Plastic Surgeons Help Chaz Bono

Celebrity Plastic Surgery Comments (1)

Chaz Bono, 40, who was born Chastity Bono, the daughter of the late California Congressman Sonny Bono and singer Cher, made news recently when she announced that she is undergoing female to male transgender process.

It’s a long, expensive procedure that requires the help of many different types of plastic surgeons.

Born Chastity Bono in 1969, she was named after Cher’s first film in 1969. It was a case of life imitating art — the movie had Cher staring as a bisexual character who was created by Sonny.

Later, when Sonny & Cher appeared on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, Chastity insisted on being dressed to match Sonny rather than Cher.

At 18, Chastity came out to both parents as a lesbian and later wrote a book, Family Outing, explaining all the experiences involved.

Making a female into a male starts by taking hormones and, later, possibly having sexual reassignment surgery.

Hormones deepen the person’s voice, enlarge the clitoris and cause growth of body hair.

The next step is usually a chest contouring surgery which removes the breasts and reduces the size of the nipples.

Many opt for a hysterectomy to remove the internal female organs including:

• Ovaries
• Uterus
• Vagina

Once hormone therapy has had time to work, some transsexuals have a type of surgery known as metaidoioplasty which extends, strengthens and releases the clitoris, giving it a more penile-like appearance.

While the procedure is fraught with difficulties, some opt for a Phalloplasty, a procedure that takes donor tissue from some other part of the body and then attaches it to the patient’s genital area to try and create a full size phallus.

But the procedure is very expensive, requires multiple operations and is usually associated with a high number of complications, including:

• Tissue death
• Unintentional openings in the urethra
• Nerve damage
• Scarring at the donor site

Transsexual Phalloplasty is so expensive because it must be done in many stages and because the many complications require separate treatment. Moreover, the surgeons who can perform this type of surgery are few and far between so a lot of time is spent traveling to appointments.

According to Wikipedia, when it’s all done, the person is usually known as a “Trans man.”

admin @ June 30, 2009