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so it turns out, after an orchi it’s not uncommon for a lump to develop in the scrotal sack, it feels about the size of a marble or a grape, and it turns out, at least on the internet, this is indeed called “the grape”:
Sorta weird to find something like a gonad where the gonads were, so I thought I would share this trivia since I had never heard of it and was certainly not expecting it post-op.
I’m almost two weeks into recovery. So far the feeling of my thighs while walking, sitting, and lying down still gives me moments of joy even if the novelty is wearing off a little bit. The reduction in my bottom dysphoria has been greater than expected, but in some ways it makes me more sensitive to the remaining dysphoria - I seem to be now unconsciously expecting different genitals down there more now than before.
Being able to lower my estrogen dose has been nice. Keeping a high monotherapy dose pre-op (4.6 mg EV subq every 3.5 days, i.e. twice a week) made me more emotional, and it’s been a stressful and unstable time recently. So far I just feel a little more stable in my mood, more equanimous.
In between injections sometimes it seemed like some testosterone would be produced. There is definitely a difference now - estrogen troughs no longer are followed by signs of T, and it’s been nice no longer having any involuntary erections in the morning or having that testosterone body odor (and most importantly, improved mental health).
It’s also starting to sink in that I don’t have to be as afraid of estrogen shortages, since now the worst case for me is a severe form of menopause rather than a hormonal regression back to testosterone. Life feels so precarious right now, everything is in the air, so it is weird to have this unexpected stability.
Two weeks in and I highly recommend the orchi. :-)
That sounds pretty great to me; sounds like recovery is pretty mild?
I think it’s pretty great so far!
Recovery is not bad, I think the general estimate is like 6 - 8 weeks for returning to normal life for most things, and a lot of things are back to normal within 3 - 4 weeks.
I have been ordered not to lift more than 3 lbs for the first couple weeks which is a bit disabling (I can’t lift the pots I use to cook with, for example, let alone that pot full of food).
The pain is certainly a part of it (you can’t avoid that with a surgery), but it’s definitely not too bad - the worst of it is a kind of radiating soreness through the inguinal canals up into the abdomen, and that was mostly in the first two weeks. Already now after two weeks I am not taking any pain medication, even at night to help me sleep. Most of the remaining pain is localized to the wound, which has healed significantly already.
For context, I have been told I have a higher pain tolerance. I also went with a GRS surgeon at a good hospital, and I got lucky by not having any complications - obviously other people will and do have different experiences.