FrankTalk.org

Hi All,

Trying to weigh up who I should consider for an implant in the UK?

Thanks
Gollam121

I'm in exactly the same situation as you and my sights are locked on Evangelos Zacharakis. Fee is in the region of £13k and feedback from other patients here has been good (although there aren't a large number of reports sadly). Are you self-paying or has the NHS allowed you to choose your surgeon?

Hi Seeking,

I would I think only go with Mr David Ralph who performs about 300 implants per year at the UCHL. He runs a centre of excellence and has a very good young team around him. He also works closely with AMS.

Regards
Gollam121

NHS for me, I can wait

I had mine done by Mr Ralph. He seems a very highly esteemed surgeon and does do loads of implants so knows his stuff. However he did mine and I'm having to go back in for a revision as the implant doesn't go into the glans at all on the left side and on the right it's just barely in there. Also the bracketing towards the base is too high up so needs to be lowered down. Maybe I'm just a rare case where it just didn't go right. He mentioned something about scarring due to my prostate op but don't quite get why this would affect the inside of my penis?? It's now curving to the right badly and I never had a curve before ever.

A member called Irishguy who is now sadly inactive had a similar complaint after surgery with Dr. Ralph where the cylinders didn't protrude fully into the glands and in general it doesn't sound like success at all. Of course, there are other members who have had positive experiences with Dr. Ralph.

I guess my main concern isn't the surgeon but the NHS philosophy of "that'll do - it works now don't it?" without really considering the broader picture that someone needs to live with this thing. I can't see an NHS surgeon being particularly concerned about things like post-op size reduction and the like. But then again, self-pay is very expensive.

I know what you mean-there's no way I could afford to go down the self funding route. I get exactly what you mean about 'well it works doesn't it-get in with it' and even more so that I didn't have to pay for it. But you go through all that pain it needs to be spot on at the end of it all. I'd rather go through all the pain again to get a whole new implant put in place.

I'll know more my end in the 26th when I go to see them. Would people on this forum recommend I don't accept the RTE route and insist on longer implants? That's my feeling anyway. I don't want the hinge effect and as size wasn't on my side in the first place every little cm makes a huge difference. Blood doesn't flow to my glans and I've been told at uclh that this has nothing to do with how far up the implant goes into my glans but all the research on this forum says exactly the opposite. I'm hoping after my revision it's a lot better anyway.

Good luck with choosing a surgeon in the U.K. Are there any others to choose from?? Choice is a bit limited here innit :-/