Lana

I researched various surgeons who specialise in Facial Feminisation and I am glad that, in the end, I chose Dr Bart van de Ven and his team for my surgery.

I sent Dr Bart my pictures via email in June 2011 and he suggested procedures that might help me. I had a face to face consultation with him and his assistant Dr Ellen Defrancq in Manchester, UK during the Sparkle festival in July 2011. I found Dr Bart to be a warm and friendly guy with a great sense of humour. During this meeting, he described how he would alter my facial features to make me look womanly. He used two key words that swung it for me. They were; Natural and Subtle. I agreed to take up a vacant surgery slot in early Sept.

I traveled on my own to Ghent. The recommended Borluut guest house had no vacancies at the time, so I stayed at the NH Gent Sint Pieters hotel. It was a handy 10 min walk to the Coupre Centre. But, the hotel served breakfast only, so for lunch and evening meals, it was necessary to find local restaurants etc. Not a pleasant experience when bruised, swollen and having lips that don’t work like they used to – I think I might frightened the natives a bit, I’m sure I put a few people off their food!

The surgical procedures I had were: Forehead recontouring with orbital recontouring + Hairline correction + Browlift, Blepharoplasty lowerlid, Rhinoplasty (Nose reduction), Earlobe reduction, Lipfift, Trachea shave, MACS facelift, Lipo filling face: cheeks, nasolabial folds, vermillion upper lip, mental fold.. In total about 8 hours of surgery.

The ECM2 centre is a small, modern, fully equipped private hospital. Unfortunately, There was a 2 hour delay in the start of my operation due to the anesthetist not turning up. I was worried this might lead to a rushed job, Dr Bart assured me that everything would be fine. The last thing I remember was lying on the operating table, looking at the patient monitoring equipment and saying: “I used to repair those”. Next thing, I woke up in recovery. It was early evening. The only pain I had was from a bed sore on my backside and a pain in my elbow where I’d lain in a funny position for 8 hours. Surprisingly, there was hardly any pain from the facial surgery itself, just mild discomfort. I was wheeled to my room, put into an upright bed and had a cooling mask put on my face. A nurse popped in to check on me every hour or so. In the morning the nurse (she was lovely), carefully pulled the drains out of the top f my ears, bathed me and washed and dried my hair. I dressed, had breakfast and at about 1100 Dr Bart checked me over and ordered me a taxi that took me back to my hotel.

I had ice packs at the hotel and a fridge with an icebox in my room. I soon got in a routine of rotating these packs. I found that I didn’t need the painkillers or the sleeping pills that Dr Bart supplied in the post-op medicines pack. I saw Dr Bart at the Coupre Centre four days later. I had a head like a melon that was all shades of blue and yellow. He noticed that my trachea shave procedure had resulted in a large swelling (Haematoma) and that we should keep our eye on it. Everything else was deemed to be progressing normally. I saw Dr Bart a week later for stitches and staple removal and final check before going home. Thankfully the swelling on my neck was not getting any bigger and Dr Bart assured me it would gradually be absorbed by the body. I hoped so, as it was twice as big as my adams apple ever was!
I flew back home the day after. To be honest I was “sirred” all the way home. I was worried I might have wasted my money. Admittedly, I was dressed androgynously, in leather biker jacket and jeans and was still blacked eyed and bruised – people probably thought I’d had a motorbike accent!

Slowly, as the swelling has subsided, over the last four Months, the skill of Dr Bart began to emerge. I really pleased with result of the forehead, nose and earlobe procedures. The swelling around my Adams apple is still being absorbed slowly. The results can be seen on the before and after page (Lana).

I saw Dr Bart in Ghent in Jan 2012 for a four Month follow up. There are a few niggles that we have discussed. I do some facial palsy and swelling that will require some more time to resolve. I also have a bit of sagging in the LH side jowl area and my upper lip will require lipo top up.

I will be seeing Dr Bart again in June so that he can monitor how my recovery is progressing and discuss any revisions that may be required. It’s nice to know that Dr Bart offers continued support to his girls and that he has their best interests at heart.

Having FFS surgery has set me free. I would highly recommend Dr Bart and his team.
Lana