Asst. Prof. Dr. Poonpissamai Suwajo

Asst. Prof. Dr. Poonpissamai Suwajo (Thai: ผศ.พญ. พูนพิศมัย สุวะโจ) holds an academic post at Chulalongkorn University, where the Department of Surgery of the Faculty of Medicine lists her as an Assistant Professor within its Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Unit. Her university clinics run at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, which serves as the Thai Red Cross teaching hospital of the Faculty, on Rama 4 Road in Pathumwan. Her specialist certification in plastic and reconstructive surgery, a Thai Board diploma, dates from 2008; before that she qualified as a general surgeon with the Thai Board diploma in surgery.

Five private facilities in Bangkok also carry her profile on their own websites, each describing a slightly different role:

• Bumrungrad International Hospital: the Pride Clinic, which shows her in its group of transgender plastic surgeons
• Bangkok Hospital (Headquarters): the Plastic Surgery and Reconstruction Center
• Phyathai 2 Hospital: plastic and reconstructive surgery within the Beauty Center
• Praram 9 Hospital: the Skin and Plastic Surgery centre
• Nirunda International Aesthetic Clinic, Sukhumvit Soi 24: plastic surgeon

The same Bangkok Hospital profile data places her in a second department as well, the Breast Center of Bangkok Cancer Hospital (Wattanosoth). That hospital has no page on our site yet.

Read side by side, her official profiles point to three main areas: gender-affirming surgery, surgery of the eyelids and brows, and breast surgery. Bangkok Hospital's one-line description calls her a surgeon who 'specializes in cosmetic and gender reassignment surgery'. Her Chulalongkorn departmental page names gender-affirming surgery, breast surgery, blepharoplasty, breast reconstruction and lipofilling as her special areas, while Bumrungrad highlights transgender surgery and blepharoplasty. Across all sources we matched 21 procedures to guides on this site, ranging from vaginoplasty and facial feminization surgery to upper eyelid surgery, ptosis correction and breast lift.

Her research follows the same lines. Journal papers from 2023 to 2025 give the Center of Excellence in Transgender Health at Chulalongkorn University as one of her affiliations, and six of the eight papers summarised on this profile deal with transgender health, from genital and chest surgery to breast screening.

Sources do not agree on her title. Chulalongkorn, Bumrungrad and Praram 9 use her academic rank, Assistant Professor; Bangkok Hospital and Phyathai 2 present her as Dr. Poonpissamai Suwajo; and a 2014 paper spells her first name Poonpismai. These all refer to one surgeon.

If you would like to meet her, you can request a consultation; our patient team then checks her availability with your chosen facility and comes back to you to agree a time. Nothing is booked automatically.

Dr. Poonpissamai Suwajo's medical degree and specialist training come from two Thai university medical schools. The sequence below follows her Chulalongkorn Department of Surgery profile; where another official profile gives a different year, we say so.

• Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), Chulalongkorn University Faculty of Medicine, 1999. Bangkok Hospital and Bumrungrad give the same year; Praram 9 Hospital gives 1998.
• Residency in general surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University. The Chulalongkorn profile lists the year 2000 against this entry without saying whether it marks the start or the end of training.
• Diploma of the Thai Board of Surgery, Medical Council of Thailand, 2004. Praram 9 gives 2003. Nirunda International Aesthetic Clinic lists her general surgery qualification as F.R.C.S.(Thailand) in General Surgery, from the Department of Surgery at Srinakharind Hospital, Khon Kaen University.
• Residency in plastic and reconstructive surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University (King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital), listed with the year 2007.
• Thai Board diploma in plastic and reconstructive surgery (Medical Council of Thailand), 2008. Every source we opened gives 2008 for this certification.

Put simply, her path ran through general surgery first, at Khon Kaen, and then through a separate plastic and reconstructive surgery residency back at Chulalongkorn, with a Thai Board diploma at the end of each stage.

Professional societies. On the public site of ThPRS (Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons of Thailand) there is a 2019 member page for her, which also records the practice addresses she gave at that time. She also turns up, under the general surgery field, when the RCST member database (Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand) is searched. Her ThSAPS membership (Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons of Thailand) rests on a single piece of evidence, an archived 2020 copy of the society's surgeon list, because the society no longer publishes a current one; we can therefore confirm that membership as of 2020 only.

Recognition. Her Chulalongkorn profile lists a 2024 'Quality Persons of the Year' recognition from the Foundation of Science and Technology Council of Thailand.

