Life-changing Treatment from an Incredible Surgeon

I cannot even begin to describe the extent that Dr. Deschamps-Braly has changed my life. I'll let the photos do the talking, but finding him saved my life. As trans woman who lived a closeted existence as a stereotypically masculine guy for the better part of three decades, I never thought it would be possible to be the woman that I am today. I could not have done it without this incredible surgeon who is as compassionate as he is talented.

I wanted to provide an update, as I had gotten some email notifications regarding my previous post!

What I Had Done
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Surgeon: Dr. Jordan Deschamps-Braly (San Francisco, CA, USA)
Date of Operation: April 14th, 2017
Cost: ~$50,0000 USD
Procedures Performed:
- Scalp advancement
- Forehead contouring and reconstruction (Type III)
- Rhinoplasty
- Chin reduction
- Sliding genioplasty
- Mandible contouring
- Masseter muscle reduction
- Trachea shave

NOTE: I also had a hair transplant done 8 months later with a different surgeon, as Dr. Deschamps-Braly suggested I would have better success with the transplanted hair surviving if I waited until my scalp had fully healed from FFS.

About the Photos
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The “before” photos are all taken within a couple of months of one another in the winter of 2017 with an iPhone 7 Plus. I am not wearing any makeup. There are applied filters that I am unable to remove. I had been on HRT for roughly 11 months and had done ~6 sessions of laser hair removal on my face. I was still presenting male in public.

The “after” photos were taken this past week (August 2020) with an iPhone 11 Plus. I am wearing some color corrector under my eyes, mascara, and a lip tint. There aren’t any filters and no post-processing has been applied. I have been on HRT for almost 4 years now (4 mg Estradiol x 2/day, 100 mg Progesterone 100 mg x 1/day – I’m not taking spironolactone anymore). I have done roughly 12 - 15 laser hair removal treatments on my face, and I imagine I’ll have to continue to do so periodically. I had FFS and I had feminizing hair transplants done 8 months after. I get botox treatments every 4 - 6 months and hyaluronic acid fillers once a year.

My Thoughts
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With regard to choosing a surgeon, to be frank, facial surgery is no fucking joke – both from a technical standpoint on the surgeon’s end and an emotional one on ours. I met with a number of surgeons before I decided on DB, and I didn’t feel confident with them for the following reasons: 1) their aesthetics didn’t seem refined, which was likely the result of 2) not having performed enough surgeries to really hone their technique and style, and 3) I didn’t feel like they were personally invested in me. Additionally, 4) they didn’t have the necessary craniofacial training to be as aggressive as I was hoping with the bone structure in my face, and 5) they weren’t up for the demanding task of doing it all in one shot – for context, my surgery ended up being 12 hours long.

Lastly, everyone has their own experience, but I can’t say enough good things about DB as a doctor. When I walked into his office, back in 2017, I was still presenting male, doing my best guy voice, and despite all of that, he took my request to have FFS as part of my transition with seriousness and respect. I can't think of another time in my life that I felt so hopeful – like I had met someone who actually understood what I was trying to do and could help me get there. Most importantly, though, beyond his aesthetic sense and technical qualifications, I could tell he really cared; nothing demonstrated this more so than when I came to after the anesthesia had worn off, and he was the first person I saw. I have had surgeries before in my life – unrelated to my transition – and this was the only time my surgeon was there to wake me up. That, to me, speaks volumes – that someone would stick around and wait after having been on their feet for 12 hours straight instead of delegating a task to someone else.

FFS was, and is, the most impactful, transformative, and essential step I have taken in my transition. I was 29 when I started my transition, and it was tough to come to terms with the arduous path that lay before me as a result of avoiding the truth about my gender identity for so many years. Now, at 33, I can say that I still wake up every morning, look in the mirror, and am truly baffled that this is my life and not a dream. I am so grateful that I took the plunge, did the research, scraped together the money, and made this all happen – despite the hardships and challenges, both personal and financial, that resulted from those choices.