Marci Bowers, M.D. of Burlingame, California, is acknowledged as a pioneer in the field of Gender Affirmation Surgery and is the first woman worldwide to hold a personal transgender history while performing transgender surgery. She is also the first US surgeon to learn the technique of functional clitoral restoration after Female Genital Mutilation/cutting (FGM/c).
Dr. Bowers is a pelvic and gynecologic surgeon with more than 29 years’ experience in Women’s Healthcare. She is a University of Minnesota Medical School graduate and former class and student body president. Her Ob/Gyn was at the the University of Washington. She continued in Seattle as an Obstetrician/Gynecologist at The Polyclinic and Swedish Medical Center, then joined Dr. Stanley Biber in Trinidad, Colorado in 2003, redefining US transgender surgery.
When Dr. Bowers began performing gender affirming surgeries, she unfortunately arrived in Trinidad too late to learn the Phalloplasty technique from Dr. Biber. Dr. Biber had among the largest series and many of the best examples of phalloplasties. That said, donor site scars were not ideal. Dr. Bowers sought techniques that would utilize the locally grown, organic aspects of penile growth on testosterone and looked towards Metoidioplasty. No one was willing or able to teach these techniques to Dr. Bowers at the time so she invented them. Based upon knowledge gleaned from her 17 years as a gynecologist at the time, she fashioned a penis from the enlarged clitoris, freeing it from the labial attachments and creating a decent looking penis. Many refinements later, the Simple Metoidioplasty was born.
For the Ring Metoidioplasty (with urethral extension), Dr. Bowers first met Dr. Ako Takamatsu while speaking at WPATH in Chicago in 2007. Dr. Takamatsu, a Japanese plastic surgeon, had developed a Meta technique that included a urinary hookup by mobilizing flaps from the inner labia and the anterior vagina, to create a functional urethra within the meta, allowing men the chance to stand while urinating. Most current Phalloplasty techniques no longer include a urinary hookup, seemingly an antithetical concept to those seeking a penis. Naturally, the concept of a functional, personally sensate phallus grown locally was appealing to Dr. Bowers. Dr. Takamatsu graciously flew to Trinidad, Colorado in July 2008. During that visit, Dr. Bowers then performed the first US Ring Meta. Dr. Christine McGinn was able to assist in the surgery and the rest, so to speak, is history. Dr. Bowers updated and expanded our transmasculine surgical offerings following a 12-day fellowship to Belgrade, Serbia and the Belgrade Gender team in August 2014.
Between 2007 and 2009, Dr. Bowers parlayed her pelvic surgery expertise by learning from noted French surgeon, Dr. Pierre Foldes, the technique of functional clitoral restoration for women who have suffered Female Genital Mutilation/cutting (FGM/c). Dr. Bowers has now performed more than 500 clitoral restorations in the US. She has also led medical missions to Burkina Faso (2014) and Nairobi, Kenya (2017 and 2019). She has also become a regional expert in aesthetic vulvar surgery and has many years’ history working with gynecologic issues across the full spectrum.
She spent several years in practice in Trinidad, Colorado before relocating in 2010 to the San Francisco Bay Area and has performed more than 2000 primary Gender Affirming Vaginoplasty surgeries. In 2014, Dr. Bowers was hired to resuscitate the transgender surgical program at Sheba Hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel. Additionally, she initiated transgender surgical education at Mt. Sinai (New York/2016), Denver Health (2018) and Women’s College Hospital (Toronto, ON/2019).
Dr. Bowers is an elected board member of WPATH, and has served on the board of directors for both GLAAD and the Transgender Law Center. In 2018 and 2019, she performed the first live surgical vaginoplasty surgeries in WPATH-sponsored surgical educational programs at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. Her work has been highlighted by appearances on Oprah, CBS Sunday Morning, Discovery Health, Al-jazeera, and more recently, the TLC reality series, “I am Jazz.” She has been featured in numerous documentaries and new features including the Guardian, BBC, Times of London, Esquire, and many others. In addition to many accolades, Dr. Bowers is recognized as one of the 100 most influential LGBT people on the Guardian’s World Pride Power List and one of Huffington Post’s 50 Transgender Icons. And Lastly, Dr. Bowers has been called the Transgender Surgery Rock Star (Denver Post), the George O’Keefe of Genitalia and the Beyonce of Bottom Surgery (KPFK-FM in North Hollywood).
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Marci’s Quotes:
“Be kind, we all carry a heavy burden.” Unknown
“The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” Martin Luther King, 1853
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” Frederic Douglass, 1857
“There but for the grace of God, go I”, John Bradford
“Where there is diversity, there is hope.” Marci Bowers MD, 2018
“Aggression in the name of peace is aggression, not peace.” Marci Bowers MD
“Often, the most powerful weapon is restraint.” Marci Bowers MD
“There are seven human senses, not 5: sight, smell, touch, hearing, taste, spiritual and sensual.” Marci Bowers MD, 2015
“The wealth of a nation should be measured not by its riches but by how it cares for its less fortunate.” Marci Bowers MD, 2014
“Peace will remain elusive until the world adopts a more feminine face.” Marci Bowers MD, 2012
“With great causes come great enemies.” Marci Bowers MD
“Sensual feeling is a basic human sense.” Marci Bowers MD
