Risks

Like any other type of major surgery, many types of masculinizing surgery pose a risk of bleeding, infection and an adverse reaction to anesthesia. Other complications might include:

• Delayed wound healing
• Fluid accumulation beneath the skin (seroma)
• A solid swelling of clotted blood within your tissues (hematoma)
• Changes in skin sensation such as persistent pain, tingling, reduced sensation or numbness
• Damaged or dead body tissue (tissue necrosis), such as in the nipple and in the surgically created penis (neophallus)
• A blood clot in a deep vein (deep vein thrombosis) or a blood clot in a lung (pulmonary embolism)
• An abnormal connection between two body parts (fistula), such as in the urinary tract
• Urinary problems, such as incontinence
• Pelvic floor dysfunction
• Permanent scarring
• Loss of sexual pleasure and functioning
• Worsening of an underlying behavioral health concern

Your fertility

Certain types of masculinizing surgery can harm or end your fertility. If you want to have biological children and you're having surgery that involves your reproductive organs, talk to your doctor about freezing your eggs (mature oocyte cryopreservation) or embryos (embryo cryopreservation) before moving forward. Another option involves having ovarian tissue surgically removed, frozen and later thawed and reimplanted (ovarian tissue cryopreservation).

Keep in mind that egg freezing has multiple steps — ovulation induction, egg retrieval and freezing. If you want to freeze embryos, you'll need to go through the additional step of having your eggs fertilized before they are frozen.