born2small,
It's a great idea to do as much research as you can about all forms of PE and this forum has the information and resources to assist you in that department. Be skeptical and ask questions.
IF you decide to get surgical PE, you may want to consider the lengthening first. One of our moderators, idm, recommends this as well as Dr. Reed (I am not promoting Dr. Reed):
phalloplasty.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=articles&action=display&thread=131This forum is about helping guys. Check out this link from the forum about cautioning a member against silicone injections:
phalloplasty.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=articles&thread=90&page=52#2825Another example, when I asked about hotel accommodations when going to Dr. C, many members made meaningful contributions:
phalloplasty.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=support&thread=241&page=1Some members here have some medical background as well, such as idm, Sparticus, and hoddle10.
At this forum, it's pretty open-minded about new innovations in PE. I think I can speak for the entire forum, but we owe one of our moderators, evisionmore, a tremendous amount of thanks for starting the 'PMMA - Dr. C' thread. I never knew about that until this forum. From so many members going to Dr. C for PMMA, he is adjusting his approach in order to optimize results:
phalloplasty.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=articles&action=display&thread=90&page=97Our administrator, SO, allowed a variety of posts on PE, such as: PRP and Dr. Runels, scaffold surgery, PE surgery in Russia, and other topics such as Micronized Alloderm:
phalloplasty.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=articles&thread=212&page=1One thing to remember is that every PE surgeon has had his successes and those cases which are less than optimal. For example, Dan Levin wasn't pleased with his FFT with Dr. Giunta, but one of our moderators, idm was. Jim Matthewuse, the inventor of thegrip got messed up by Rosenstein (NOT Rosenthal) and then got revision surgery from Dr. Rheinschild and was pleased with it. Jim R - featured in the video, 'Private Dicks' was also pleased with his surgery with Dr. Rheinschild, yet one of our members, 8ball, got less than optimal results with Dr. Rheinschild. Another example is Dr. Rosenthal. One of our members, soma, was pleased with his surgery from Rosenthal:
phalloplasty.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=support&action=display&thread=229yet another member, yardstick, got less than optimal results from Dr. Rosenthal:
phalloplasty.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=articles&action=display&thread=76&page=1One of the members, posted some information about Dr. Knight:
phalloplasty.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=articles&thread=247&page=1Dan Levin was pleased with his revision surgery with Dr. Krakovsky, yet one of the most famous (or should that be infamous?) people in the PE community got less than optimal results with Dr. Krakovsky from a second girth procedure. You can read about it more here:
phalloplasty.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=articles&thread=56&page=1This person went to Dr. Elist for revision surgery and appeared to get good results.
Are all patients who get less than optimal results the fault of the PE doctor? No. Just two examples, one patient of Dr. Rheinschild who got less than optimal results, was due because he had unprotected sex with either a pre- or post-op tranny a week or so after surgery and another patient of Dr. Rheinschild's went swimming in the ocean a week after surgery. [8ball - please note I am NOT defending Dr. Rheinschild or blaming you for what happened with your results from Rheinschild]. (Source: Linda Rheinschild and/or Ken Beaton). Some guys who got lengthening surgery and didn't follow up on the post-op stretching routine LOST length.
If you want to start off with a non-surgical approach check out thegrip, the Bib, and autoextender. These are pretty reputable places. However if you decide to get thegrip, I would say forget the weights that they sell. You can buy cheaper 1lb or 2lb weights at almost any sporting goods store and get a chain or cord from any hardware store to attach the weights to either thegrip or the Bib. As far as pumps go, one of our moderators, stillwantmore, knows more about this than I do.
If you decide on a surgical approach to PE, I would encourage you to explore as many PE surgeons as you can: Dr. C, Reed, Giunta, Rosenthal, Elist, Alter, just to name a few. Read the PMMA/Dr. C thread in a few days or even a few weeks along with the individual threads by guys who got PMMA. They will give you their thoughts and experiences not only about PMMA, but about Dr. C.
If you are thinking about the implant, I would strongly encourage you to communicate with members on this forum who had the implant - to know the good and bad of it.
This forum is very open-minded, however, one thing that is NOT tolerated is SHILLS! Two shills were exposed so far by SO and the moderators.
Best of luck to you and again, welcome.