Doctors suspended after trans patient has vagina removed without consent

Two urologists have been suspended from the UK medical register, one for mistakenly removing the vagina of a sex change patient who did not want it removed, and the other for altering the patient’s consent form to add a vaginectomy retrospectively.

Giulio Garaffa, a consultant urological surgeon with a special interest in andrology and reconstructive surgery and honorary senior lecturer at University College London Hospitals, was suspended for five months for carrying out the surgery in error on a patient transforming into a man.

Metoidioplasty, the surgical construction of a penis, is normally accompanied by vaginectomy. But in this case the patient had repeatedly said they did not want their vagina removed, and this was clearly marked in the notes, although …