Gary J. Alter is an American plastic surgeon who has been a longtime supporter of our community. He has headquarters in Beverly Hills as well as offices in New York and Dubai. I suggest giving him strong consideration for your needs, as he is very experienced. I personally know several satisfied patients. He was also a major supporter of our first all-transgender performance of The Vagina Monologues in 2004. I am honored to know him personally.
Background
Alter graduated from UCLA School of Medicine in 1973 before additional training at Baylor and The Mayo Clinic. He was one of the first physicians with Board Certification by both the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Urology.
He has an office-based practice. Alter is known for genital plastic surgery, especially genital reconstruction. He has invented many original surgical procedures adopted by other plastic surgeons in the field, including the “Alter Central-Wedge labiaplasty technique”.
Alter is a frequent subject of media coverage. In addition to appearing in almost every major print media outlet, he was featured on E! Entertainment’s programs Dr. 90210 and Botched. He has been highlighted on Alexis Arquette: She’s My Brother (documentary) and on the TLC show Strange Sex. He has appeared on the Discovery Health Network, TLC, CNN, the Larry King Show, and was a recurrent guest on “Red Eye” on the Fox News Channel.
Indigo Pages on Gary Alter http://myria.home.mindspring.com/Indigo/Surgeons/Alter/AlterF2M.html
My SRS Experience with Dr. Gary Alter by “Rachel,” ed. by Anne Lawrence (2000) http://www.annelawrence.com/altersrsnarrative.html
My L.A. Experience with Dr. Alter by Lisa Kassner (1997) http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Heights/5445/alterexp1.html
Edward E. Falces (February 8, 1931–December 16. 2004) was an American surgeon who served our community.
Background
Falces was born in Waipahu, Hawaii. He earned his undergraduate and medical degrees from Northwestern University. Following his surgery residency at St. Luke’s Hospital in San Francisco, he served as a U.S. Army surgeon from 1959 to 1961. He the did his Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Residency at St. Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco, earning Board Certification in 1968.
He was a founding member of Interplast and traveled the world to perform pro bono surgery. He was known for his work with trans and gender diverse patients as well.
Memberships:
American Society of Plastic Surgeons
Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation (Board Member)
Toby Roger Meltzer (born September 19, 1957) is an American plastic and reconstructive surgeon.
Background
Meltzer earned his medical degree from Louisiana State University School of Medicine. He completed his plastic surgery residency at the University of Michigan. He was appointed clinical professor of plastic surgery at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU).
In 1993 he began performing vaginoplasty, and he became widely known in the community. In 1996, he opened his own private practice in Portland, Oregon. In 2003, Meltzer was forced to relocate to Scottsdale, Arizona after a conservative physicians consortium, Symphony Healthcare, purchased Eastmoreland Hospital. Symphony Healthcare filed for bankruptcy soon after, and the entire hospital was torn down.
In 2016, The Meltzer Clinic added surgeon Ellie Zara Ley to their roster of providers. Ley left to start her own practice, after which Nick Esmonde joined the clinic.
LINK: The Meltzer Page by raspy (1997) http://www.netdesign.net/%7Eraspy/Meltzer/index.html
LINK: Taking Portlandia’s Hand by Anne Lawrence (1996) http://www.annelawrence.com/portlandia.html
J. William Futrell is an American plastic surgeon. His Transgender Surgical and Medical Center (TSMC) was in operation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania beginning in 1998 through 1999. This innovative clinic was developed by pioneering transgender medical professional Sheila Kirk.
J. William Futrell, MD, F.A.C.S.-Chief and Professor of the University Pittsburgh Medical Center, Plastic Reconstructive Surgery Department. One of the nation’s most respected plastic surgeons. Dr. Futrell has vast experience in MTF/FTM GRS, feminization and masculinzation of the face and related MTF/FTM surgeries.
Ernest K. Manders is an American plastic surgeon. His Transgender Surgical and Medical Center (TSMC) was in operation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania beginning in 1998 through 1999. This innovative clinic was developed by pioneering transgender medical professional Sheila Kirk.
Ernest K. Manders, MD, F.A.C.S.- Board certified in micro and plastic reconstructive surgery. Dr. Manders is Professor of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School. Specialists in Rib Removal and Male Pattern Baldness Surgery.
Stanley Harold Biber (May 4, 1923 – January 16, 2006) was an American surgeon who served the transgender community, becoming the country’s most prolific surgeon of the 20th century. His practice was taken over by Marci Bowers.
