San Francisco
2299 Post St. Suite 207
San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 530-5335
Los Angeles
1317 5th St #300
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 751-5886
Thomas Satterwhite, MD, is a fellowship-trained, board-certified plastic surgeon in San Francisco and the founder of Align Surgical Associates. He specializes in both feminizing and masculinizing gender-affirming surgery for transgender, nonbinary, and gender-diverse patients, with deep expertise honed over thousands of procedures.
As both surgeon and founder, Dr. Satterwhite has helped cement Align’s reputation for clinical excellence, field-shaping research, and compassion. Through his work with the LGBTQIA2S+ community, he has created an affirming culture of care at Align: one that respects each person’s lived experience and understands that patients cannot be reduced to categories, assumptions, or fixed surgical pathways.
Explore Surgical Options with Dr. Satterwhite
Credentials At A Glance
Education & Training
- Fellowship – Craniofacial Surgery, Miami Children’s Hospital/South Miami Hospital
- Residency — Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Stanford University Medical Center
- Doctor of Medicine (MD) — Stanford University School of Medicine
- Undergraduate — Stanford University
Credentials
- Board Certification – American Board of Plastic Surgery
- Licensure — Physician’s and Surgeon’s License, Medical Board of California
Professional Affiliations
- World Professional Association for Transgender Health
- United States Professional Association for Transgender Health
- American Society of Plastic Surgeons
- The Aesthetic Society
- California Society of Plastic Surgeons
- American Medical Association
A Foundation in Plastic, Reconstructive, and Craniofacial Surgery
Stanford-trained from day one, Dr. Satterwhite completed his undergraduate, medical school, and residency training at one of the most prestigious universities and medical centers in the United States.
Following his time at Stanford University, Dr. Satterwhite pursued advanced fellowship training in craniofacial surgery, deepening his experience with the skeletal and soft-tissue anatomy involved in complex facial reconstruction.
This background gives Dr. Satterwhite a surgical foundation that is especially relevant to gender-affirming care: the precision of plastic surgery, the problem-solving mindset of reconstruction, and the facial skeletal expertise of craniofacial work.
Together, these disciplines inform how he plans procedures across the face, chest, body, and genital anatomy with careful attention to both form and function.
Creating a Different Model for Gender-Affirming Surgical Care
When Dr. Satterwhite first began working with transgender patients, he had no idea of the profound impact it would have on his life and work. His experiences reshaped how he thought about surgery, identity, and the responsibility of caring for people whose needs have too often been minimized, misunderstood, or treated as secondary.
In founding Align Surgical Associates, Dr. Satterwhite has created a practice where gender-affirming surgery is not treated as an add-on to general plastic surgery, but as a dedicated field requiring technical depth, careful listening, and respect for the full context of each patient’s life.
For Dr. Satterwhite, gender-affirming surgery is never just about completing a procedure. It is about creating a setting where patients can speak openly about their embodiment goals, participate actively in surgical planning, and receive care that treats their priorities as essential to the process.
Special Clinical Interests
Dr. Satterwhite’s clinical interests reflect the breadth of his surgical practice and the areas where his experience, training, and research come together most meaningfully. His work spans a broad range of gender-affirming procedures, supporting masculinizing, feminizing, and nonbinary embodiment goals.
Facial Feminization Surgery
Dr. Satterwhite has performed more than 400 facial feminization surgeries, drawing on his fellowship training under internationally respected craniofacial surgeon, Dr. S. Anthony Wolfe. His approach is shaped by a deep understanding of facial proportions, skeletal structure, and how facial features influence gender perception.
He has also contributed extensively to research on quality-of-life outcomes after facial feminization surgery, helping evaluate how surgery may affect patients’ confidence, comfort, and daily experience.
Facial Masculinization Surgery
Facial masculinization surgery requires the same craniofacial precision as facial feminization, but with a different set of structural and aesthetic goals. Dr. Satterwhite uses his background in plastic, reconstructive, and craniofacial surgery to plan changes that support a more masculine facial impression while still preserving balance, proportion, and individuality.
