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About MTF Surgery Guide

Nick Peplow

hi, I’m Nick — Welcome!

Nick Peplow

I’m Nick Peplow, the person behind every guide on this site

My day job is running Thailand Care, an independent service that helps international patients arrange treatment at accredited hospitals in Bangkok.

Bangkok is one of the places the world goes for facial feminisation and vaginoplasty, so a lot of the people who come to us are trans women looking into surgery, and over the years I've watched them arrive with the same problem. Their information is pieced together from forums, outdated blog posts and surgeon marketing pages, and the questions they most need answered, about dilation, about hair removal, about what a revision actually involves, are the ones nobody has written down plainly. I set out to build the resource I wished I could have pointed them to, one place with straight answers on every procedure.

I write about who each surgery is for, how it's done, what recovery is really like and what it costs. The site is new, and the procedure guides are being added one at a time.

The result will be a guide to every MTF procedure, from facial feminisation and breast augmentation through orchiectomy and vaginoplasty to body feminisation, tracheal shave and voice surgery, each with a recovery timeline, a cost table by country and the questions I'd want you to ask at your consultation.

Where the guides come from

I've sat beside enough patients to know what the process is actually like. You walk into a consultation with a list of questions and forget half of them. You get quotes that don't line up. You lie awake at week three wondering whether a recovery is going "normally".

The guides draw on that experience with hundreds of patients, and on published research and professional guidelines, including:

  • WPATH Standards of Care
  • American Society of Plastic Surgeons
  • Journal of Sexual Medicine
  • Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
  • Transgender Health

Clear answers, no agenda

This is an independent website that I own, pay for and run myself. It is not affiliated with any surgeon, clinic or medical device company.

  • I review every procedure guide against current clinical guidelines
  • I update costs and recovery timelines as new data is published
  • Surgeon listings, when the directory opens, will be free and cannot be bought
  • Your questions shape what I write next

My goal is to make MTF surgery understandable, whether you're years away from a decision or booking a consultation next week. How I research and check each guide is set out in the editorial policy.

The bit I do for a living. I also run Thailand Care, which arranges treatment for international patients at Bangkok hospitals. It's where the experience behind these guides comes from, and it's a commercial interest in Thai surgery, so I'll be plain about how I handle it. Thailand's reputation for facial feminisation and vaginoplasty is real, but it is not the right answer for everyone, and this site is not here to tell you it is. Thai surgeons meet the same listing criteria as everyone else, cost tables show Thailand alongside the US, UK and other countries, and nothing here steers you to book through me. If you do want help planning surgery, wherever you have it, you pay the hospital's own price with nothing added for my involvement. If a page ever reads like a pitch, tell me.

Are you new here?

I’d start with the Start Here guide, which walks through every procedure and the order most people have them in.

Two good places to start

Start Here: Your Guide to MTF Surgery

Penile Inversion Vaginoplasty

Frequently asked questions

Are you trans? Are you gay?

No. I'm a straight, married man, and I say that up front because people reasonably want to know where a site like this is coming from. I'm not writing from lived experience of transition. I'm writing from years of sitting beside trans women through consultations, quotes, surgeries and recoveries as the person coordinating their care, and from the clinical literature. Where lived experience matters more than that, I say so rather than pretend.

Are you a doctor?

No. I'm not a surgeon, a doctor or a nurse, and nothing on this site is medical advice. My job is coordinating care, which means I've spent years translating between surgeons and patients, but decisions about your own surgery belong with you and your surgical team.

Who pays for this site?

I do. There are no sponsors, no paid listings and no ad networks. If that ever changes, the editorial policy and privacy policy will say so before anything goes live.

Can I get my surgeon or clinic listed?

Not yet, but soon. A surgeon directory is planned, and when it opens, listings will be free and cannot be bought. If you'd like to be listed, get in touch with your qualifications, the procedures you offer and where you operate, and I'll add you when it goes live.

I found a mistake. What do I do?

Tell me. I check every correction, fix the page if you're right, and note the change at the bottom with the date.

Contact

Got a question, a correction or a surgeon to suggest? Get in touch, I read everything. The same goes for surgeons and clinics who want a free listing, and for journalists who need a source on MTF surgery.