Licence. We have not yet located her in the Thai Medical Council's online licence register. Our automated check was unable to run a name search on the register, so a manual look-up is still outstanding. Bangkok Hospital's profile data includes a licence number, but a hospital page is not the register itself. You can search the register yourself, and our research methodology page explains our verification steps and the meaning of each status shown here.

University post (Chulalongkorn, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital). Her rank there is Assistant Professor, within a unit that forms one division of the Department of Surgery. A March 2018 staff page on the Faculty of Medicine website describes her as a lecturer in the department, so the assistant professorship followed after that. Her departmental page gives clinic hours of 08:00–14:00 on Monday and Wednesday, with the Chakri Thotsamo building (6th floor) as the location. Other surgeons in the unit show exactly the same line, so it may be a shared template rather than her personal timetable. The hospital states that its plastic surgery team carries out gender-affirming surgery, naming endoscopic mastectomy for trans men and vaginoplasty lined with pedicled peritoneum for trans women; that is a statement about the unit, not a list of her own cases. Her author affiliations on 2023–2025 papers also include the Center of Excellence in Transgender Health at the same university, with no role title given.

Private hospitals and clinics. The official profiles we opened in September 2026 describe these current roles:

• Bumrungrad International Hospital: plastic surgeon (Plastic Cosmetic & Reconstructive Surgery) at the Pride Clinic, Building A 16A, with a published schedule of Sunday 17:00–19:00. The Pride Clinic's gender-affirming surgery pages show her among the surgeons for trans women and for trans men.
• Bangkok Hospital (Headquarters): surgeon in the Plastic Surgery and Reconstruction Center, which the profile data gives as her primary department there, with a part-time work type.
• Bangkok Cancer Hospital (Wattanosoth): surgeon in the Breast Center, according to the same Bangkok Hospital profile data.
• Phyathai 2 Hospital: surgeon for plastic and reconstructive surgery in the Beauty Center.
• Praram 9 Hospital: plastic surgeon in the Skin and Plastic Surgery centre, with a published schedule of Sunday 09:00–12:00.
• Nirunda International Aesthetic Clinic: plastic surgeon, still linked from the clinic's doctors page when we checked.

Her 2019 ThPRS entry also gives a practice address at Poonpissamai Clinic (คลินิกพูนพิศมัย) in Khlong Luang, Pathum Thani province. No current official page mentions it, so we do not list it as a place where she practises.

Research and publications. A PubMed search for her name returns 16 papers. Those carrying a Chulalongkorn affiliation include:

• a 2025 technique paper in Gland Surgery on positioning the nipple-areola complex in masculinizing chest contouring, based on its relationship with the pectoralis major muscle
• two 2025 studies on breast health in transgender people in Bangkok: breast imaging findings on mammography and ultrasound in Thai transgender women, and awareness of breast cancer screening
• a 2024 cross-sectional study of ideal gluteal (buttock) contour in Thai transwomen
• a 2023 single-institution study of how radiation affects immediate breast reconstruction
• earlier papers on spermatogenesis after hormone therapy in transwomen (2018), reconstruction of the penile shaft after silicone injection (2017) and how sex reassignment surgery developed in Thailand, seen from a social perspective (2014)

Other work of hers looks at sexual function and quality of life after penile inversion and sigmoid colon vaginoplasty, and her Chulalongkorn page lists a 2025 book chapter, 'Cosmetic aspects in gender-affirming vaginoplasty', in the Academic Press volume Gender Affirming Vaginoplasty. A publication record tells you which questions a surgeon studies; it says nothing about the outcome any single patient can expect, which is a matter for a consultation.

Every heading below matches a procedure that at least one official hospital or university profile names for Dr. Poonpissamai Suwajo, and each part identifies that source. Sentences that begin 'In general' summarise our own procedure guides: they outline the usual course for most patients, not her personal methods, which only she can explain once she has assessed you.

Male-to-female genital surgery

Bangkok Hospital's treatment list for her contains four feminizing genital entries: male-to-female gender reassignment surgery, colo-vaginoplasty, peritoneal vaginoplasty and no-depth vaginoplasty. Praram 9 adds sex reassignment surgery to her interests, and Bumrungrad's Pride Clinic pictures her among its transgender plastic surgeons. Our matching guides are vaginoplasty, colon (sigmoid) vaginoplasty, peritoneal vaginoplasty and vulvoplasty, the zero-depth option.

