Dear WIH Hospital,

At my follow-up appointment with Dr. Chettawut earlier this month, he asked me to write a review of his work and WIH Hospital. 

This is a very long review and I apologize for the delay. 

I wasn’t sure how to make it shorter, but if you would like me to, I would be happy to try to revise it.

Sincerely,

I first learned of Dr. Chettawut’s work in 2007, from a close friend of mine who had SRS done by him that year.  I was able to get SRS performed by him in 2008. 

My only regrets are not having transitioned earlier and not having made his acquaintance earlier.

The medical care provided by him and his team was absolutely top-notch.  The surgery result was amazing. 

I had full sensation after about 2 weeks (which may be faster than normal). 

I have internal muscle control. 

Dr. Chettawut placed the sutures so that all the scars look like natural anatomy.

After my return to the US, I had a small complication, which Dr. Chettawut could not have expected. 

My doctor in New York was not competent or willing to assist with this and I had to get a new doctor. 

Dr. Chettawut, upon learning of the complication, immediately advised my new doctor about what to do and the complication cleared up pretty quickly.

(This complication was some minor abrasion to the labiaplasty which didn’t heal up, despite my healing going faster than expected while I was in Bangkok. 

I attribute this to living in New York City.  In NYC it’s normal to get around by walking and by public transit. 

There’s a lot of going up and down stairs, etc.  In hindsight, Dr. Chettawut almost certainly would have given me some advice about this before I left Bangkok.  But he had no way of anticipating this problem, and I didn’t think of it while I was in Bangkok.)

In other words, Dr. Chettawut remained my doctor even when I was 9,000 miles away in New York, and was there to help however he could when my American doctor let me down.

In March 2023, I had FFS done by Dr. Chettawut at his new hospital, WIH International Hospital.  The procedures were:

• Trachea shave
• Full face and neck lift
• Feminizing rhinoplasty
• Brow contouring and brow lift
• Upper and lower eyelid surgery
• Upper lip lift
• Cheek implants
• Chin implant

This was a lot of surgery.  Dr. Chettawut did everything in two days.

A friend of mine from high school, who is an RN, could not detect the scars on my face even though she knew where to look for them, and even though she knew what I looked like before.

I think this speaks volumes about Dr. Chettawut’s surgical skills and the artistic focus in his work.  I myself went to art school and Dr. Chettawut is not only an outstanding doctor, but also an artist of the highest caliber.

I currently live in Massachusetts.  The Boston area has been famous for its doctors and medical facilities for well over a century. 

I am sure there are surgeons in the Boston area who can do the procedures Dr. Chettawut did for me. I am sure that they are very good at what they do.  However, I would be very surprised if any one of them can do the full range of things that Dr. Chettawut does with the same extremely high-quality results, the same level of efficiency, or the same level of post-operative care that he consistently provides.  

So I could have had all of this done a lot closer to home. But I probably would have had to go to more than one doctor, and while the results might be just as good, I could not expect the results to be better than what Dr. Chettawut did.  And some results from some Massachusetts doctors likely would not be as good as Dr. Chettawut’s work, but I wouldn’t be able to know that until after the fact, when it would be too late.  SRS and FFS have not been practiced widely in the US until recently.

But Dr. Chettawut has over 25 years experience.  He really knows what he’s doing.

Coordinating surgery, post-operative care, and followup would also have been a major challenge in Massachusetts.  This is one significant advantage to getting surgery from Dr. Chettawut.  He and WIH Hospital make everything streamlined.  The efficiency, speed of communication, availability of staff to answer questions, etc., is amazing, and they make it look completely effortless.  I’ve never encountered this level of professionalism, efficiency, and effectiveness of patient care at any medical facility in the US.  I honestly don’t know how they do it, but they do it.

At the time of this writing (July 2023) I am in Bangkok for unrelated reasons.  I had a very small complication from my FFS, so I reached out to Dr. Chettawut about this. 

He created time in his schedule for me the very next day. 

This would have been IMPOSSIBLE if I had had the surgery done in the US.  In the US, it would have been a couple of months, at least, to get an appointment for my surgeon to look at the complication. 

