Be the Best "You" That You Can Be

Feeling comfortable in your own skin is vital to your overall health. At Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), we offer consultative services and gender affirmation surgery to help you find your comfort level.

The Gender Center of Excellence at RWJUH is composed of plastic surgeons, gynecologists, otolaryngologists, endocrinologists, speech pathologists, and internal medicine physicians. Our multidisciplinary team works together to identify your goals and plan your treatment.

Following the Standards of Care as outlined by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), our plastic surgeons ensure every patient is treated with the highest level of compassion, and educated on the role of surgery in gender affirmation. We offer a variety of different procedures and will work with each patient to provide individualized, thoughtful care.

Procedures We Perform

Gender affirmation surgeries we perform include:

• Masculinizing Chest Contouring
  Surgeons remove the feminine breast and excess skin, reshape the chest, and reposition the nipple-areola complex.
• Chest Feminization
  To make the chest appear more feminine, surgeons can enlarge the breasts with either breast implants or fat grafting.
• Facial Masculinization
  A variety of procedures can be performed to enhance the masculine qualities of the face. Some procedures may be combined into one surgery. Talk with your plastic surgeon about which procedures will best achieve your goals. Techniques for shaping the face into a more masculine appearance include:
  • Cheek augmentation
  • Forehead augmentation
  • Chin contouring
  • Jaw contouring
  • Rhinoplasty (nose job)
  • Thyroid cartilage enhancement to give the appearance of an Adam’s apple
• Body Contouring
  Reshaping the body often involves a combination of excess skin and fat removal and liposuction. Discuss your expectations with your plastic surgeon to create a surgical plan to help you achieve your goals.
• Facial Feminization
  The attributes of a feminine face may be achieved with different procedures. Some procedures can be combined in one surgery. Techniques for shaping the face into a more traditionally feminine appearance include:
  • Blepharoplasty (eyelid lift)
  • Brow lift
  • Cheek augmentation
  • Face lift/neck lift
  • Lip lift
  • Rhinoplasty (nose job)
  • Scalp advancement for a softer, lower hairline
  • Tracheal shave (reduction of the appearance of the Adam's apple)
  • Dermal fillers and botox

• Bottom Surgery

  • Hysterectomy — a hysterectomy is surgery to remove the uterus. Hysterectomy with and without surgery to remove the fallopian tubes (salpingectomy) and ovaries (oophorectomy) is considered by the WPATH to be a medically necessary component of gender-affirming surgical therapy for transgender men who choose to seek this procedure. This procedure may be performed using one of several approaches: vaginally, laparoscopic assisted, and robotic-assisted total abdominal approach.

  • Vaginectomy — This is a procedure to remove the vagina and close the vaginal opening. It may be performed at the time of a hysterectomy or as a separate procedure.

Our full suite of services for the transgender community, know as the PROUD Gender Center of New Jersey, is available to you. You can also join our support group and read up on issues of importance to transgender people by consulting the links on our community resources page.

See news coverage about the PROUD Gender Center of New Jersey from ABC7 Eyewitness News.