Step one in learning about neogenitals: don’t make assumptions. 

1. Don’t assume your patient is CIS
2. Don’t assume your patient’s gender based on their genitals
3. Don’t assume your patient’s desires for genital gender affirming surgeries based on their gender identity
4. Don’t assume your patient’s sexual orientation or sexual activities based on their gender, their race, their size, their age, or their disabilities

Our society and thus our brains (unless we have done a LOT of personal work) are predicated on the assumptions of endocisheteronormativity, white supremacy, anti-fat bias, ageism, and anti-disability bias. For example, what assumptions do we automatically make when we see this person in our office:

Most of us assume:

• They are cis
• They are straight
• They are endosex
• They aren’t interested in sex or sexual pleasure

We cannot know these things without asking. We also cannot assume whether the genitals in our office happened before or after market. Neogentials and biogenitals come in all shapes and sizes. They are not always distinguishable, especially on visual examination. Can you tell which of these are neogenitals and which are biogenitals? To be clear neogenitals are genitals that are constructed in surgery for gender affirmation. Biogentials are genitals someone is born with. 

Phalloplasties sometimes are more noticeable on visual examination due to less venous prominence:

Neogenitals can have wide variation just like biogenitals. Surgeons are offering more and more options like nullectomy and phallus-preserving vaginoplasty. You can learn more about them on our clinic’s QueerDoc blog. Join me next to learn more about preventive care needs of neogenitals.