Of course, Dr. Chettawut might not be able to do this in every circumstance – his schedule is usually pretty full.  But I’m sure that, even if he hadn’t been able to meet with me so quickly, he would have communicated with me ASAP and given me the information I needed to deal with it.

Costs in the US, especially in places like New York and Massachusetts, also would have been higher. 

In 2008, most US health insurance plans did not cover SRS.  Today, a lot of plans do cover it, but still do not cover some FFS procedures, which are often considered purely cosmetic and therefore unnecessary. 

In my case, my insurance would have covered some of my FFS in the US, but not two of the specific procedures that were really important. 

Fortunately, I was able to pay out of pocket to go to Dr. Chettawut (US insurance plans almost never pay for anything outside of the country).

Having said all that, it’s possible that an insurance company can try to deny coverage for something even if it’s listed in your plan as being covered. 

And just because your insurance plan provides coverage, it doesn’t mean that the surgeon you want to go to will accept what your insurance is willing to pay.  These are important things to be aware of as well, and all of these considerations helped confirm my decision to go to Dr. Chettawut for FFS, despite paying out of pocket.

(As an aside, I believe that getting SRS and/or FFS should always be a personal choice, and that trans women are inherently beautiful and don’t need any surgical procedures to make ourselves legitimate, more real, etc.  However, SRS and FFS were the right decisions for me personally. 

Health insurance companies should view these procedures as necessary if there would be a clear benefit to the patient. 

I believe that it is fundamentally discriminatory to deny coverage for these procedures.)

Dr. Chettawut’s practice has consistently provided a more affordable and high-quality option for these procedures. 

For me personally, this has been life-saving – literally – especially given how the health care “system” in the US has so often discriminated against me and other trans people.  These procedures are expensive, but with Dr. Chettawut, you’ll likely be paying less than you would with an American surgeon.  With Dr. Chettawut, you get more than what you pay for, and his commitment to you is unquestionably sincere.

You can rely on an outstanding outcome from a team that really believes in you, their patient. 

In some of my conversations with Dr. Chettawut and the nursing staff, it’s just so obvious that this is more than a business to them, that they really care personally about each and every one of their patients.  

I’ve heard a few bad stories about patients in the US having to get revisions, or dealing with doctors who won’t help if there’s a post-operative complication, including in Massachusetts. 

This is absolutely never going to be a problem for you with Dr. Chettawut and WIH Hospital.  Absolutely never.

I will be going back to Dr. Chettawut for an FUT hair transplant procedure in 2024.  I wouldn’t go anywhere else. 

His cost on this is slightly more than another hospital in Bangkok, Yanhee Hospital.  But I am familiar with some of the work done at Yanhee Hospital, through a Thai trans friend who had SRS and FFS there, and Yanhee does not do nearly the same quality of surgery that Dr. Chettawut does.  There’s really no comparison. 

My Thai friend would agree.  And Dr. Chettawut’s price for FUT hair transplantation is significantly lower than from many US doctors.

I just turned 50, so I am due for a colonoscopy.  Scheduling this in the US was really challenging, so I reached out to WIH Hospital to ask if they could recommend anywhere to have this done in Bangkok.  I did not expect that WIH Hospital would be able to do this, that this would be outside of the medical services they offer. 

But they are able to do this, and got me an appointment without any hassle. 

I don’t think it will be Dr. Chettawut doing the colonoscopy, but he’s the CEO of WIH Hospital, so whoever does the colonoscopy will undoubtedly follow his standards.

Dr. Chettawut provided truly excellent, world-class medical care for me 15 years ago, which improved my life in more ways than I can write down here. 

He has continued to provide this extremely high quality of care over the last 15 years and he’s clearly sought ways to improve and enhance every part of his practice along the way.  As I said above, I don’t know how he and his team do it, but they do it. 

He is without question the best medical provider I’ve been to in my 50 years on this planet, and I don’t think I will ever find a better doctor than him, a better medical and administrative team than the one he’s developed, or a better hospital than WIH International Hospital.