. However, surgery is extremely costly, as there are multiple types of surgery that can be done, and in many stages. Some procedures can exceed $100,000 in costs when it is all said and done—and the reality is that many transgender people do not have the funds to obtain surgeries. To give you an idea, I’m going to list some of the prices of specific sex-reassignment surgeries.
FTM (Female-to-Male)
Mastectomy with minimal skin reduction: $4000 – $8000
Mastectomy with moderate skin reduction: $4500 – $8500
Mastectomy with copious skin reduction: $5500 – $10000
Liposuction: $1000 – $3000 per area of the body
Abdominoplasty: $5000 – $8000
Metoidioplasty: $3500 – $4500
Groin Flap Phalloplasty: $8000 – $12000
Abdominal Flap Phalloplasty: $8000 – $12000
Testicular Implants: $1500 – $2000
Penile Implant: $7000 – $9000
Scrotal Construction: $3000 – $4000
Glansplasty: $1000 – $2000
MTF (Male to Female)
Facelift: $8000 – $9000
Breast Augmentation: $6500 – $8000
Liposuction: $1000 – $3000 per area of the body
Abdominoplasty: $5000 – $8000
Buttock Augmentation: $7000 – $9000
Calf Augmentation: $5000 – $6000
Vaginoplasty: $13000 – $20000
In addition to all of the surgery prices listed above, hospital fees, anesthesia fees, and other fees are added to the final price. Transgender surgeries are not cheap, and often are not even attainable for most transgender people. Surgery is not required of a trans person—many prefer it, and many do not. A trans female is still a female without sex reassignment surgery, and a trans male is still a male without sex reassignment surgery. Many cisgender people believe that being transgender is a choice, which is entirely false on more than one level. Trans people are often ridiculed, denied jobs, denied housing, denied basic rights to live as a human being, denied insurance to cover medical costs of hormones and surgeries, and many other things. No trans person would willingly choose a life of that stature—they are put in that position because it is not a choice in the first place.
Hormones add up in cost as well—a general cost for hormones is about $50 a month. $50 a month equals $600 per year, and many trans people stay on hormones for the majority of their life. At ten years, $6000 will have been invested in hormones alone, not including the doctor visits that may accompany the injections. If being trans was a choice, it is doubtable that anyone would be trans—the costs of surgeries, hormones, doctor visits, and therapy is enough to scare anyone who might “consider” being transgender away, as if it were a choice. Though not all transgender people pursue surgery and hormones, many do—and the reality is that most trans people do not even know where to begin in order to be able to afford these procedures.
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