Marketing in a Transgender World

Gender affirming surgery affects all aspects of physician and patient communication unlike any other procedures in the aesthetic/elective surgery field. This chapter takes surgeons through the process for how to successfully add gender affirming facial and body surgery into their practice and how to develop a marketing strategy to reach patients who want this type of surgical transformation. As plastic surgeons pursue their interest in serving the needs of this patient demographic, they will need to prepare themselves and their staff on how to provide customer service while creating internal and external marketing messages that are supportive and encouraging. Learning and understanding the sensitivity of these patients and how to adapt to new pronouns requires some new ways of communicating. Promoting services that alter one’s gender and identity are very different from marketing breast augmentation and facelifts. Deciding how to advertise and carving out a space on your website that is not hidden from the rest of your consumer base requires some exploration prior to launching gender affirming surgery.