Facial Feminization Surgery

Q: Dr. Eppley, Can I get a hair line lowering procedure, forehead contouring, and shaving of the brow browsing, lip lift, lip augmentation, corner lip lift and maybe jaw implants all during the same surgery? My goal is to feminize my forehead, the distance between my lips and nose is extremely far a lip lift would feminize my lips, and I’d like a heart shaped face and girls with heart shaped faces always have a nice feminine jawline.

A: What you are referring to is known as facial feminization surgery and in the classic use of that plastic surgery term refers to a type of transgender surgery. By your inquiry it does not appear that you are a transgender patient. But the concept is really the same and there is nothing unique or different in terms of the number of facial reshaping procedures that can be done on a male to female or a female patient. It is very common to perform up to a dozen or more different facial operations during facial feminization surgery. These are perfectly safe and are well tolerated to be done all at the same time. It does create the need for significant recovery, however, as the more facial procedures you do the more swelling that occurs as you might imagine.

Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana