A transgender woman has undergone a revolutionary vaginal surgery she helped to invent. Hayley Anthony, a 30-year-old marketing consultant, has become one of the first people in the world to have a piece of tissue taken from the cavity of her abdomen and turned into a vagina.

And it was her idea which sparked the groundbreaking procedure. In autumn 2015, after talking it through with her therapist, Hayley was preparing to undergo the standard procedure for trans bottom surgery. Her doctor, Jess Ting, the director of surgery at the Centre for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at Mount Sinai, would cut open the penis and remove most of the insides. 

He would then fold the penile skin into the space between the urethra and the rectum. In this procedure, the outside of the penis becomes the inside of the vagina. It’s an incredible process, but the resultant vagina doesn’t get wet when aroused, and grows hair even after the patient has undergone electrolysis. “I had gone into the process, eyes wide open, understanding all the compromises and willing to accept them,” Hayley told WIRED.