The archival information below is for historical purposes.
Vaginoplasty with Stanley Biber (retired)
Contact information: [August 2003]
Address: 406 First National Bank Building Trinidad, Colorado 81082
Phone: (719) 846-3301
Fax: 719-846-6097
Website: [none]
General pages:
LINK: Indigo Pages on Stanley Biber http://myria.home.mindspring.com/Indigo/Surgeons/Biber/BiberM2F.html
LINK: Georgie Girl: Trinidad, Colorado via PBS (2003) http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2003/georgiegirl/resources_04_biber.html
LINK: Dr. Compassion by Lisa Neff, The Advocate, May 25, 1999 http://www.advocate.com/html/stories/0599B/0599_trandoc.asp
LINK: Old mining town now ‘sex-change’ capital by Pauline Arrilaga The Associated Press May 22, 1999 http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/9630/n000524a.htm
LINK: Sex-Change Industry a Boon to Small City by James Brooke, New York Times, November 8, 1998 http://www.moss-fritch.com/biber.htm http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10613F8395A0C7B8CDDA80994D0494D81
LINK: Sex Machine by Harrison Fletcher, Denver Westword August 27, 1998 http://www.westword.com/issues/1998-08-27/feature2.html http://www.westword.com/
LINK: Crossing: A Memoir by Dierdre McCloskey (surgery in 1996) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226556697/qid=1060395056/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/002-7394507-8196857
LINK: Review of Biber on Geraldo by Howard Rosenberg, Los Angeles Times Dec. 1, 1993 http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22stanley%2Bbiber%22&start=40&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&scoring=d&selm=2dk8dm%246k3%40aludra.usc.edu&rnum=48
Usenet refers to articles by Michael Haederle Los Angeles Times January 23, 1995 and Sue Anne Pressley, Washington Post, May 13, 1998.
IFGE also lists a video called An Evening with Dr. Stanley Biber about his MTF Technique. Also through CDS http://www.ifge.org/books/bookstore_catalog.htm#video
Related pages:
LINK: Vaginoplasty results: Stanley Biber by Anne Lawrence http://www.annelawrence.com/biber.html
LINK: Doctor Biber’s Letter by Melanie Anne Phillips (1991) http://heartcorps.com/subversive/sub007/biber.htm
LINK: Post-op Care by Stanley Biber (1991) via Melanie Anne Phillips http://heartcorps.com/subversive/sub012/biber.htm
Consumer experiences (most recent first)
LINK: Passage through Trinidad: journal of a surgical sex change, Claudine Griggs (1996) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0786400889/002-7394507-8196857?vi=glance
LINK: My Sex Reassignment Surgery: A Biber Girl, Class of ’93, Tells All by Jessy X (1993) via Susans.org http://www.susans.org/reference/mysrs.html
LINK: Chapter 24: Closure by Melanie Anne Phillips (1992) [for extended account, start at Chapter 20 in Diaries]
http://heartcorps.com/melanie/diary/diary024.htm
http://heartcorps.com/melanie/diary/diary020.htm
http://heartcorps.com/melanie/diary/diary.htm
LINK: The Trinidad Experience by Jennifer York (undated), via Ingersoll Gender Center http://www.genderweb.org/%7Ejanet/trinidad.html%0D
Indigo Pages from his time at USC: With my background and experience as an individual who has had a not inconsiderable experience with problems in this area, and having treated many patients who have undergone sex change procedures, I am uniquely qualified to deal with the complications and surgical problems that are not uncommon with individuals in these circumstances – e.g. recto-vaginal fistula, anal incontinence, and the requirement of revision. To arrange an appointment with Dr. Corman, please call (323) 442-6874. http://myria.home.mindspring.com/Indigo/Surgeons/Corman/CormanM2F.html
Sidhbh Gallagher is an Irish plastic surgeon practicing in the United States. Gallagher is known for performing masculinizing top surgery.
Background
Sidhbh Treasa Gallagher (pronounced “sive”) was born in ~1981 and grew up in Louth and Dundalk, Ireland. Gallagher earned an undergraduate degree from University College Dublin. In 2006 Gallagher studied at Emory University, then did a residency at Abington Memorial Hospital in Philadelphia from 2007 to 2012. Gallagher did plastic surgery training at Indiana University School of Medicine. In 2016 Gallagher took a surgical appointment at Eskenazi Health Transgender Health & Wellness Program in Indianapolis.
