Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, performs its first gender-affirming surgery

Manipal, 19 June 2026; Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, has carried out its first gender-affirming surgery for a transgender woman on 10 June 2026. The surgery went well, and the patient is now recovering under the hospital team’s care. The hospital says this is an important step in its efforts to ensure every patient, no matter their background, feels welcome and well cared for.

The Plastic Surgery department at the hospital has been doing gender-affirming procedures for some time now, including facial feminization and breast augmentation, helping several transgender patients over the years. This is the first time the team has carried out a full gender-affirming genital surgery, working closely with the Urology department. The hospital sees this as the next step in a service it has been building steadily, rather than a one-off event.

Many transgender people grow up feeling that their body doesn’t match who they really are. This is different from the everyday body-image concerns many people have about their weight or appearance; it goes deeper to a person’s sense of their own gender not matching the body they were born with. Doctors call this gender dysphoria, and it can affect a person’s mental health, relationships, education, and work life, sometimes for years before they find the right help.

Gender-affirming surgery can ease this distress and help people feel more comfortable in their own skin, often making a big difference to their confidence and day-to-day life. In India, transgender people often struggle to find hospitals that treat them with respect and offer this kind of care close to home. Many travel long distances or simply go without care because they don’t feel safe or welcome. A step like this, from a well-known hospital in the region, sends a message that such care is available, and that patients don’t need to feel alone in seeking it.

The surgery was led by Dr. Joseph Thomas, Professor and Head of Plastic Surgery, and Dr. Harshavardhan Shetty, Associate Professor, along with their team. Dr. Anupam Choudhary from the Urology department was also part of the team. The surgery took several hours and required close coordination between the two departments. The patient is now being looked after with proper pain management, wound care, and counseling support, as part of a recovery plan that the hospital has put in place.

The team also wishes to acknowledge the contribution of all departments involved at Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, whose collective effort and shared knowledge made this procedure possible here for the first time.

“Most patients who come to us for this surgery have waited a long time, sometimes years, to feel comfortable in their own body,” said Dr. Joseph Thomas. “This surgery needs careful planning, and the teamwork across departments here at Kasturba Hospital made a big difference to how smoothly things went.

But beyond the surgical approach, what matters just as much is how we prepare patients before the operation, understanding what they’ve been through, making sure they know what to expect physically and emotionally, and continuing that support all the way through recovery. When a patient tells us they finally feel like themselves, that’s when we know it was all worth it, for them and for us.”

The Plastic Surgery team also thanked Dr. Anupam Choudhary and the Urology department for their roles in making the surgery a success, noting that this kind of teamwork between departments made the procedure possible at the hospital for the first time.

“For patients going through this, surgery is only one step in their care journey,” said Dr. Sudhakar Kantipudi, Chief Operating Officer, MAHE Teaching Hospitals. “They also need privacy, someone to talk to, and a place where they won’t feel judged from the first visit to long after they’ve gone home. That means training our staff across departments to care for these patients without making them feel singled out. This isn’t a one-time thing for us; it’s part of how we want to treat every patient who walks through our doors, including those who’ve often found it hard to get this kind of care elsewhere.