Hannah's Surgery: Rounds 3 & Beyond

I hate asking friends to pitch in, but I need to raise money to correct my surgical complications from my initial gender reassignment surgery and a failed revision that left me with anatomically innacurate and painful genitalia.

We talk so much about access to GRS in the trans community, but the unspoken problem is that when things go badly, a single surgery is not necessarily a perfunctory experience in one's transition. I am caught in limbo, needing more surgery, still not feeling complete in my body, and living every day with the stigma that anyone who sees my anatomy will not only be easily able to tell that I am transgender, but will also have reason to say, "WTF?" when looking at me.

As of right now, I have spent the last two years visting or consulting with over 20 doctors, including (and I'm probably missing a few):

4 surgeons in NYC
3 in Philadelphia
3 in the San Francisco Area
1 in Arizona
2 in North Carolina
1 in Oregon
1 in Montreal, Canada
2 in Miami
1 in Las Vegas
1 in Maryland
1 in Belgrade, Serbia
1 in Munich, Germany

It seems my best option of a surgeon with the relative experience and interest in helping may be outside the United States, so I will not able able to rely on medical insurance. I will need to pay for the sugery itself, hosptial stay, and anesthesia, as well as flights for myself and possible companions, lodging in the area while I recover, and food. Even if I am operated on in the United States after all, many of these factors will still exist.

I will attempt to be as transparent as possible with the bills as I go forward, but even if I exceed this funding request I can assure you everything will go toward debts I have already incurred in persuit of this surgery.


My initial surgery was $20,000 that I paid for out of Bar Mitzvah savings from stocks I sold (that were bought when I turned 13 and matured for 16 years). Literally, all the money I earned becoming a man, I spent becoming a woman. I spent an additional $8,000 on a follow-up revision which was laughably coded as "cosmetic" despite the obvious physical and functional defects in my genitals, and each consultation moving forward has cost between $100 to $500 USD, granted 1-2 surgeons offered to see or communicate with me me for free. I am lucky to have friends who live across the US I have crashed with, or who have professional connections to help me with costs of planes or trains, but I cannot afford this on my own, and I can not expect my family to cover this either, as they have been continuously, and thankfully, supporting me in other ways, including financially, while I have worked through the resultant depression and anxiety that has come from being in this position.

Please understand that I AM CURRENTLY and HAVE ALWAYS BEEN putting attention toward my mental health, including with professional counselors and pastoral care (Rabbis, Jewish counselors, etc...) in parallel to finding the right surgical care moving forward. Neither is a substitute for the other, but there is zero medical disagreement that my vagina is not within the reasonable expectations of what a vagina (cis or transgender) should look or function as for a 32-year-old woman. The difficulty has been finding surgeons with the appropriate prior experience in revising cases similar to mine, which most of the surgeons—even those who have done hundreds or thousands of primary procedures—do not.

Please consider giving, and giving generously at that. I want so desperately to make this happen for myself so that I can get on with my life and my advocacy for other trans people. While I hate asking for money, having it will make the process move faster so that I can start the paperwork and preparation for a procedure at the surgeon's earliest possible date, once I have a plan finalized.

The whole procedure will likely (at best, barring further complications) involve 2-3 stages, to address defects in the vaginal canal, and the vulva/clitoris respectively. I am very open about it, and will take people as in-depth into the procedures as they are interested to learn.

Pictures of my case, aka, of my vagina, through healing after the primary and second surgery, are available FOR MEDICAL PURPOSES ONLY, on MY WEBSITE. I'll keep updating this site here too as I figure out what more to say.

The point is, I need $25,000, and quickly. Then I can get on to other things with my life, and paying all of it forward.

Note: GoFundMe collects about 5% of donations made on this page. There are other great options for contributing, that may be more direct but will still count for the cause. Ask me.