Your Guide to Facial Feminization Surgery

Forehead Feminization

In response to elevated testosterone levels during puberty, the brow area of the face and forehead often change dramatically. The bone at the brow becomes thicker and raised, and the upper portion of the eye sockets also become more hooded. This produces a more typically male appearance to this area of the face–the low-set brow and shaded-eye look.

Of all of the FFS procedures, forehead feminization is one of the most powerful tools in creating a more feminine facial appearance for two reasons. One, the bony changes during puberty are some of the most pronounced compared to other bony changes in the face. Two, this part of the face that has the most attention on it when people interact with you, since eye contact is one of the most important aspects of social interaction. 

Changing the bone structure of the forehead and eye sockets to be more similar to the bone structure before the effects of testosterone has some of the most dramatic results in overall facial appearance and gender perception. 

At Catalyst Surgical, we use Facialteam’s patented FOREContour® method. 

Jaw Angle Feminization

The area from the angle of your jaw to just before your chin can be an area of dysphoria. While a jaw angle on its own isn’t inherently masculine or feminine, how it relates in proportion to the other dimensions of your face can produce a more masculine or feminine appearance overall.

Angularity alone is not sufficient to produce an overall masculine appearance – some of the world’s most known beautiful women have very angular and defined jawlines, but within proportion to the rest of their face. Reducing or addressing these sharper lines can help to produce a more feminine appearance overall, as softer lines tend to code more easily as feminine than sharp or angular ones.

To accurately produce lasting results, we use Facialteam´s advanced method called JAWContour®.

Chin Feminization

In more masculine-appearing faces, the chin tends to be wider and more angular than feminine-appearing faces. While not strictly “masculine”, longer chins (the distance between the lower lip and the tip of the chin) tend to be less-associated with feminine beauty.

Chin feminization is used to reduce the width and angularity of the chin, and in cases where there is excessive height, can be used to make the chin area more proportional to the face overall. Chin surgery can also help with problems people have with over or under projection (often referred to as “strong” when over projected or “weak” when underprojected). 

Nose Feminization

In isolation, it is difficult to say if a nose appears more masculine or feminine. It is only in relation to the rest of the face that nasal appearance tends to move a facial appearance towards one direction or the other. Because the nose is central to the face, it also plays a central role in how you look. It links your upper face to your lower face and draws attention on its own because you don’t have a right nose and a left nose.

Rhinoplasty is one of the most challenging of plastic surgery procedures because two-thirds of it isn’t bone, therefore results are not as predictable as bony procedures. It is also a three-dimensional structure where changing one dimension also changes all of the other dimensions, adjusting one thing that makes someone unhappy can also change something that doesn’t cause distress. 

A nose that is not harmonious with the rest of the face can look unappealing. And once certain masculine features are feminized, the nose can look out of proportion. For this reason, when considering a more feminine face, rhinoplasty is a powerful tool in creating an overall balanced look.

For nose feminization, we use Facialteam’s REVONose® method. We perform nose feminization using tested ultrasonic techniques that minimize soft-tissue trauma, hence improving the healing process and final result.

Adam’s Apple Reduction

The Adam’s apple is one of the most well-known “stigma” of a masculine appearance. This is despite the fact that many assigned-female-at-birth individuals can also have a more prominent Adam’s apple. However, exposure to testosterone can enlarge this cartilage more than what most people would consider as falling within the “feminine range”. 

The Adam’s apple is made up of cartilage overlying the thyroid gland, called the thyroid cartilage. The procedure name “tracheal shave” is actually slang as the operation does not alter the trachea (or windpipe) at all. Reducing the thyroid cartilage at its more prominent part (well above the vocal cords) can have dramatic results in helping transfeminine folks avoid misgendering. 

We use Facialteam’s method, TContour®, for tracheal shaves. This procedure involves an incision in a skin crease just under the chin to hide possible scarring. We identify the area of the thyroid cartilage that needs to be shaved. We do not make incisions on the front surface of the neck.

Lip Feminization

Fuller and rounder lips tend to be associated more with femininity. The illusion of fullness is achieved by creating a little bit of tooth show when the mouth is relaxed, creating a very slight “pout”. This procedure is called a “lip lift” to both raise and “pout out” the upper lip just slightly, as lower and thinner lips tend to be more associated with a masculine, or at least not-feminine appearance. It can be combined with lip augmentation if insufficient on its own.

Our technique, developed by Facialteam, is unique because it takes advantage of your natural creases to hide scarring.