Referrals for Gender Affirming Surgery
Please note: We believe that patients should be free to choose the surgeon that is right for them. Pre-approval for OHIP-covered surgeries is NOT required to refer a patient to Catalyst Surgical.
Referrals for gender affirming surgery falls into several categories. Please note the one that applies to your patient.
We do not perform first or second assessments for OHIP pre-approval for surgery
Gender Affirming Facial Surgery (Facial Feminization, or Facial Masculinization)
We are accepting all referrals for gender affirming facial surgery. Please note these are not OHIP covered procedures. Patients may also contact Catalyst Surgical without a referral.
Please note: Catalyst Surgical is not a hospital site and lack resources for back-up ICU or general inpatient admission. Clients who have a BMI higher than 33 will be considered for surgery at the Catalyst facility after additional anesthesia consultation with our anesthesiologists.
Top Surgery
Patients WITH OHIP Approval for Top Surgery (Mastectomy, Augmentation, or non-flat Top Surgery):
We are currently accepting limited referrals for partially covered OHIP top surgery. Chest contouring is required at this time. If this is beyond your patient’s resources, we advise referral to another surgeon until we have a clearer picture of our funding resources.
OHIP Patients WITHOUT OHIP Pre-approval for Top Surgery:
Until our funding situation becomes more clear, we will accept referrals for information consultations only, without a commitment for surgery at this time.
Patients looking to self-pay for Top Surgery:
We are currently accepting all referrals including self-referral for self-pay top surgery, including breast/chest augmentation and mastectomy option.
Please note: Catalyst Surgical is not a hospital site and lack resources for back-up ICU or general inpatient admission. Clients who have a BMI higher than 33 will be considered for surgery at the Catalyst facility after additional anesthesia consultation with our anesthesiologists.
Other Gender Affirming Surgeries
We are accepting all referrals for gender affirming body contouring and related surgeries. Please note these are not OHIP covered procedures. Patients may also contact Catalyst Surgical without a referral.
Please note: Catalyst Surgical is not a hospital site and lack resources for back-up ICU or general inpatient admission. Clients who have a BMI higher than 33 will be considered for surgery at the Catalyst facility after additional anesthesia consultation with our anesthesiologists.
Information consultations for OHIP patients at any pre-surgical stage for any gender affirming surgery anywhere in the world other than Toronto:
We perform information consultations for clients contemplating or planning surgery including mastectomy (keyhole, periareolar, double incision, inverted T, various pedicles), breast augmentation, body contouring affirmation, facial feminization, vaginoplasty (“zero-depth”, penile inversion, colon-lining, peritoneal pull-through), phalloplasty (radial forearm flap, ALT flap, latissiumus flap), metoidoplasty, clitoral release). This is a service we offer as access to the operating surgeon is not always convenient or possible, and having questions answered by a fellowship-trained gender surgeon can assist in pre-surgical planning and preparation.
Please contact us at info@catalystsurgical.ca for more information.
Post-surgical support consultations for patients returning from gender-affirming surgery from outside Ontario:
We have limited resources to perform surgical follow-up for clients who have had surgery outside Ontario. This is a service we perform due to the overall lack of resources and expertise in Ontario relative to other centres in the world. These referrals require substantially more information than regular referrals and require at least phone contact with the referring physician to create a collaborative relationship. Referrals for post-operative follow-up should ideally be made prior to surgery as a preference.
Please contact us at info@catalystsurgical.ca for more information