He may be the child of megastar Cher and the late Sonny Bono, but Chaz Bono is paying his own way for his final gender reassignment surgery, in which doctors will construct a penis for Chaz, born as the biologically female Chastity.
"I could get a phalloplasty, which builds the phallus from a donor site on your body," the writer, activist and Dancing with the Stars alum, 42, tells Rolling Stone.
"But I'm leaning more toward a metoidioplasty. It's a procedure that uses what you already have [the clitoris] which has grown larger from the testosterone," the Becoming Chaz star explains. "You end up with a smaller phallus than with the phalloplasty, but it's fully functional, it gets erect, and the sensation is all there."
And it's not a cheap procedure, either, the reality star adds. The cost "depends," he explains. "There's different ways to do the surgery, from real basic to more and more options. It's like a car."
He elaborates of the complex procedure: "Well, I mean, to break it down, the surgery I want to have, I'd like to have the testicular implants and all of that, and I'd like to be able to urinate through it," explains Bono, who recently parted ways with fiancee Jennifer Elias. "The doctor I want to use is in Belgrade. It's going to be a little cheaper there. Probably $25,000, maybe $45,000, I really don't know."
Bono told Rolling Stone he should be able to afford the procedure soon. But the star, who has undergone testosterone treatments for years and got a mastectomy to remove the breasts he had as Chastity, says. "You have to understand, though, for me the life transformation has already happened."