In general, vaginoplasty forms three things: a vaginal canal, a clitoris and the labia. This is a big operation. Per our vaginoplasty guide, the inpatient part commonly lasts five to seven nights and the whole trip three to four weeks, and dilating the new canal becomes a long-term routine that preserves its depth. What separates the variants on her list is the tissue that lines the canal. The peritoneal method uses part of the lining of the abdominal cavity. The colon method borrows a length of sigmoid bowel and tends to be reserved for circumstances such as a repeat operation or a shortage of genital skin. A zero-depth vulvoplasty shapes the external anatomy only, leaving no canal to dilate. Penile inversion, which many surgeons treat as their standard approach, is absent from her service lists, even though her published research looked at sexual function and quality of life after both penile inversion and sigmoid colon vaginoplasty. Ask her which of these methods she performs at each hospital, and which she would advise for your anatomy and goals.

Our vaginoplasty guide is built on WPATH's SOC-8, the current edition of its Standards of Care. For genital operations, SOC-8 suggests an assessment documented by a qualified professional and, where that is clinically appropriate and you want it, at least six months on hormone therapy. Surgeons set their own rules on referral letters and on permanent hair removal from the genital skin, so find out her requirements early in your planning; hair removal alone can take months.

Facial feminization surgery

Praram 9 Hospital names facial feminization surgery (FFS) among her interests and puts rhinoplasty and chin and jaw surgery in her cosmetic list. In general, FFS is designed around the individual face, and a plan may draw on brow bone and forehead contouring, bringing the hairline forward, a feminizing nose operation, cheek work, a lip lift, reshaping of the jaw and chin, and a tracheal shave. Surgeons commonly plan any bony changes on a CT scan, and long combinations are sometimes split into stages to limit risk. The FFS guide allows 10–14 days in the country as a usual stay, with extra days after a long combined operation. Hormone therapy is not an SOC-8 prerequisite for operations on the face, although an individual surgeon may set criteria of her own. None of her official profiles breaks FFS down into components, so ask for a written plan that names each step she would carry out herself.

Female-to-male surgery

Bangkok Hospital's list includes 'gender reassignment surgery from female to male' but does not name the operations behind it, and the Pride Clinic at Bumrungrad shows her on its page for trans men. Her 2025 Gland Surgery paper sets out a way of placing the nipple-areola complex during masculinizing chest contouring, using the pectoralis major muscle as a landmark. Research is not a service list, so we have not linked her to top surgery, metoidioplasty or phalloplasty. If you are considering chest or genital masculinizing surgery with her, our patient team can ask her hospital which of these operations she performs.

Eyelid surgery, brow lift and ptosis correction

Eyelid procedures appear on four of her official profiles: blepharoplasty on the Chulalongkorn and Bumrungrad pages; upper eyelid surgery, lower eyelid surgery, eyebrow lift surgery and eyelid ptosis correction at Bangkok Hospital; and eyelid surgery with ptosis correction at Praram 9. The related guides are blepharoplasty, upper eyelid surgery, lower eyelid surgery, brow lift and ptosis correction.

In general, several different problems can make the eyes look heavy or tired, and each has its own operation. Surplus upper-lid skin, sometimes with some fat, is trimmed in an upper blepharoplasty. Bags under the eyes are addressed by a lower blepharoplasty, which takes out or moves fat either via an incision hidden just under the lashes or from the lid's inner, conjunctival side. When it is the margin of the lid that hangs low because its lifting muscle has weakened, the diagnosis is ptosis, which calls for a muscle repair rather than skin removal. And where the eyebrow has dropped and pushes skin onto the lid, raising the brow may achieve more than eyelid surgery alone. Working out which of these you have is the main job of an eyelid consultation. Our eyelid guide notes that the operation is frequently done under local anaesthesia with sedation, often as a day case, and suggests about five to seven days in Thailand, roughly until the stitches come out; for a brow lift, the guide suggests 7–10 days.

Breast lift, breast augmentation and breast reconstruction

Bangkok Hospital lists mastopexy (breast lift surgery) for her. Praram 9 lists breast surgery, breast reconstruction, mammaplasty, mastopexy, mastectomy and breast augmentation. Chulalongkorn names breast surgery and breast reconstruction among her special areas, and Bangkok Hospital's profile data places her in the Breast Center at Bangkok Cancer Hospital (Wattanosoth). Her research record adds a 2023 study of radiation and immediate breast reconstruction and two 2025 papers on breast imaging and screening awareness in transgender people. Our guides cover breast lift and breast augmentation; there is no breast reconstruction guide on our site yet.

