Glossary
The words that get used around MTF surgery as if everyone already knows them. Each entry gives the plain meaning first, then the context: where you'll meet the term, why it matters for you, and which pages on the site go deeper.
Some entries are just the other name for an operation, so that a word you heard in a consultation takes you straight to the page that explains it. The rest are the concepts that sit underneath the whole pathway, and those are worth reading properly.
I add terms as they come up in the procedure pages, so this list grows. If a word you've hit isn't here, tell me and I'll write it.
Terms A–Z
A
Adam's apple reduction
The common name for the tracheal shave. Cartilage at the front of the neck trimmed through a short crease incision, as a day case.
AMAB
Assigned male at birth. A note about a birth record, not a claim about identity, and shorthand for the puberty surgery works around.
B
BBL
Brazilian butt lift. Your own fat taken from the waist and injected into the hips and buttocks, with a share of it reabsorbed.
Breast implants
Silicone or saline shells placed under the chest muscle to add size in one operation. They are not lifetime devices.
Brow bossing
The bony ridge above the eyes. Reducing it is the biggest single change in facial feminisation, and a CT scan decides how it is done.
Buttock implants
Silicone shells that add projection when there is no fat to harvest. The most complication-prone option on this site.
C
Capsular contracture
Scar tissue tightening around an implant until it feels firm or looks wrong. The commonest reason implants need a second operation.
Chondrolaryngoplasty
The surgical name for a tracheal shave. Reducing the thyroid cartilage so the Adam's apple stops being the first thing you see.
Cricothyroid approximation
CTA. Two cartilages sutured together to hold the vocal folds taut. A large pitch rise that tends to relax back over the first year.
D
Depth
How far a surgical canal goes in. Set by your own tissue, and kept by dilation rather than delivered once in theatre.
Dilation
Holding a surgical canal open with a dilator on a schedule. Several times a day at first, tapering for years, and never stopping altogether.
F
Fat grafting
Your own fat, liposuctioned from elsewhere and injected into the chest. A subtle change, or a softer layer over an implant.
FFS
Facial feminisation surgery. Several bone and soft-tissue procedures bundled into one long operation, quoted and recovered as a list.
Frontal sinus setback
The front wall of the sinus behind the brow removed, reshaped and fixed back flatter. What most people mean by FFS forehead work.
G
Gender dysphoria
The distress of a mismatch between body and gender, and the diagnostic label letters and funders require. It need not be constant or severe.
Genioplasty
Reshaping the chin by cutting and repositioning the bone. Usually done alongside jaw contouring and read as one change.
Glottoplasty
The front of the vocal folds joined so less of them vibrates. The default first voice operation, through the mouth with no scar.
Granulation tissue
The raw red tissue that fills a healing wound, and the small overgrowths that bleed and weep at a suture line for months if untreated.
H
Hair removal
Permanently clearing hair from skin that will line a canal. Months of spaced sessions, and the thing that sets your date.
Hairline lowering
Bringing a high or receded hairline forward. How loose your scalp is decides which of the two operations you can have.
Hip implants
Silicone shells placed at the hip to add width on a lean frame with no fat to move. A long and restrictive recovery.
I
Informed consent
Two meanings. The consent you sign before any operation, and the model of care that treats your understanding as the authorisation.
J
Jaw contouring
Narrowing the angle of the jaw by removing bone. Nerve anatomy sets the limit on how much can safely come off.
L
Letter of support
A clinician's written statement that you meet the criteria for surgery. One for most procedures, two for genital surgery, and they expire.
Liposuction
Fat suctioned out from the waist and abdomen. On its own it narrows the middle; here it is usually the harvest for a fat transfer.
N
Nose job
Feminising rhinoplasty. Best planned alongside the brow above it, and the facial procedure most likely to need a second go.
O
Orchiectomy
Removing the testicles in about an hour. The simplest operation here and the most permanent; blockers stop and fertility ends.
P
Penile inversion
PIV. The standard full-depth vaginoplasty, lining the canal with penile skin and building the clitoris from glans tissue.
Peritoneal pull-through
PPT. The canal lined with abdominal membrane instead of skin, so depth stops depending on how much penile skin you have.
Pitch
How high a voice sounds, set by how fast the vocal folds vibrate. The one thing surgery changes, and not the whole of what listeners hear.
R
Rhinoplasty
Reshaping the nose to sit with the rest of the face. On this site it is usually one line on a facial feminisation list.
S
Scalp advancement
Lifting the scalp forward to shorten a tall forehead. One of the two different operations for the same problem.
T
Tracheal shave
Reducing the Adam's apple through a short incision in a neck crease. A day case, and the smallest thing on the FFS list.
Type IV thyroplasty
Isshiki's name for cricothyroid approximation, the pitch operation that tilts the cartilage frame instead of touching the folds.
V
Vaginoplasty
Building a vulva and a vaginal canal. Penile inversion is the standard version, and depth is kept afterwards by dilation.
Voice therapy
Training with a speech therapist on pitch, resonance and speech habits. First-line treatment, and usually required before surgery.
Vulvoplasty
The vulva, clitoris and labia built without a canal behind them. A lighter recovery and no dilation for the rest of your life.
W
WPATH
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, and the SOC-8 standards surgeons and funders cite for what they require.
Z
Zero-depth vaginoplasty
The other name for vulvoplasty. The same outside as a full vaginoplasty, no canal behind it, and nothing to maintain.
New to MTF surgery?
Start with the guide: what each operation actually involves, where hormones stop and surgery begins, and how people decide the order.
start here →