Gallagher relocated to Miami, Florida in 2019 and founded Gallagher Plastic Surgery and Gallagher Med Spa.
Gallagher is known for promoting on social media, particularly TikTok.
University Gender Affirmation Surgery (universitygenderaffirmationsurgery.com) [archive]
Donald Rudolph Laub, Sr. (born January 1, 1935) is an American plastic surgeon who was based in California at Stanford University. He is an important figure in improving the health outcomes of trans and gender diverse people.
Background
Laub earned his bachelor’s degree at Marquette University and his medical degree from the Marquette University School of Medicine in 1960. After an internship at Yale School of Medicine, he was appointed to a position at Stanford University.
He then served as chief of Plastic Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine from 1968 to 1980, before entering private practice.
During that time he co-founded the Stanford Gender Clinic.
Note: His son Donald R. Laub, Jr. is also a plastic surgeon based in Vermont. He was previously a surgeon at UVM Medical Center and their Cleft Palate Center. He serves as the medical director of the Vermont Cleft Palate – Craniofacial Center for the Vermont Department of Health. He also practices with Four Seasons Dermatology.
Former address
Address: 1515 El Camino Real Palo Alto, CA 94306-1000
I needed corrective work of a very specialized nature. After being examined by several plastic surgeons, I was told that nothing could be done. The last doctor I saw recommended Dr. Donald R. Laub. Dr. Laub utilized such great ingenuity and creativity that the problem was successfully resolved. — Joyce C Laguna Woods, CA (undated)
Milton Thomas “Milt” Edgerton, Jr. (July 14, 1921 – March 17, 2018) was an American plastic surgeon who served our community. He is widely considered one of the most important American plastic surgeons of the 20th century.
Background
Edgerton was born in Atlanta and earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Emory University in 1941. He earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1944. Following his surgical residency, he joined the United States Army and operated on injured World War II veterans.
He joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1951 and got tenure in 1962. In 1970 he was recruited to the University of Virginia to found the Department of Plastic Surgery, where he worked and taught until retiring in 1994.
He had many students and colleagues who served our community as well, including Howard W. Jones, Jr. and John Gale Kenney. Edgerton was author of four books and over 500 scientific papers on plastic surgery. As shown in the selected bibliography below, his articles when read from earliest to latest read like an unfolding of the history of our community.
Dr. Edgerton died at age 96. The Milton T. Edgerton, M.D. Professorship in Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery at Johns Hopkins is named in his honor.
This paper reviews the senior author’s long-term experience with the surgical-psychiatric treatment of 100 aesthetic surgery patients with significant psychological disturbances. Patients with psychological disturbances of a magnitude generally considered an “absolute contraindication” for surgery were operated on and later assessed to determine the psychological impact of surgery. Patient follow-up averaged 6.2 years (maximum follow-up 25.7 years). Of the 87 patients who underwent operation (7 patients were refused surgery and 6 voluntarily deferred surgery), 82.8 percent had a positive psychological outcome, 13.8 percent experienced “minimal” improvement from surgery, and 3.4 percent were negatively affected by surgery. There were no lawsuits, suicides, or psychotic decompensations. Patients with severe psychological disturbances frequently benefited from combined surgical-psychiatric treatment designed to address the patient’s profound sense of deformity. This study suggests that plastic surgeons are “passing up” a significant number of patients who may be helped by combined surgical-psychological intervention. Comment in: * Plast Reconstr Surg. 1992 Aug;90(2):333-5.* Plast Reconstr Surg. 1992 Jun;89(6):1173-5.
This article describes plastic surgery patients who sought symmetrical recontouring of the width of the face and skull. The basic demographic and personality characteristics of these facial width deformity (FWD) patients and the surgical procedures performed on them are discussed. Details of the surgical and psychological management of three representative cases are given. Speculative conclusions regarding the general characteristics of the FWD population are offered. Suggestions are proposed for a combined surgical-medical psychotherapeutic collaboration in managing these patients.Comment in: * Aesthetic Plast Surg. 1990 Fall;14(4):299-300.
