When someone in the trans community refers to “pumping”, there are two things they may mean. Transmasculine people use suction to try to lengthen the clitoris- more info on that is here. But pumping can also refer to transfeminne people getting illegal silicone injections, which is what this post is about.
Since pumping is an issue that primarily affects low-income trans women the more affluent and mainstream trans community seems to overlook the importance of educating people on the topic. Education is needed to help trans folk know about the risks involved with pumping before someone lies and tells them that pumping is safe to take advantage of them.
“Patients who have suffered the effects of the injections say the ordeal can be embarrassing and it often deters them from seeking medical assistance quickly, causing problems to grow more severe. Sharing their story publicly often results in shaming and ridicule, especially on social media. Many of these women also have difficulty finding closure. These pumpers take advantage of clients by operating secretly and then disappearing. Unless caught, they face no consequences for the health and safety risk they pose by these injections.”
So, why would someone get illegal silicone injections? People who are disenfranchised are more likely to turn to silicone injections because they feel desperate and like they have no future. There are a few reasons: the cost is cheaper than paying for something like facial feminization surgery out of pocket if insurance doesn’t cover it, someone may want to look more feminine because of dysphoria so they’re desperate for anything that might make a difference, they may need to pass because they’re in a situation where being clocked could be dangerous, and the major reason- they aren’t informed about the risks involved and the pumpers lie to them about it being safe. There’s also peer-pressure- “Groups of people, often women, may pool their money and hire the services of someone who can inject them with silicone.”
Someone may see a woman who has been pumped and think they look good, so the injections seem enticing because complications sometimes don’t manifest problems initially so if someone isn’t informed on the risks they may not realize that while pumping can provide pleasing initial results the overall problems are not worth it. Pumpers often have been pumped themselves, and they may something like “I did it and I’m doing fine and looking hot so you should get pumped too, don’t be scared, you can look feminine and voluptuous in a day!” but over time there are many complications that can occur.
“Typically, if there isn’t an adverse effect right away - unfortunately sometimes it can result in an immediate death - then the problem will come 10 years down the line and you just have to wait and see.”
Dr. Flanigan says that many patients notice good results at the beginning. When the silicone is injected, it triggers an inflammatory reaction that causes the tissues to swell. Initially, it looks like a plump booty or enlarged breasts. Over the course of months, however, the body tries to wall off or reject the foreign substance, the swelling goes down and patients are left with hard masses or lumps on the body. It becomes difficult to sit or lay down and is hard to move around.”
Trans people, often transfeminine people of color, are being taken advantage of by pumpers who claim that their procedures are safe. People usually know that they’re doing something that isn’t above the board when they get pumped, but the pumpers claim everything is medical grade silicone and the people doing it have medical training. They may wear gloves and blue doctor scrubs to perpetuate the illusion of it being legit. The pumpers also may claim they have a connection with a doctor’s office or clinic to get medical silicone on the down-low, but in actuality they rarely if ever use medical grade silicone which is very expensive and instead use industrial silicone cut with mineral water. These lies are used to try to convince you that this is safer than it actually is, and they sometimes even use business cards to make it seem more legitimate.
“The problem with pumping is that you never actually know what’s being injected and each pumper can promise you that they are injecting medical grade silicone, but in fact it is industrial grade silicone or worse. Sometimes, what someone is injecting is industrial grade silicone mixed with baby oil or Crisco to try and loosen it up and make it stretch a little bit longer.”
“While patients may believe they are being injected with medical-grade silicone, Thomas Flanigan, MD, notes that medical silicone is not legally permitted in the United States. Even through the black market, it would be very unusual for these “pumpers” to gain access to medical-grade silicone from Canada or Mexico. So what are these unlicensed practitioners using? “Most of the time we believe they just get this from Lowe’s or Home Depot,” says Dr. Flanigan. “This silicone is used for sealing tubs, usually on tiles or around windows. It’s silicone caulking and they’re injecting that material into your body.”
The setting of the pumping is rarely a medical one. Pumpers often operate out of hotel rooms, basements or homes, and parties. Pumpers may say the pain of the procedures isn’t too bad, it can be excruciating despite the numbing agents used. They may not use sterile instruments, and the aftercare can be sketchy like using superglue on the wounds instead of medical glue. Because they aren’t licensed surgeons, they don’t know how to deal with complications and give poor advice that sometimes makes the situation worse.
“When I met Zaira, it was right before she ended up going into the hospital for an extended period of time. She is currently 42 and started pumping when she was in her early 20s and pumped throughout her 20s. Ten years after she began the procedures is when she started noticing that the silicone was turning hard and then eventually began to migrate down her legs. She had had her injections primarily in her buttocks and hips and she first started doing the injections because she wanted to fully transition, but did not have the money to afford a licensed surgeon.”
