Phalloplasty surgery does not work
Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull said:
“Phalloplasties don't work. Um, they, they don't produce a girl with a functioning penis. Ah, surprise, surprise.”
Surgical complications in gender-affirming procedures are a real and documented topic, so a claim that a specific procedure simply does not work can sound like a plain statement of medical fact.
Phalloplasty is a well-established reconstructive technique with decades of published outcomes data, used both for trans men and for cisgender men after injury, cancer, or trauma. Results vary depending on technique and individual circumstances, and complications are a real part of the picture that surgeons and patients discuss honestly before any procedure, but high rates of urinary function, sensation, and patient satisfaction are consistently reported in the literature. Describing it as simply not working is not a plain statement of medical fact, it is a misreading of the evidence. And the framing here matters: these are men, not girls, and dismissing their surgical outcomes with mockery is the part that does the most damage, because it reaches people at the point of making one of the most significant decisions of their lives and hands them a false picture of what is possible.
Trans men considering or who have undergone phalloplasty, whose surgical outcomes are dismissed, and people who may be deterred from accessing evidence-based care by false claims about its efficacy.