This is a more narrative report of a trip I undertook with several friends and contains some of our personal experiences. If you want a longer and more fleshed out How To guide with an associated checklist at the end, please go Here.
As many deranged ideas do, the idea to organize a group orchiectomy trip began with a hot-tub in Ohio, several months prior. We had been talking about self-orchiectomies at the time and how they usually end up with a trip to the emergency room, as well as the rare cases when they actually go well.
It was later at night, back then, and I only believe it started snowing one or two days later (when we were also in the hot-tub). I was talking about how a friend had performed a successful self-orchiectomy and how despite this success it was often a better idea to get this done by a professional, since performing successful self-surgery typically requires a high level of competence and a healthy dose of luck. I was aware at the time that orchiectomies could otherwise be obtained extremely cheaply in Thailand for roughly $200.
There were only three of us in the hot-tub at the time, but someone expressed that she’d be interested in such a trip and the other quickly agreed. We didn’t speak about it again for the rest of our time in Ohio, but the idea gestated over the next few weeks and eventually a group chat was born.
The idea of travelling together with friends is not a new idea (and I, unfortunately, cannot claim credit for it), but it's rare when it comes to trans surgeries.
Group medical travel allows for better support, lower costs, and the opportunity to bond with others in your community. It is rarely practiced, either in the trans community or elsewhere, and almost always limited to cosmetic surgeries (a group open heart surgery trip would be ill-advised for many reasons).
Trans people, of course, require (gender affirming) surgeries at far higher frequencies than the regular population, and so it is surprising that it is not practiced more frequently. It reduces costs and, even if complications can still happen, it's safer and more pleasant than getting cut open on the operating table all alone.
In many ways, this website and guide serves as a way of narrowing that gap. Group surgical travel is far more pleasant and the trip to Thailand is one that I believe I, and all of the friends who eventually accompanied me, will carry fond memories of for the rest of our lives.
The greatest part of being trans is the trans community and we often do so much together, thus it is strange then that we often pursue surgeries in the same way as most of us begin our transitions: alone.
Things can be different, things can be better, this site exists because I believe that there is a better way for trans surgeries to be organized and executed. I believe this is that way, and that it is applicable to many other trans surgeries, up to and including SRS.
The planning stage
The idea of a group orchiectomy trip resulted in a group chat to gauge interest and blind-estimates at the time placed the costs somewhere between $2,000-3,000 per-person for the entire three week trip, including flights, accommodation, and surgery.
We had settled on Dr. Thep Vechavisit from Pratunam Polyclinic as our surgeon due to his low cost and the simplicity of the orchiectomy procedure, as well as his status as one of the most experienced transgender surgeons in the world. His focus is more on providing low-cost surgeries to trans girls from third world countries (who often rely on sex work to fund their transitions), but he is a reputable surgeon who has nevertheless been featured in articles by some of the largest media outlets in the world.
Given his focus on providing affordable gender affirming surgeries, perfect aesthetics that require hours of careful work and revision are often a secondary concern. This is a deliberate choice (and I believe, a noble one); it means that many trans girls who would otherwise never be able to obtain such surgeries get that opportunity to have their bodies match their self-perception.
Regardless, this secondary focus on aesthetics is not a concern in this case, due to the simplicity of orchiectomies.
With this in mind, we figured out a time that worked for all of us to travel and reached out to schedule an appointment. And, true-to-form (I assume lowercase letters cost extra), he responded:
Please keep in mind that the number of people travelling eventually increased, but at the time of scheduling, it was only the 3 of us.
Once we had confirmation from our surgeon, we moved on to finding a nearby AirBnB, eventually settling on a house able to comfortably fit a large group at $2,400 total ($480 each) for 3 weeks. The house could fit 8 people, though there were only 5 of us at the time of booking, but we wanted a bit more space (this worked in our favor as another friend joined us after the orchiectomies, and allowed us to host a trans girl who had independently traveled to Thailand for SRS from time to time). We had an abundance of space, even so, and it would have been possible to get even cheaper accommodation if desired.
With that booked, all that was left were the flights - the most expensive part of the entire trip at roughly $800-1,000 depending on where/when you're flying from.
No other major things were needed, though we bought some donut pillows, antiseptic cream, diclofenac gel, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, silicone scar gel, Tegaderm dressings, compression bandages, and sterile wound dressings before leaving just for quality of life purposes.
The antiseptic cream, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, tegaderm, and wound dressings were all available cheaper at local pharmacies it turned out. However, the donut pillows, diclofenac gel, and silicone scar gel did prove useful (especially the donut pillows) since they would prove difficult to obtain within Thailand.
Pre-surgery
By the time we were ready to leave for Thailand, the group size had expanded up to 5 people, with the 6th arriving after we were scheduled to complete our surgeries.
We arrived at and checked into our AirBnB without any issues and spent the first few days doing minor errands at local pharmacies, changing money, checking out Pratunam Polyclinic, and doing general tourism. During this time, we adopted a trans girl who had been travelling to Thailand for SRS at the same time as us and helped her (really we threw her headfirst) down the puppygirl pipeline and she went into SRS surgery with "Good Girl ❤︎" written in sharpie on her thigh and protected with a transparent Tegaderm dressing for safekeeping and easy viewing (it survived surgery and was later converted to a tattoo).
The Grab app was useful here for everything from food delivery to transport and it would have been impossible to get everything done if it hadn’t been for it.