In general, a lift tightens and reshapes a drooping breast and raises the nipple, but adds little volume, while augmentation adds volume with implants or the patient's own fat but cannot, on its own, correct marked sagging. Combining an implant with a lift, whether in one operation or two, is more demanding surgery and is revised more often than either procedure done alone. Breast implants are not designed to last a lifetime, and textured surfaces have been linked with a rare lymphoma known as BIA-ALCL, so ask which implant type and surface she uses and why. For travel planning, our augmentation guide works on 7–10 days in the country and our breast lift guide on 10–14. Praram 9's listing does not say whether its augmentation entry covers feminizing breast augmentation for trans women; our team can raise that with the hospital.

Facelift, facial fat grafting and other facial surgery

The cosmetic interests listed on her Praram 9 profile include facelift, facial rejuvenation with fat graft, rhinoplasty, buccal fat removal and otoplasty, and Chulalongkorn counts lipofilling among her special areas. Related guides: facelift, fat grafting to the face, rhinoplasty, buccal fat removal and otoplasty.

In general, a facelift works on two levels in the lower face and jawline: it re-suspends the firmer tissue beneath the skin, then the excess skin on top is trimmed away. The brow and eyelids lie outside its reach, so it is sometimes paired with surgery there. Our facelift guide singles out haematoma, blood pooling beneath the lifted skin that sometimes has to be let out, as the most common significant complication, and it works on 10–14 days in Thailand. For rhinoplasty our guide suggests 7–10 days, until the splint has been removed and you have been checked; it also helps to decide beforehand whether you want a smaller or a more projected nose, because reduction and augmentation rely on different techniques and materials. In otoplasty, ears that stick out are set closer to the head through a cut hidden behind the ear; adults usually have it under local anaesthesia, and the guide suggests 5–7 days in Thailand. For facial fat grafting and buccal fat removal, ask her team directly about the technique, the recovery and how long the result can be expected to last.

Liposuction, tummy tuck, arm lift and thigh lift

Under body contouring, Praram 9 lists liposuction, abdominoplasty, arm and thigh lift, and lipotransfer for her. See liposuction, tummy tuck, arm lift and thigh lift. In general, liposuction takes out localised fat deposits that diet and exercise have not shifted; it will not bring down overall weight or firm up slack skin, which may need a lift that cuts skin away instead. Abdominoplasty, the formal name for a tummy tuck, cuts away lax skin and fat below the navel and normally tightens abdominal muscles that have drifted apart. Each of these operations carries some risk of blood clots, which is worth discussing before a long-haul flight home. For time in the country, our body contouring guides work on roughly 7–10 days after liposuction, 10–14 days after an arm or thigh lift, and 12–14 days after abdominoplasty. Her 2024 study of ideal gluteal contour in Thai transwomen is research rather than a listed service, so we have not linked her to buttock surgery.

Listed, but without a guide on our site

Praram 9 also lists dimple creation, chin and jaw surgery, microsurgery, and botulinum toxin and dermal filler injections among her interests, and Chulalongkorn lists breast reconstruction. We have no matching procedure guide for these yet; our patient team can pass your questions about them to her hospital.

Because Dr. Poonpissamai Suwajo is listed at a university hospital, several private hospitals and a clinic, settle early on where you would be seen and operated on. That choice fixes the operating theatre, the anaesthesia team, how long you stay, the help available to international patients and the price, and an estimate from one of her facilities cannot be assumed to apply at another.

Questions patients often bring to a first meeting with her:

• At which of your hospitals would my operation take place, and on which days do you hold clinics there?
• Will I see you personally at each visit, and who is my contact between appointments?
• For vaginoplasty: which methods do you offer (penile inversion, peritoneal, colon or zero-depth), which would you choose for me, and why? What do you require regarding hormone therapy, referral letters and hair removal?
• What length of inpatient stay should I expect, who teaches me to dilate, and how is follow-up arranged once I have flown home?
• For FFS: which parts do you carry out yourself, do you need a CT scan, and would you split the work into stages?
• For eyelid concerns: is my problem loose skin, a low lid margin or a descended brow? How will my eyes be checked for dryness or vision problems before surgery?
• For breast surgery: does my situation call for a lift, an implant or both, and together or separately? Which implant type and surface would you use, and will I be given an implant card?
• For liposuction or a body lift: what volume or how many areas are safe to treat at one sitting, and which measures against blood clots do you recommend before I fly?
• Who will be responsible for my anaesthesia, and how are unplanned extra nights or additional care charged?
• Which items does the estimate cover, and how would a revision be priced?
• Can I have an operative report and discharge summary in English to give my own doctor?

