[Prosthetics after construction of the outer genitalia for transmen].

BACKGROUND

Growing awareness of gender identity issues and a rising prevalence of female-to-male transsexualism is increasing demand for surgical solutions that deliver both aesthetically and functionally satisfying outer genitalia for transmen.

OBJECTIVE

This article summarizes the available prosthetic options, describes different surgical approaches and reviews the outcome of prosthetics for transmen with a focus on penile prosthesis in phalloplasty.

METHODS

Current international standards of care, reviews and original publications are critically reviewed and correlated with our own experience with more than 400 transmen at two interdisciplinary referral centres in Frankfurt, Germany and London, UK.

RESULTS

Despite of a wide range of different phalloplasty techniques and prosthetic types, the currently most used technique is implantation of a three-piece, inflatable penile prosthesis in a radial-free-flap phalloplasty. There is still an ongoing debate about the number of implanted penile prosthesis cylinders, the use of customised corporoplasty-windsocks for the cylinder(s), and the location for the placement of the reservoir. At present there is only one penile prosthesis design for use in phalloplasties and long-term results are still pending.

CONCLUSION

There is still no ideal implant available for the use in phalloplasties. The current literature does not provide evidence-based treatment algorithms, which is also due to a lack of prospective randomised studies and validated measurement tools for the postoperative outcome. Initial data for the first transmen-specific penile prosthesis as well as an increase of transgender studies might lead to an improvement of treatment and the quality-of-life of the affected transmen.