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
Phone: (434) 924-5068
Dr. Ousterhout retired in 2014, and his practice was taken over by Jordan Deschamps-Braly.
Douglas K. Ousterhout (born August 30, 1935) is an American plastic surgeon who popularized facial feminization surgery for transgender women through a series of innovative techniques starting in 1982 until his retirement in 2014. For over 30 years “Dr. O,” as he was affectionately called, performed facial feminization for many trans people, including Lynn Conway, Donna Rose, Nicole Hamilton, and myself.
Jordan Deschamps-Braly trained directly with Dr. O for years before taking over his practice. I recommend making Dr. Deschamps-Braly your primary consideration for any work you’d like to have done.
Dr. O purchased a vineyard after retiring and produces Ousterhout Wine.
My experiences
I had facial feminization surgery in 1996, and it still remains the best investment I have ever made. Period. Since I wrote about my experiences, many other women have shared their experiences and results. I’m very proud to have raised awareness of the life-changing potential of this option.
Excellent 185-page consumer overview of available procedures, with many illustrations and images. I highly recommend it for anyone considering these procedures, as it is the definitive consumer guide. It includes an introduction by Donna Rose, who, like me, had life-changing results from these procedures. Both of us are among the many patients who consented to having our results included in the book.
Ousterhout DK, Deschamps-Braly JC. Special Edition on Transgender Facial Surgery. J Craniofac Surg. 2019 Jul;30(5):1326-1327. doi: 10.1097/SCS.0000000000005387. No abstract available.PMID: 31299711
Ousterhout DK. Facial Feminization Surgery: The Forehead. Surgical Techniques and Analysis of Results. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2015 Oct;136(4):560e-1e. doi: 10.1097/PRS.0000000000001425. No abstract available.PMID: 25938955
Ousterhout DK. Dr. Paul Tessier and facial skeletal masculinization. Ann Plast Surg. 2011 Dec;67(6):S10-5. doi: 10.1097/SAP.0b013e31821835cb.PMID: 22123544
Donald Rudolph Laub, Jr. is an American plastic surgeon who has served the transgender community.
Background
Laub got his medical degree at Medical College of Wisconsin, then did residencies at Oregon Health & Science University and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
Laub ran Green Mountain Gender Clinic in Williston, Vermont from 1999 until around 2007. William B. “Bill” Nash was the psychologist.
Note: His father Donald R. Laub, Sr. is also a plastic surgeon who was at Stanford University.
References
Archival links and contacts:
http://hometown.aol.com/grnmtclin
http://hometown.aol.com/grnmtclin/surgery.html
Dr. Laub Jr. 3 Timberland South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 860-3340
or
Green Mountain Gender Clinic 183 Talcott Rd. Suite 206 Williston, VT 05495 (802) 879-5333 Fax : (802)879-5333 http://hometown.aol.com/grnmtclin/index.html wbnphd@aol.com
https://www.wbnphd.com/ Metoidioplasty and FTM Top surgery using double incision
Selected publications
Vaginoplasty for gender confirmation.Laub DR Laub DR 2nd Biber S
The Post-Modern Phalloplasty: Another Method to Consider.Laub D Jr
Tuan Anh Nguyen MD DDS FACS (born November 26, 1955) is an American plastic surgeon who serves our community.
Background
Nguyen earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from University of Texas at Arlington in 1977 and his dental degree from University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 1981. He earned his medical degree from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine in 1989. Following a plastic surgery fellowship at Oregon Health Sciences University, he went into private practice.
Services
Masculinization
Breast Reduction (Chest Surgery)
Metoidioplasty (Clitoral Release)
Testicle Implants
Feminization
Orchiectomy
Vaginoplasty
Urethroplasty
Clitoroplasty
Labiaplasty
Breast Augmentation (Breast Implants)
Body Contouring
Waist Cinching (“Hour-Glass Procedure”)
Abdominoplasty
Liposuction
Tracheal Shave
Facial Feminization
Brow Reduction
Cheek Implants
Chin Augmentation (Genioplasty)
Face Lift (Rhytidectomy)
Hair Replacement
Jaw Line Contouring
Nose (Rhinoplasty)
Eye-lid (Blepharoplasty)
Ears (Otoplasty)
Voice Surgery: Referred to Dr. Jim Thomas, a well-known voice surgeon and long-time consulting surgeon with Dr. Nguyen.
Address: 15820 Quarry Road, Lake Oswego, Oregon, 97035 USA
Phone: 503 635-1955
Fax: 503 635-1958
Former URLs: mdtnguyen.com
mdtnguyen.com/m2f.htm
mdtnguyen.com/orchiectomy.htm
mdtnguyen.com/labiaplasty.htm
mdtnguyen.com/vagioplasty.htm
mdtnguyen.com/vagioplasty.htm
Ellie Zara Ley (born ~1973) is a Mexican-American surgeon. She performs gender surgeries with the Gender Confirmation Center in California.
Background
Ley was born in San Luis, Sonora. She received treatment as a child in the US for a medical condition. She earned bachelor’s degrees in Spanish literature and biochemistry from University of Arizona in 1995. She earned her medical degree from the medical school of Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara in 2000, then returned to the United States to work at New York Medical College and at University of Arizona. Following her fellowship in pediatric craniofacial plastic surgery at Primary Children’s Medical Center in Utah, she trained at UCLA in hand and microsurgery. She then returned to the University of Utah for a fellowship in plastic and reconstructive surgery.
She founded the LEY Institute of Plastic & Hand Surgery before joining Toby R. Meltzer at The Meltzer Clinic in Arizona. In 2022 she joined the Gender Confirmation Center with Scott Mosser. She is licensed to practice in Arizona, California, Oregon, and Utah.
Ted Tsung-Che Huang (October 8, 1937–August 26, 2016) was a Taiwanese-American plastic surgeon who served our community.
Background
Huang was born in Taiwan, grew up in Japan, and came to America for college at University of Houston. He earned his medical degree from University of Texas Medical Branch, then studied plastic surgery under Truman Blocker. Huang became chief resident in general surgery and completed a residency in plastic surgery, before joining the university’s faculty.
In addition to his work for our community, Huang focused on pediatric surgical reconstruction following burns. He frequently traveled to poor areas of the world to perform surgeries.
Archival contact information:
Address: 326 Market Street Galveston, TX 77550-5664
or c/o Collier M. Cole Ph.D. The Rosenberg Clinic 1103 Rosenberg Ave. Galveston, Texas 77550
