The Ministry of Health recently created the “Gender Affirming (Genital) Surgery Service” to help trans people access publicly funded gender affirming genital reconstruction surgery. There is only one surgeon in New Zealand who can perform these surgeries, and the funding is limited. The average wait time for publicly funded surgery is 10-13 years.
The specific types of reconstruction surgery available include surgery to construct a penis (metoidioplasty or phalloplasty) and surgery to construct a vagina and vulva (vaginoplasty).