The evaluation and treatment of individuals with gender identity problems has resulted in an interesting and productive collaboration between several specialties of medicine. In particular, the psychiatrist and surgeon have joined hands in the management of these fascinating patients who feel they are trapped in the wrong body and insist upon correcting this cruel mistake of nature by undergoing sex reassignment surgery. Over the last two decades, some 40 centers have emerged in which interdisciplinary teams cooperate in the evaluation and treatment of these gender dysphoric patients. The model for this collaboration began at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, where the Gender Identity Clinic began its operation in 1965 (Edgerton, 1983; Pauly, 1983). This “gender identity movement” has brought together such unlikely collaborators as surgeons, endocrinologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, gynecologists, and research specialists into a mutually rewarding arena. This paper deals with the background and modern era of research into gender identity disorders and their evaluation and treatment. Finally, some data are presented on the outcome of sex reassignment surgery. This interdisciplinary collaboration has resulted in the birth of a new medical subspecialty, which deals with the study of gender identification and its disorders.
The increasing use of surgery for sex reassignment in the treatment of transsexualism is described. The author’s early experience over a twenty-year period with the Gender Identity teams at The Johns Hopkins University and The University of Virginia is summarized. Many of the reasons for slow acceptance of this type of surgery by many members of the medical profession are analyzed. The satisfactory subjective results described by patients who have received sex reassignment continue to exceed the results obtained by other methods. The author concludes that further study of surgical treatment is justified, but that it should be limited to established multidisciplinary teams working in academic settings. Physicians are urged to withhold judgment on the role of surgery in gender disorders until they have had significant personal experience with these desperate and complex patients.
Transsexualism is a poorly understood, uncommon, and controversial entity of recent interest to the lay public and medical profession. Important features of the condition are discussed, surgical procedures for genital conversion in male transsexuals are compared, and our experience at the University of Virginia where 53 patients have been treated surgically is presented. All patients have made satisfactory postoperative psychosocial adjustment despite a surgical complication rate approaching 50 per cent. It is concluded that alternative (better) surgical procedures for male transsexuals should be explored.
A 49-year-old male-to-female transsexual was administered voice therapy following surgery. Tape recordings were made of her speech prior to and each week during therapy. Selected sentences from these reocrdings were analyzed. Results indicate that changes in both fundamental frequency and perceptual judgments of femininity were statistically significant and supportive to the client. The voice of the client was still discernible from that of a female speaker, although less so than before therapy. It is suggested that a composite treatment program combined with laryngeal modification through surgical intervention may be necessary.
Turner, Edlich & Edgerton, 1978 Dept. of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Plastic Surgery, University of Virginia Medical Center, Charlottville, VA, USA In structure and representation this publication is closely related to the one of Edgerton & Meyer (1973), that is, it is no follow-up study with reliable data. Related are mostly surgical techniques for MFTs and surgical complications. Under historical viewpoints it is an interesting statement that Edgerton was already in 1963 the director of the Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic in Baltimore, MD, while everywhere else the founding of this institution is generally dated two years later. Also it is interesting that a psychologist is given a key role or a veto right to the indication to surgery. For the rest, the necessity for a successful one-year-long “Real-Life-Test” as it was already in Edgerton & Meyer (1973), the experimental surgical breast enlargement is recommended as a step if the patient and treatment provider are insecure regarding the stability of the female identity of the patient. In how far the statement: “The only justification for the ongoing evaluation of surgery as a definite treatment entity is that patients with this condition have proved resistant to psychotherapy and drug therapy” (p. 121) is a general postulate or if the corresponding possibility has been tested with those who underwent surgery is not to be discerned by the publication. It is reported about 53 gender reassignment surgeries of MFTs that Edgerton made after changing from Baltimore to Virginia. Forty seven females came to the follow-up study in the first year after surgery. Globally it is said that all were subjectively happy and self-secure and socially better adjusted. “Psychological testing has substantiated these subjective claims” (p. 128). Suicide attempts after surgery or desires to role re-reversal were not observed. Eighteen females had gotten married and six had adopted children. In the series of the first 20 surgically treated, 14 females required corrective surgery; in the series of the second 20, only eight. The most frequent complication was the stenosis of the vagina. Injuries of the urethra or rectum with corresponding fistulae did not occur.
Morgan RF, Morgan EA (2019). Milton T Edgerton, MD: A Pioneer of Surgery of the Hand. Journal of Craniofacial Surgery: March/April 2019 – Volume 30 – Issue 2 – p 303–305 https://doi.org/10.1097/SCS.0000000000005063
Resources
Archival contact information:
University of Virginia Medical Center, Gender Identity Clinic, P. O. Box 376 Charlottesville, VA 22908 USA