It is reasonable to ask how regularly she performs the particular operation you want, and how complications are handled at the hospital she proposes. Results differ from one patient to another, and knowing who will look after you if a problem appears after you are back home deserves as much attention as the surgical plan.

Every facility where Dr. Poonpissamai Suwajo is documented lies in Bangkok (see our Bangkok guide), yet the support each describes for visitors from abroad differs considerably. The points below reflect each facility's official pages as held in our facility research.

• Bumrungrad International Hospital publishes the most detail of the group; it sits at 33 Sukhumvit 3 in Watthana, on Soi Nana Nua. A Medical Coordination Office on the 10th floor of Building A handles pre-arrival requests from abroad, including record review, cost estimates, appointment booking and telemedicine. The hospital also lists over 130 interpreters, a representative in the arrivals hall at Suvarnabhumi Airport, free shuttle vans from the airport and linking the hospital with BTS Nana and BTS Phrom Phong, and visa extension support through its Business Center. Remote tele-consultation with a doctor is listed by its Plastic (Cosmetic) Surgery Center. JCI's own directory lists the hospital as accredited, first effective in 2002.
• King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital is the Thai Red Cross university hospital, in Pathumwan at 1873 Rama 4 Road. HA Thailand's database shows its Advanced Hospital Accreditation running to May 2029. On the international side, our research turned up no official page about an overseas patient centre, interpreters or airport pick-up, so for a clinic visit there, arrange those details yourself or with our team.
• Nirunda International Aesthetic Clinic, 93/336 The Emporio Place, Sukhumvit Soi 24, Klongtoey, has an international patient desk and lists English, Japanese, Thai and Indonesian.
• Bangkok Hospital (Headquarters): our research records a desk for international patients. The hospital states that it holds JCI accreditation; we have not yet matched that to a current entry in JCI's directory.
• Phyathai 2 Hospital and Praram 9 Hospital: our research does not yet record international patient services or an accreditation for either, so ask our team what each can arrange.

A blank accreditation field on our site does not mean the facility lacks one; ask the facility if this matters to you.

Thai and English are the languages Bumrungrad's profile gives for her, and no other official page adds to them. If another language would make the consultation easier for you, Bumrungrad's interpreter service or Nirunda's listed languages may help, or ask whichever facility you choose to arrange an interpreter.

The number that matters most when booking flights is how long you must stay after surgery, and that depends on the operation. The practice-area sections above give our guides' general ranges, from about five days for eyelid surgery or otoplasty up to three to four weeks for vaginoplasty. Clearance to fly comes from the operating surgeon alone, so a changeable return ticket, accommodation within easy reach of the hospital and a clear arrangement for follow-up at home are worth sorting out before departure.

Her hospital can only judge what further information it needs once it has the basics. Whatever the procedure, prepare:

• your age, overall health, the medicines you take, any allergies, and whether you have ever had a bleeding disorder or a clot in a leg vein or lung
• any earlier operation on the area you want treated, together with the surgeon's notes if you kept them
• your smoking or nicotine habits, because surgeons usually want you to stop well ahead of operations such as a facelift, rhinoplasty or tummy tuck
• which of her facilities you prefer, your likely dates, and whether you would rather meet in person or online

Then add the details that apply to your procedure:

• Vaginoplasty or other feminizing genital surgery: which hormones you take and since when, letters or reports from the professionals who have assessed you, how far any genital hair removal has progressed, and whether you have already had an orchiectomy or other genital surgery.
• Facial feminization: what you would like to change in each area of the face, any past facial surgery or filler injections, and a CT scan if you already have one.
• Eyelids and brows: whether you have glaucoma, dry eyes, a thyroid-related eye condition or reduced vision, and whether you wear contact lenses.
• Breast surgery: any breast surgery you have had before, the implant card if implants are already in place, reports from recent mammograms or breast ultrasound, and whether you plan a future pregnancy. Trans women should add their hormone history.
• Liposuction, tummy tuck or a body lift: whether your weight has held steady in recent months, past abdominal operations or pregnancies, and any previous clots.

Please hold back photographs until her team requests them. When they do, our patient team will explain which angles are needed, and the images should reach us only through this site's booking form or its WhatsApp line.