so it turns out, after an orchi it’s not uncommon for a lump to develop in the scrotal sack, it feels about the size of a marble or a grape, and it turns out, at least on the internet, this is indeed called “the grape”:

That hard lump is commonly called “the grape”. It is where the incision was made on the spermatic cord. The clump is basically scar tissue along with the remnants of blood vessels and nerves that were severed during the I/O. It’s perfectly normal. Hope this helps out.

Sorta weird to find something like a gonad where the gonads were, so I thought I would share this trivia since I had never heard of it and was certainly not expecting it post-op.

I’m almost two weeks into recovery. So far the feeling of my thighs while walking, sitting, and lying down still gives me moments of joy even if the novelty is wearing off a little bit. The reduction in my bottom dysphoria has been greater than expected, but in some ways it makes me more sensitive to the remaining dysphoria - I seem to be now unconsciously expecting different genitals down there more now than before.

Being able to lower my estrogen dose has been nice. Keeping a high monotherapy dose pre-op (4.6 mg EV subq every 3.5 days, i.e. twice a week) made me more emotional, and it’s been a stressful and unstable time recently. So far I just feel a little more stable in my mood, more equanimous.

In between injections sometimes it seemed like some testosterone would be produced. There is definitely a difference now - estrogen troughs no longer are followed by signs of T, and it’s been nice no longer having any involuntary erections in the morning or having that testosterone body odor (and most importantly, improved mental health).

It’s also starting to sink in that I don’t have to be as afraid of estrogen shortages, since now the worst case for me is a severe form of menopause rather than a hormonal regression back to testosterone. Life feels so precarious right now, everything is in the air, so it is weird to have this unexpected stability.

Two weeks in and I highly recommend the orchi. :-)