Posted on Yahoo Group MtMINFo (reprinted without permission)

I think this person was at the conference with 80 other people at the regular informational meeting at the FTM International office in San Francisco on Sunday the 10^th of September 2000, including James Green (see article also on this site)

"You know, the phallo I saw, this guy was 2 years out from having been
completely finished... he had to go back a year after he had the original
procedure to have the erectile device put in and he told us that he has FULL
sexual sensation in the entire penis. He had a beautiful result. He said
that he orgasms with intercourse. He said that he had only minor urinary
fistulas that healed on their own without any surgical intervention.
Honestly, his arm looked very good as well. What amazed me the most about it
is that it even looked a little darker than the rest of his skin, like a
"bio" penis does. Someone asked him if he had tattooing done on it and he
said, "no". So I guess he was lucky that way.

When he first pulled out his penis to show us I thought WOW that is an
amazing looking pedicled flap phalloplasty because I could not SEE the scar
on his forearm until he made a point of turning his arm over and showing
us... perhaps he's lucky that he heals so well. It did look like the normal
burn scar that radial forearm phalloplasties give you, but it just really
didn't look so bad, his healed remarkably. And this is just my opinion, but
especially for the beautiful result he has aesthetically and functionally.
I'll try to rack my brain for how much he told us it cost total... was anyone
else there in that room at the FTM conference in Seattle when this man showed
his phallo to us?

I was enormously impressed by him because he was very shy and had thought
that only a few guys would show up..... about 30 of us showed up... he was
very concerned that people would make rude comments when he showed it to us
(hmmmm, i wonder why THAT would be) and he implored us not to even ask any
questions while he had his pants down... he also gave us this short speech
about how we should understand that everyone has DIFFERENT results and that
even if we didn't think it looked that good, that sometimes these things are
good enough for the person who had it done. He asked that we respect him and
not make any negative comments aloud. I felt incredibly bad for him because
I KNEW that his insecurity was coming from the jerks in our community who
find it necessary to make such rudeass comments about phalloplasty results
instead of just taking personal responsibility for not wanting one.
Phalloplasties have been referred to on these lists and in magazines as not
only "dead sausages" (by the way what does a LIVE sausage look like??), but
also as frankendicks and all manner of other rude things, but I digress.

In spite of feeling this much nervousness about judgement, this man was still
willing to share his results with us because I'm assuming that he knew
somewhere inside him that he would be helping at least one person. When he
finally did pull out his penis for us to see, someone said, "Can I just say
one thing? It's beautiful!".... There really was a collective gasp in the
room and we weren't trying to be nice. It just really was beautiful. I've
heard this about other phalloplasties performed by Monstrey in Belgium. He
just gets a great result (obviously some of this is mediated by the patients'
own healing abilities and health, etc). While most doctors who perform
radial forearm phalloplasties have a 30 to 35% fistula/stricture rate in
their urethroplasties that require repair and extra surgery, Monstrey has
somewhere in the neighborhood of a 7% fistula rate..... and a great majority
of them heal on their own without extra surgery.... 2% complication rate is
the normal rate of complication for ANY surgery, so I'm thinking that this
man has figured something out that the rest of the surgeons haven't yet... I
wish he'd share with the rest!!!!

I wish I knew of a place where you could see pictures of this particular
man's phallo because it was certainly nice, but I'll bet there's somewhere
out there where you can see some. If no one else knows the link or puts one
up, I'll go in search for you.

best,
Jayson"

Counterpoint (from same thread)

"just a little of my own belated input on this thread:

i too was in the room at that conference, and while i agree that the
belgian phallos i've seend are indeed stunning *comparatively*, i've not
ever seen a phallo that was passable for a genetic penis. i think that,
without closer scrutiny, some of the best may pass in the lockerroom (esp
a non-gay, non-cruisy lockerroom), but up close ... i just don't think so.

i've got OODLES of up-close and, erm, personal experience with genetic
cocks, and i just don't think the phallo's are there yet. when i first
heard about the belgian phallos, i got all excited because a few of my
trans friends said they look "just like the real thing", that you couldn't
tell the difference. but when i actually saw a couple for myself - while
i *was* impressed and viewed the results as highly favorable - they still
didn't quite look like a genetic cock. by my standards, it seemed obvious
that it was not a genetic cock. the coloring, skin texture and often
glans sculpting is a bit off. i couldn't see myself in casual nude
situations without feeling like my cock would stand out or - even if
nobody said anything (which is likely) - be noticably different in a
non-"natural variation" kind of way. of course, that's not a prerequisite
for some ppl, either.

now, i of course realize that probably *nothing* will look exactly like
the real thing. i'm just elaborating on this because i've noticed that
how close they look to the real thing depends on who you're talking to.
in my case, i later realized i was talking to 2 guys who'd never been
within 4ft of another mans naked genetic cock. i've also noticed that
some of the other gay transmen i've talked to voiced similar experiences.
this is not to say you need to be a fag in order to know what a cock looks
like, but that your personal exposure to cocks is one of MANY factors that
will influence how you describe and relate to a surgical outcome.

sometimes i think that, when we see a result that is actually good (though
not "perfect") we get so excited and enthusiastic about it that we
describe it as though it may as well look like the real thing, cuz it's
really the best you've ever seen. while i respect the opinions and
perspectives of everyone whose spoken up on the excellence of belgian
phallos, i've found some of the descriptions to be a bit grandiose.

the moral of the story is, of course, try and see the work for yourself,
and try to have realistic expectations before you see it. realism helps
temper disappointment, and i think our population has enough of that.

this is a difficult email to write, as i mean no disrespect or ill-thought
of anyone's genital surgery. in fact, of what i've seen from dr.
monstrey, i'm actually considering it for the first time in my life. but
i do think we need to develop a way of talking respectfully and honestly
about how we feel about surgical results. i hope this email makes the
grade -- my sincerest apologies if not.

-Kev"