Surgery

Overview

There is only one surgical team in New Zealand that I know of which currently performs GRS. It is lead by Peter Walker, who operates from Christchurch and carries out the surgery with the aid of a urologist and a colorectal surgeon. The cost of surgery is about NZ$22,200 (US$12,000), and it takes 5 to 7 hours to perform. I have a couple of major reservations about the Walker team. The first is that they use a piece of the ascending colon to construct the vagina, which although having some advantages is much more complicated and risky than penile inversion. The second is their lack of experience... they have only carried out two female GRS operations in the last year, and only about 24 in total. Personally I preferred to be operated on by a surgeon who'd had bit more chance to practise the surgery. On the positive side, they do not usually need to perform a seperate labiaplasty, as they have more tissue to work with during the main surgery, and genital electolysis is not essential (though it might not be a bad idea anyway). They also carry out male GRS, but have even less experience with that.

A newspaper article about Peter Walker was published in 1995. It's out of date, not entirely accurate in places, and biased in favour of Mr Walker, but still of interest.

Until recently SRS was also performed by Peter Widdowsen in Hamilton. He used penile inversion, and charged significantly less than Walker, but has now relocated to Australia. I have very little information on his work.

External Links

• Mr E Peter Walker - a GRS Surgeon. Use the web form to submit enquiries, not email, and expect a snail mail response.
• A speech by Mr Walker
• Amandaja's Web Page - An Australian's site on Benjamin's Syndrome, including a report on surgery with the team in Christchurch, NZ.