Silicone placed too close to the surface of the skin can extrude out, which means it pushes out of the skin and becomes exposed. For Kendall, the aftereffects of being pumped included inflammation, sharp pains, pins and needles, severe dermatitis, hard spots and lumps, silicone migration, muscle necrosis, constant itching, permanent numbness in the area where the silicone was injected. Infection is also a risk, and can cause tissue necrosis and scarring among other things.
“If injected in the muscle, it can cause pain and damage to the body’s tissue. Sometimes it will cause infection. If you get it too close to the blood supply of the muscle it can even cause death of the muscle. If injected in the subcutaneous tissue, it will not allow the overlying skin to survive. If injected into a blood vessel, the silicone may be dispersed throughout the entire body and, similar to a blood clot, cause a heart attack or stroke which could lead to death.”
“Zaria wasn’t able to sit for very long periods of time because it caused her too much pain. Likewise, she also had difficulty sleeping because she had to keep maneuvering. She couldn’t walk for very long stretches because she would get dizzy quickly. So those are some of the things that plague her on a daily basis. And she was just chronically in pain from the waist down.“
The silicone you get pumped in will need to come out at some point because it isn’t safe, and the surgeries to remove it can cause additional numbness and complications. Kendall had to spend over $65,000 getting the silicone removed from her face, chest, and butt when it became dangerous to her health to keep it. She went from having a large chest from hormones and pumping to being entirely flat because the silicone in her chest became dangerous and she ended up needing a double mastectomy, and she needed to stop hormones during the whole surgical process. The surgeons managed to save her nipples, but other women weren’t as lucky. During her double mastectomy, a lump of the silicone burst open and started to eat through her tissue like an acid. After the surgery they did a test and the material that had been pumped in her was not medical grade silicone like she had been promised by the pumper. The surgeon told her that she was lucky because some women who they had operated on had black liquid in their chests because the material had broken down, and it can get into the kidneys and cause kidney failure which requires dialysis or a kidney transplant. Then she had to have tissue expanders put in her chest to stretch the tissue out so she could get safe implants put in. Next they’ll have to cut through her mouth to get to the silicone in her chin, and the surgery risks losing sensation and the potential for some facial expressions. The process of going through these surgeries can be time consuming and mentally exhausting, and many people experience depression and an increase in dysphoria because they’ve lost their chests, which is the opposite of what they wanted when they got the silicone put in.
“Removing the silicone can require multiple surgeries. Once removed, the silicone leaves cavities in the body, resulting in relative disfigurement. Ultimately, these cavities fill with fluid and eventually scar tissue.”
Once you’ve been pumped, it can be hard to get gender-affirming transition surgeries like facial femeninization or breast augmentation in the future even if your insurance covers it because many surgeons are reluctant to work on someone with this silicone in their bodies because of the risk of complications.
While pumpers are taking advantage of trans women, they often are trans women themselves, and they may act as a mentor to younger trans women who don’t have any other support and then use their relationship to try to encourage that woman to get pumped too. There are predators even within the trans community, as there are in all communities.
“The pumper that I interviewed for the piece was a member of the transgender community herself. She was a transgender woman and she considered what she was doing to be a necessity for her community, which often didn’t have access to the money that it cost to do these surgical procedures.”
What should you instead of attending a pumping party?
Have the procedure done in an approved clinical environment. This will help you ensure that emergency medical assistance is readily available if needed, that instruments are sterile and that the injectables or implants are legally approved and medical grade. Never have a cosmetic procedure performed at home.
Have the procedure performed by a board-certified plastic surgeon. According to the American Board of Plastic Surgery, a board-certified plastic surgeon has graduated from an accredited medical school; has completed at least five years of additional training as a resident surgeon in an accredited program, including at least two years devoted entirely to plastic surgery; and has passed comprehensive written and oral exams. The board also provides an online tool to see if your surgeon is board-certified.
If you want to read more on pumping:
TDLR; Pumping is dangerous, please don’t do it! Check our Dysphoria page for info on coping with dysphoria until you can safely transition.
Sources: Some of this post includes personal anecdotes from trans women of color who I’ve talked to who were pumped, and sharing their experiences can be hard for them but they’re doing it because it’s important to warn others, so please be respectful about the way you discuss this- while it was a mistake for people to get pumped, oftentimes they were taken advantage of by someone they looked up to when they were young and vulnerable so please don’t comment with “why would someone do that” or negative comments on their intelligence or similar. Kendall Stephens was the presenter of the “My Journey With Illegal Silicone Injections” workshop at the 2018 Philadelphia Transgender Wellness Conference, and some of this information comes from her story.
