My GCS case was approved. I could theoretically be on the schedule for Nov-Dec 2022, but given I’m the appointed actuary I’m guessing it’ll be Mar 2023. 10 months! Weeeeee! 
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Yeah, i started with an oral dose of 1mg, I think. That equivalence really is. So you should be comparing the larger number. But it’s still a huge difference.
On the other hand, they make patches for menopausal women up to 0.1mg, ~ 2mg oral estradiol. And it would not be completely impractical to wear 3 at once. And you get a much more regular dose with a patch, a more “normal” ratio of estrogens circulating in the blood, and probably a lower cardiovascular risk. And you can eat grapefruit. 
So patches might be an option for you. Something you might want to discuss with your doctor.
Here’s one of the references i used when deciding what to do. It’s all geared towards menopause, but a lot of the info probably applies more broadly.
What’s recovery time look like for the surgery?
Probably 3-6 weeks for physical recovery for me, because of the type of surgery I’m electing to have. It has certain benefits and drawbacks which work for my life.
The most common version of GCS is more like 2-3 months of physical recovery, plus another 9-12 months of maintenance type recovery.
I can put more details in a spoiler if people are interested.
I am, if you don’t mind sharing.
There are some young trans women i see at social events who look very feminine. Anyone would naively think “she” when looking at them. I only know they are trans because i knew them before they did any physical/medical transitioning. I think it’s a combination of hormones and breasts. (And when i first met them, they still had legal first names that sound male that i had to use for some paperwork.)
Lots of Surgical Info
So — there were 3 types of surgery I researched. There are other types, but I’ll talk about the three I looked at.
The surgery I’m having is Zero Depth Vaginoplasty/vuvloplasty. This basically involves removal of a lot of the penis, and then using the more sensitive parts of it to create a vulva (with clitoris, labia, etc) but without a vaginal canal. This works pretty well for me because it means I don’t have to have pre-surgical electrolysis on that area (ouch?), nor will I have to spend a bunch of time dilating. It, of course, means no penetrative sex, but that’s 100% fine with me. To an external viewer, it looks the same.
By far the most common is penile inversion vaginoplasty, where the penis is inverted to create the vaginal canal with scrotal skin being used to form a lot of the external features. This requires hair removal from the entire shaft and base, plus it requires 15 minutes of dilation to keep the vaginal canal open and maintain the depth 3x a day for 1-2 months, and 1x a day for around a year (and possibly 1x week for the rest of their life). It’s generally not self-lubricating, but otherwise you can have normal PIV sex.
The third one, which I’ve done less research on, uses a part of the colon to create the vagina. This is higher risk, and has even a longer recovery time, but you don’t have to do the hair removal nearly as much, and it can be self lubricating since it’s a mucous membrane.
I went to a small stand-up comedy show in a private home, where one of the speakers was a trans woman who (among other things) described her experience with the second of those.
potentially TMI details
She had a dildo made from a cast of her penis before the operation. And after the operation, she tried using the dildo. And it fit. Too. Perfectly. She had a lot of trouble getting it out again.
She also talked about learning to pee again, which took her some time. I mean, not the eliminating urine part, but the not peeing all over herself when she did it part.
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I’ve heard of a few people doing that — but most trans girls’ penises are probably too big for the first set. Most actual penis are equivalent of green or blue, not purple (and despite what most guys will claim) or orange.
I forgot to reply to this. We talked about patches vs pills and they have found that juggling 3 patches isn’t always the best, so they typically go to injections if pills aren’t working. That might be a long term option once I’m done all the surgeries, though the injection form of estrogen is more prone to shortages and harder to stockpile, so for now I’m good with pills.
(There are also implants that will deliver estrogen for 6 months that is interesting to me, but I’m not aware of anyone locally that does it.)
I think implants may be more common in Europe? They make more sense for your situation than for mine, so i haven’t spent any energy researching them.
(A progesterone IUD, which is extremely relevant to my situation, is also something that’s common and officially approved in Europe, but unusual and off-label in the US.)
sorta related but not really.
My ex has a coworker who transitioned from F to M and his girlfriend (I think they’ve been together for a very long time, from before he transitioned) picked out the length of his penis for him. He was so excited he decided to show pics to everyone, including my ex. It was kinda weird lol.
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If you find the right subreddits you can find all kind of photos of trans people’s reconstructed anatomy so people can research what surgeons have certain techniques/aesthetics that people may like for their own surgery.
wow, I feel so out of it! All I’ve seen is one facebook post of a young transman showing off his lack of breasts.
just kidding. I really don’t have any desire to see the genitalia of a lot of strangers.
well then you’re certainly not a man
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This has been an amazingly rough week with the 0 sex hormones. While the hot flashes seem to have subsided, my motivation is gone, I had a serious attack of imposter syndrome as well as a ton of negative self talk. I’m working from home next week to both reduce COVID exposure and I honestly don’t know how I could face another 36 hours in the office right now - it is hard to even get dressed and get into work. Just 12 days to go, but it’s going to feel like a month.
Made it through surgery ok. I was exhausted all day yesterday but got enough sleep and today I’m feeling pretty good other than the uncomfortable feeling in the chest, which will go away in the few days once the muscles get acclimated to have the implants behind them.
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Yay!
And I assume you are back on hormones, as well. Are you happy cosmetically? Is it too early to know?
Hormones start once I can walk around a normal amount. Hopefully Thursday or Friday.
It’s going to take a couple of months for them to settle into the final position, but I’m very pleased so far. They ended up a big larger than I originally planned in order to create some hint of cleavage, but they look great and I’m sure they’ll settle in very nicely.
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Implants go behind the muscle? I had no idea…