Speaking of, I've been wondering if it's harder for mtftms or ftmtfs. I would think it's harder for guys that got the dick chop because you can't get that back.
This is an interesting question, and I don't think there's one easy answer.
For
reproduction, it's easier to bank sperm than egg cells, and much cheaper and easier to deploy them later. Assuming complete bottom surgery and premeditated gamete preservation, the reproductive advantage is male. Many pooners get mastectomies relatively early and put off hysterectomies for later, though, in which case a female detransitioner would be able to reproduce more or less as normal.
I think MtF and FtM are pretty even on
breasts. A male is unlikely to have huge growth and can bind like a pooner or a gynecomastia sufferer. A female can source falsies at fetish-level, fashion padding, or medical mastectomy prostheses. A male with unwanted breast implants would probably have the worst time, depending on if he'd gone full bimbo size.
For
sexual function, FtMs have a lot of different degrees of surgery. A woman who's had a full vaginectomy isn't in the same boat as one who's just had the rotdog affixed above. Metidoplasty with nothing else done would remain functional but funny-looking. The labia may or may not be stolen to make a scrotum, and then there's urethral lengthening to consider. If the skinned clitoris under a neophallus still has sensation, I'd hope it could be saved when the phallus was removed and just left under a protective layer of skin.
A lot of this reminds me of trying to figure out what the previous owner of my house and the one before that were even doing with the wiring system; you can guess and make plans, but sometimes people make weird repairs and hope they don't have to revisit it.
As you said, nobody can make a real penis yet. I think the advantage as far as retaining pleasurable sensation and orgasm is female--assuming the doctor didn't get creative with "nerve hookup"--and with an asterisk if the male was a bottom before and his prostate is in a good location and size post-op and off of cross-sex hormones.
Urination seems to go to the MtFs; they get UTIs, but not to the extent of the FtMs and their multiple, multiple urethral fistulae. If a transitioned MtF decided to go all-in on on a replacement phalloplasty with a neourethra made from buccal mucosa or just arm skin, he'd lose that advantage.
Social/passing is MtFs, hands down. Testosterone is one-way in a lot of things. Extra beard and body hair can always be removed with just money, pain and time, but lost hair is harder, and more stigmatizing in a woman. A MtF can stop "doing the voice" at any time (barring vocal cord surgery, which is marginally effective) while the FtM frog voice is a permanent change. Replacing testosterone will remove slight facial softening from estrogen, but not vice versa. A desisted MtF post FFS may look a little epicene, but FFS doesn't work all that well. There's no shortage of posts in the SRS thread saying "wait, which picture is 'before' and which is 'after?'"
Pardon my extended sperging, and a large amount of ass-pulling; I'd love to hear other opinions. I was also assuming this was in a hypothetical adult, or near-adult, who transitioned for the first time after puberty. Some kid who was "puberty blocked" is going to end up screwed no matter what.
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