Thai food is unbelievably delicious, though sometimes very spicy in the case of Pad Kra Pao (as our puppygirl learned while lapping milk out of a bowl to soothe the burning - we later got her a dog bowl, a collar, and a leash for her while she was recovering from surgery). Likewise, if you have time, check out some of the cultural attractions around the place.
In order to get surgery, two psychiatrist notes (at least one from within Thailand) are required. We travelled down to Rama 9 Hospital (Praram 9), to get those. They were available on a walk-in basis, requiring a quick meeting with two psychiatrists at the hospital. Two certificates cost 3,950 THB (~$120) total per person, and the doctors were mostly looking for patients with a classical presentation of HSTS transexuality (straight = good; lesbian = bad; bisexual = understandable but try to do better; etc.) and no history of psychiatric illness or complications.
Given that we were all angelic HSTS paragons of virtue who wouldn’t even consider (successfully) corrupting a trans girl we had just met into a puppygirl and without an insane bone in any of our collective bodies, and definitely not all filthy AGP transbian degenerates, we collected the psychiatrist letters without a hitch except for one of our HSTS-es who forgot she wasn't meant to be a lesbian (she got the letter anyway, but got grilled for a while).
As a side note, a group member required some medications she'd left at home and was able to mostly get a mostly similar and appropriate prescription fulfilled, though it did take another visit with a doctor and a bit of arguing to ensure decent medications were received.
Finally, we booked two wheelchairs for 1 week (4,200 THB total (~$130)), and a van with a driver to transfer us+wheelchairs from the clinic back to the AirBnB (~4,000 THB total incl. tip (~$120) since we weren't certain what state everyone would be in when they got out of surgery.
We scheduled our surgeries in two rounds. 3 people the first round, then the remaining 2 people 3 days later, so there were people to look after the first 3 while they recovered, and so there was time for the initial 3 to recover before it was the next 2's turn to get the snip. I was in the second round (it’s best for the more medically knowledgeable people to go second, in my opinion, to be in good health in case the first round of orchiectomies experiences issues) and I believe the timings worked out fairly well in that regard.
Post-surgery
The first set of surgeries went off with only half a hitch 5 days after we first arrived in Bangkok. The half a hitch being that one of our group had learned that Dr. Vechavisit liked to drink chocolate milk and tried to bring him a bottle of chocolate milk before the surgery as a semi-serious joke gift (the nurses were not amused).
We had initially planned to do it on the 3rd or 4th day instead, but not knowing where to go and what to do initially extended that slightly. In retrospect, given the ease of obtaining the certificates, it's entirely possible to obtain the needed psychiatrist's letters even sooner so that more time can be spent enjoying Thailand together once everyone is recovered.
The wheelchairs and van driver proved to be overkill for post-surgery transport. Everyone was able to walk without pain and transport could have been handled with just a Grab (the local Thai app that is their equivalent of Uber). We ended up just ordering a taxi for the second round of orchiectomies without any issues.
The wheelchairs would later be useful since two people had difficult recoveries due to what seemed to be a mild hematoma and spitting stitches complicated by a history of chronic illness (anecdotally, excess weight seemed to be associated with a more difficult recovery, though there aren't enough data points to be useful except as speculation). Even then, only one wheelchair was ever “needed” for our group of 5, and could have been done without.
One person within the first round of orchiectomies had no issues whatsoever and was up and active without pain from the first day onwards (she requested that I add, and I quote: "that she was having piss soaked group sex within a week"). The other two within the first round each had difficult recoveries (hematoma, spitting stitches, surgical site swelling, etc.). No wheelchairs were needed by the end of the week in either case, though there were still mobility issues.
The second round had easier recoveries, with one experiencing little to no pain, while the other had some degree of pain but was mostly mobile.
We all received bags of mystery pills with the words "antibiotic" and "pain relief" on them after our surgeries, but given that we didn't know what they were, decided against using them, especially because we had stockpiles of both back at the house.
Two individuals in the group had some level of medical competence which proved helpful in dealing with complications as well as knowing what to buy from local pharmacies.
Unfortunately, due to some people having complications and one other person coming down with the flu (likely exacerbated by the poor air quality in Bangkok while we were there) we were somewhat limited in the amount of tourist activities we could engage in after surgery, but in a normal situation I’d expect there to be ample time to do so. And even without being able to visit too many of the local sites and sights, hanging out together in a beautiful country with good food was incredibly pleasant.
Despite this, everyone was well enough to leave without issue by the end of the trip.
Our adopted puppygirl turned out to be a T-900 Terminator from the near future after Grok AI goes full Skynet and the planet gets nuked. She was up, walking, and visiting us where we were staying only a few days after surgery.
The trip was one of the most insane things I’ve ever had the pleasure of doing, and I am unlikely to ever forget it. Having company made what could have been a lonely and potentially scary experience one of my fondest memories.
This writeup only scratches the surface of what happened in Thailand. There is so much more deranged lore that I cannot include here for a mix of privacy reasons, legal reasons, and because we don't want other people to be as much of a pain in the ass for our surgeon as we were.
A second trip to Thailand for Breast Augmentation is currently being considered/in the works by several people from the initial trip because of how much of a positive trip the first one was. Hopefully this time we'll be able to explore more!
I hope one day you’ll be able to experience the same too.