Introduction

Hi everyone! In this video I will be discussing post-op dilation from sex reassignment surgery. [SRS] Dilation is something you have to do if you have SRS. It is primarily to keep the vagina at the depth and width that was achieved during surgery. I like to compare it to getting an ear pierced. If you take out the earring early on after getting it pierced, the hole grows in. Just like if you do not dilate, the vagina will tighten up and you will loose depth and width and may not be able to get back.

Dilation is torture. There is nothing fun about it. It hurts, it’s uncomfortable, and is very time consuming. I cannot say anything positive about it. But, don’t let this deter you from getting the surgery since, for me, it was something I had to do to be myself, regardless of how much time I had to spend caring for it. My dilation schedule from Christine McGinn was five times a day for the first eight weeks. Three times a day for weeks 9-24. Once a day for weeks 25-52. And then twice a week from then on. Each session should last about 20 minutes once it’s fully in.

My depth was 5in, and I have not lost any. This is because I have kept up with the dilation and only ever missed one session within the first month when I saw a lot of blood. But, it ends up taking me a half hour or more each session since it takes a while to get it to the right depth. Plus, switching dilators takes some time.

Make sure everything is well lubricated. It was suggested I use mineral oil, and this worked out but was very messy. Plus, it didn’t seem to lubricate the very back of the vagina and this caused pain. After about five months I switched over to lubricating jelly and it works so much better, but it can make everything quite sticky inside since you can’t really clean it out all the way in the back.

The Dilators

So, there are four dilator sizes I have. The first one is 1⅛”, the second one is 1¼”, the third is 1⅜”, and the largest one is 1½”. They gave me the first two and I had to purchase the second two and they are quite pricey. They are these hard plastic dildos that are very uncomfortable, especially the largest one. I don’t use the first one at all anymore. But, I have to start with the second one and then work up to the largest one. I can’t just use the third or fourth one without working up to it. UHHHHH, I hate the largest one so much. It tears me up, literally. I just wanna throw it out the window. [Glass break]

There is a trick I use when dilating which helps greatly. When you’re trying to hold it in, your arm gets tired and you sometimes lose track of what you’re doing and it is not at the depth it should be. Plus, you are down one hand and cannot do as much. So, what I started doing almost right away was use a pillow and blanket. I put the pillow down there to keep the dilator in, then I wrap the blanket around the pillow and then put the ends of the blanket under by back to keep constant pressure. It keeps it in at the right depth the whole time, and I have both hands free. It get’s very boring, so I usually just read a book, play a game, or watch tv, like SpongeBob! It’s great to watch that when you’re dilating! I cannot stress enough to do something you enjoy when dilating. If you don’t, you may hate it even more.

I wish there was a dilator that was small and would stay in at the correct dept. Then over the course of the session would increase in size without the need for it to be taken out. That would be so great. Maybe in the future.

All that dilating made my hip get out of place because it’s an uncomfortable position to be in multiple times a day. So, it’s always best to stretch before and after.

So anyway, let’s get onto how my dilation has progressed.

Dilation Progression

Dilation began when the packing inside the vagina was removed. This was one week after surgery. I started with the smallest dilator and it wasn’t bad. Just five a day was very time consuming. Early on there was a lot of discharge. Not much blood at any point in dilation, just mainly yellow, nasty discharge. All I wanted to do was sleep, but couldn’t sleep since I had to wake up and dilate endlessly. It was so much dilation that I would dream about it many nights.

About four weeks in was when I tried the second dilator. It really wasn’t bad. I was able to achieve the correct depth and it didn’t hurt too much. I started using the second size dilator several times without the first one and over a few weeks was able to quit using the first one altogether.

I ordered the third and fourth dilators and when I saw them I was like, “Oh my gosh!!! They are huge!” I find that the first two are in a group of their own, and the third and fourth are in a different group. Because there seems to be a big difference between the second and third dilator, at least at first. I tried the third one about six weeks in and it hurt and burned badly, but I was almost able to achieve the correct depth. It took about a week for it to stop burning so badly and I was able to achieve the correct depth.

So, after eight weeks, I was finally able to move down from five dilations a day to three. What a relief. It felt like I had so much more free time. It was a little more difficult at first. Also, at that point, the scar tissue began to retract and every time I would dilate it would be a struggle to get it to the right depth. I could really feel it stretching the back of the vagina, which hurt since I had granulation tissue back there. Also tried the fourth dilator, and oh my, it was torture. It burned so badly. After a week, the feeling subsided, but was still very very uncomfortable. This dilator is what caused my tearing and I cannot use it until the tearing heals. I was very rarely able to get it at maximum depth, and even when I did, it always hurt.

So, after the scar retraction phase, which for me seemed to be from the two month mark to the fourth, dilation should’ve gotten easier. But, it hasn’t, at least in terms of width. It still hurts very badly from the tearing near the opening, and is so tight that it is very difficult to dilate. I was told to do massages to help with this. Basically as I’m dilating I move the dilator as hard as I can to one side and hold it, then repeat on the other side. This help get it in easier since it stretches the very tight muscle about an inch in that makes it so difficult. But, overall it is still very very tough.

At the moment this video is posted, it has been about six months. So, I should be down to once a day, but I don’t know if I will be able to. I’ll update everyone at the one year mark to see how things progress. [1 Year Post-op] Thanks for watching!