Top Surgery
Top surgery can affect some of the most ordinary parts of daily life, from how clothing fits to how the chest feels during movement. Dr. Satterwhite has performed more than 1,000 gender-affirming chest reconstruction procedures, planning each one with close attention to contour, scar placement, nipple-areolar positioning when applicable, and the patient’s priorities for shape, visibility, and comfort.
Feminizing Body Surgery
Having performed more than 500 gender-affirming body contouring procedures, Dr. Satterwhite understands that feminizing body surgery is rarely about changing one area in isolation. He evaluates how the waist, hips, abdomen, and lower body relate to one another so each contour change supports a softer, more feminine silhouette.
Breast Augmentation (Chest Feminization)
For feminizing chest surgery, Dr. Satterwhite plans breast augmentation around the realities of transfeminine chest anatomy, including chest width, skin envelope, nipple position, and the way implant shape will sit on each patient’s frame. He brings expertise honed over hundreds of chest surgeries to create natural, proportionate results.
Masculinizing Body Surgery
Masculinizing body surgery often depends on subtle changes in proportion: reducing curvature, defining the torso, and creating a straighter visual line through the waist and hips. Dr. Satterwhite brings extensive gender-affirming surgical experience to these decisions, helping patients understand which contour changes are likely to make the most meaningful difference for their anatomy.
Dr. Satterwhite’s work in this area is not based on a fixed idea of masculinity. Rather, it is shaped by proportion, surgical judgment, and the patient’s own embodiment goals.
Vaginoplasty
Dr. Satterwhite has performed more than 800 penile inversion vaginoplasty procedures, with expertise in other gender-affirming bottom surgery techniques. This area of care has also shaped some of his most important long-term outcomes research, examining patient satisfaction, complications, and surgical refinement over time. Dr. Satterwhite is highly experienced in revision procedures to optimize both aesthetic and functional outcomes, taking a tailored, patient-specific approach to gender-affirming bottom surgery.
Dr. Satterwhite’s evidence-informed perspective supports more transparent patient counseling. It reflects one of the defining themes of his career: using outcomes data honestly to improve surgical care and help patients understand what recovery and long-term results can involve.
Helping Shape the Research Standards for Gender-Affirming Care
Dr. Satterwhite has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications, contributed to more than 12 book chapters, and delivered more than 100 national and international conference presentations. His research has focused heavily on outcomes in gender-affirming surgery, including long-term outcomes in penile inversion vaginoplasty and quality-of-life findings after facial feminization surgery.
Dr. Satterwhite’s role in the research community also includes evaluating which studies meet the standards for publication and professional discussion. He serves as a peer reviewer for respected journals, including Plastic and Aesthetic Research, Journal of Translational Andrology and Urology, Aesthetic Surgery Journal, and Journal of Transgender Health.
In addition, Dr. Satterwhite was selected to serve as an editorial board member for the Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and has been selected as an associate editor for the Transgender Health journal.
Through this combination of clinical research, peer review, teaching, and outcomes measurement, Dr. Satterwhite has helped shape how modern gender-affirming surgery is studied, taught, and discussed.
Centering the Patient’s Voice in Surgical Outcomes
Long-term success in gender-affirming surgery cannot be measured by surgical technique alone. It also matters how patients describe their comfort, function, quality of life, confidence, and experience of care over time.
Dr. Satterwhite has contributed to the development and implementation of the GENDER-Q, a major international effort to create validated patient-reported outcomes tools for gender-affirming care. These tools give patients a structured way to report what their results and experiences mean in their own lives, while helping surgeons, researchers, and health systems evaluate care from the patient’s perspective rather than relying only on surgeon-defined measures.
Dr. Satterwhite’s commitment to gender-affirming surgery extends to how the field is taught, shared, and carried forward. As an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor in the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine, he has taught residents, medical students, surgeons, and other trainees interested in this work.
Dr. Satterwhite is a leader within the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the United States Professional Association for Transgender Health (USPATH). These two organizations bring together clinicians, researchers, and educators to advance gender-affirming care. He has been selected 3 times to serve as conference co-chair for these organizations, an uncommon distinction that reflects his national and international recognition.
