For Alireza Hamidian Jahromi, MD, Assistant Professor of Plastic Surgery and Gender Affirmation Surgery (GAS) at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine and Director of the Gender Affirmation Surgery Program at Temple University Hospital, being part of a leading gender-affirming surgery program means collaboration—not only with one’s colleagues across the U.S., but also internationally.
“We’re committed to sharing the knowledge and skills required to provide the best care to trans patients all over the world,” says Dr. Hamidian Jahromi, who is a GAS fellowship-trained plastic surgeon. As a member of the Central Committee of the Certification and Mentorship Division of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH), he has traveled extensively across South America and Europe observing the state of gender-affirming care.
“Not everyone is fortunate enough to live in a country where they have adequate care and surgical access,” Dr. Hamidian Jahromi explains. “Even in America, it’s difficult for many patients to access gender-affirming care, and there are many barriers.”
But Dr. Hamidian Jahromi is working to change that—both in the U.S. and worldwide. He and his colleague, Urologist Michael Metro, MD, Director of Reconstructive Urology at Temple University Hospital and Professor of Urology at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine, recently traveled to Buenos Aires to jointly perform the first-ever penile inversion vaginoplasty in Argentina.
“Our mission is not only to help our patients, but to show the local surgeons that they have the skills they need to perform these procedures independently in the future,” Dr. Hamidian Jahromi explains. “We even had one of their plastic surgeons come to Temple and spend a month observing us, as well as other colleagues come from Uruguay so they could learn how to start a gender-affirming care center in their country.”
Implementing Innovative Techniques
Dr. Hamidian Jahromi’s record of international collaboration goes back years. “After completing my GAS fellowship, I spent about eight weeks at three leading European gender affirmation surgery programs learning from the surgeons there,” he recalls. “This type of partnership, in terms of the exchange of skills and knowledge, has continued over the last two and a half years that I’ve been at Temple. It’s crucial to make sure that we keep ourselves up-to-date with changes in surgeries and advancements in techniques.”
Dr. Hamidian Jahromi is also committed to learning new techniques from his colleagues closer to home. “We’re one of only a handful of programs in the country performing robotic-assisted peritoneal flap vaginoplasty: a newer, more minimally-invasive alternative to traditional penile inversion vaginoplasty,” he says. “This is something we just started doing at Temple, and that we learned from our colleagues at NYU, who pioneered the technique. We traveled there to observe them, and after studying the fundamentals and seeing what infrastructure we’d need to put into place, we’ve now been able to perform six or seven of these cases here at Temple. Our GAS team is fortunate to be able to work with Randall A. Lee, MD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Urology, who has joined Temple University Hospital and assists with the robotic portion of these vaginoplasty procedures.”
Investing in an Exceptional Team
Just as Dr. Hamidian Jahromi travels widely to work with other surgeons, so do other patients come from across the country to see our Gender Affirming Surgery team.
“We have a significant number of patients who come from other states for our gender-affirming care and procedures,” Dr. Hamidian Jahromi explains. “We’re very fortunate that Temple Health, and especially our Department of Surgery, have invested heavily in our program, and that we’ve been able to create a comprehensive center of GAS excellence that patients are seeking out.”
“The most important strength of our program is the exceptional quality of care we provide to our patients,” he continues. “That success is only possible through teamwork and collaboration from a highly-skilled and dedicated group of colleagues who take a multidisciplinary approach to patient care. I’m fortunate to work closely with Laura M. Douglass, MD, Assistant Professor of Urology at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine, and a fellowship-trained reconstructive urologist. Through this collaboration, we’ve been able to expand our program, and address a wide spectrum of GAS surgeries at Temple.”
“Having a dedicated and experienced mental health provider like Jeffrey Grand, PsyD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine, on site has also been essential,” Dr. Hamidian Jahromi says. “Dexter Rose, LSW, Program Manager for the Gender Affirming Surgery Program, has a strong relationship with the Philadelphia LGBTQ+ community, and has played a crucial role in building trust between trans community members and our clinicians, educating our nursing staff and employees, and collaborating with other mental health providers and trans healthcare centers. We’ve also been able to expand our GAS family in the past several years, with the addition of Sonya Gross, PA-C, Annika Michaels, RN, and Administrative Coordinator Estelle Lysell.
Dr. Hamidian Jahromi’s goal is to make comprehensive, high-quality gender affirming-care like that which we provide at Temple Health available to patients around the world. “I want the same investments Temple has made to become the norm for every center, not only in the U.S., but across the globe,” he says. “That’s what we get closer to each time we collaborate internationally.”