A single-center cross-sectional study comparison between quality of life after penile inversion and sigmoid colon vaginoplasty in Thailand: a 20-year experience

Abstract

Background Penile skin inversion vaginoplasty (PIV) and sigmoid colon vaginoplasty (SCV) are both regarded as surgical options for gender reassignment surgery (GRS) to improve quality of life (QoL) in male-to-female (MTF) individuals. As no studies have compared the QoL between PIV and SCV techniques, this study aimed to evaluate the differences in QoL among MTF individuals who received PIV and SCV. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on patients who underwent GRS using PIV and SCV techniques at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital (KCMH) from January 2002 to December 2022. The calibrated Thai version of Short-Form 36-Question Health Survey version 2 (SF-36v2) was used to assess QoL across eight health domains and to compare QoL between two surgical techniques. Results Of the 278 eligible MTF patients, who received GRS from 2002 to 2022, 57 completed the questionnaires; 37 and 20 MTF patients underwent PIV and SCV, respectively. Statistically significant difference was found in the Mental Component Summary (p-value = 0.02) of postoperative QoL between the two groups. SCV statistically outperformed PIV in seven out of eight domains. Conclusion In terms of QoL, MTF who underwent SCV showed better achievement than those who underwent PIV in most of the domains. Due to limitations of this study, further studies on a larger scale are needed to confirm the findings and compare other aspects of the surgical techniques. Level of Evidence: Level III, Therapeutic.