His memberships in plastic surgery and medical societies, including the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, The Aesthetic Society, the California Society of Plastic Surgeons, and the American Medical Association, reflect Dr. Satterwhite’s continued engagement with the surgical profession more broadly.
Dr. Satterwhite has also served in scientific, educational, and leadership roles for major professional meetings, including invited keynote and faculty speaking roles. Through teaching, mentorship, and professional collaboration, he helps make specialized knowledge about gender-affirming surgery more accessible to the patients, clinicians, and trainees who depend on it.
Care Rooted in Authentic Connection
Compassion, empathy, and authenticity are central to who Dr. Satterwhite is as a surgeon. His lived experience as a gay, multiracial Black and Filipino plastic surgeon informs the way he connects with people from diverse identities and communities, including patients who may have had to navigate healthcare systems that did not always listen to or understand them.
In patient conversations, Dr. Satterwhite brings that perspective into the room through careful listening, honest guidance, and respect for the deeply personal nature of surgical decision-making. He wants patients to feel heard not only as surgical candidates, but as people with their own histories, priorities, questions, and hopes for the future.
Selected Media and Recognition
Dr. Satterwhite’s recognition reflects the breadth of his work as a surgeon, researcher, educator, and public voice in gender-affirming care. Highlights include:
- St. Francis Foundation Health Care Hero — Recognition honoring Dr. Satterwhite’s contributions to patient care and community health in San Francisco.
- California Society of Plastic Surgeons’ Best Resident Paper — An early academic recognition reflecting Dr. Satterwhite’s long-standing commitment to research and surgical education.
- ABC7, Marin Independent Journal, and Oakland North — Media coverage featuring Dr. Satterwhite’s perspective on gender-affirming surgery, patient care, and transgender health in the Bay Area.
- Transcendent docuseries — A media appearance connected to public storytelling around transgender lives, healthcare, and community visibility.
Together, these distinctions reflect the range of Dr. Satterwhite’s work: clinical care, research, education, public visibility, and advocacy for a better understanding of gender-affirming surgery.
Featured Publications
The following publications highlight several throughlines in Dr. Satterwhite’s academic work, including long-term outcomes, patient-reported experience, and evidence-based improvement in gender-affirming surgery.
- Development and Assessment of a Patient-Reported Outcome Instrument for Gender-Affirming Care — JAMA Network Open, 2025
- Facial Masculinization Surgery — chapter in Gender Affirming Surgery of the Face and Neck, Springer, 2025
- Prospective Quality of Life Outcomes After Facial Feminization Surgery: An International Multi-Center Study — Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 2020
- Breast Augmentation in Transgender Women: Technical Considerations and Outcomes — JPRAS Open, 2019
- Lower Jaw Recontouring in Facial Gender-Affirming Surgery — Facial Plastic Surgery Clinics of North America, 2019
- Predictors of Patient Satisfaction and Post-Operative Complications in Penile Inversion Vaginoplasty — Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 2018
- International Phase I Study Protocol to Develop a Patient-Reported Outcome Measure for Adolescents and Adults Receiving Gender-Affirming Treatments (the GENDER-Q) — BMJ Open, 2018
- Patient-Reported Outcomes in Gender Confirming Surgery — Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 2017
Explore more of Dr. Satterwhite’s research contributions and related publications on our Research page or see the full list.
Beyond the Operating Room
Outside of surgery, Dr. Satterwhite is a husband and father with wide-ranging interests, including snake husbandry, carnivorous plants, fashion, weightlifting, pickleball, running, and tattoo collecting. Many of his tattoos are inspired by his love of Hawaii and reflect his appreciation for storytelling, symbolism, and the body as a meaningful personal canvas.
Request a Consultation
With Dr. Satterwhite
To meet with Dr. Satterwhite, request an in-person or virtual consultation using the online form or call Align Surgical Associates at (415) 530-5335. Dr. Satterwhite offers gender-affirming facial, chest, body, and bottom surgery for patients at our San Francisco office.