Opting to not have nipples

MacG · July 15, 2014, 11:59:56 AM

My post was lost to the server problem.... so.

I hate to have my chest touched. At all. Even accidentally. I'm afraid that after top surgery, I will still hate having my nipples touched.
I'm looking for guys who've had this issue before surgery, and their experience after surgery.

I hate being touched to the point that I am considering not bothering to have nipples put on with surgery. I would probably get a chest tattoo to distract from me not having nips.

Thoughts? Experiences?

mm · July 15, 2014, 02:59:27 PM

I have not had top surgery yet. For everything i have heard the feeling and sensation in you nipples is entirely different after top surgery. It does depend on the type of procedure you have, with the DI procedure with free placement of the nipples many have little or no feeling at all. I think I want to have nipples to have a normal chest appearance after surgery when I take my shirt off.

MacG · July 15, 2014, 05:09:12 PM

I am too big for anything other than double incision. So that's good (for me) to hear about the feeling.

Hex · July 15, 2014, 05:15:56 PM

I've actually seen lately (new body modification fad) of cismales getting their nipples removed completely. So it's not too far of a stretch and all that some males walking around don't have them any longer. As mm said, if you're more worried about sensation but still want the aesthetic look of them being there, you can always ask the surgeon to not try and reconnect the nerves to them? And make it known you hate the sensation you get from them ect.

David27 · July 15, 2014, 07:08:38 PM

If you get a DI I don't think you will have lot of sensation. I'm 9 weeks out and I can feel pain, but sensation is not really there. It is more like after surgery when you nerves in the skin don't feel the same way (IDK how to describe this)

krogan · July 15, 2014, 07:13:09 PM

I had double incisions and I have only recovered dull sensation in my nipples. Most of the time they're pretty inert (I'm 2 years post op).

I'm not particularly bothered by the loss. I actually toyed with the idea of asking my surgeon not to bother with the nipples, but in the end I decided that it would be easy enough to have them removed later if I decided I didn't want/like them. As it happens I'm glad I did keep them as it does look more naturalistic.

Bimmer Guy · July 15, 2014, 07:34:56 PM

Not sure if you started a new thread, or what. I answered in the other one. But, in case you missed it and want my opinion.

I did not like my chest being touched or even seen prior to surgery. There is no sensation with free nipple grafts. If you want a "normal' looking chest, but no sensation, yes, you will have that with double incision. The skin around the areola has sensation. The areola/nipple itself, does not. If you are looking for no more sensation, you won't be disappointed.

Keeping the areola/nipples affords you the opportunity to wear a shirt in public and not be noticed. Your scars will already draw the eye...add missing arealos/nipples to that, you will certainly be noticed.

MacG · July 15, 2014, 07:47:24 PM

Brett, my original post was lost in the server crash, along with any responses.
Thanks for your input!

Alexthecat · July 16, 2014, 03:55:15 AM

I can sure feel when something comes across my nipples. It's like "woah nipples are there". I got them so I didn't stick out shirtless.

Bimmer Guy · July 16, 2014, 06:53:00 AM

Quote from: Alexthecat on July 16, 2014, 03:55:15 AM
I can sure feel when something comes across my nipples. It's like "woah nipples are there". I got them so I didn't stick out shirtless.

Are you sure it is your nipples that have the feeling and not the skin around it? Is it sexual feeling or does it just feel like any other skin? I feel like a pressure type feeling, but it is not even tingly like my regular skin when gently touched.

Bimmer Guy · July 16, 2014, 06:53:48 AM

Quote from: MacG on July 15, 2014, 07:47:24 PM
Brett, my original post was lost in the server crash, along with any responses.
Thanks for your input!

Oh, ok. Yours is the first thread I read when I got on yesterday, so I didn't know that this was something that happened throughout the website.

Alexthecat · July 16, 2014, 07:21:03 AM

Quote from: Brett on July 16, 2014, 06:53:00 AM
Are you sure it is your nipples that have the feeling and not the skin around it? Is it sexual feeling or does it just feel like any other skin? I feel like a pressure type feeling, but it is not even tingly like my regular skin when gently touched.

It's a different feeling than when I touch the skin around the nipple. I wouldn't say it is sexual but I'm not very sexual. It's different than other skin but it almost makes you want to jump but not enough to do so. Maybe it is the skin under the nipple going "woah". I just know that when a box rubs them at work its different than a box touching me anywhere else.

aleon515 · July 16, 2014, 03:52:30 PM

Quote from: Hex on July 15, 2014, 05:15:56 PM
I've actually seen lately (new body modification fad) of cismales getting their nipples removed completely. So it's not too far of a stretch and all that some males walking around don't have them any longer. As mm said, if you're more worried about sensation but still want the aesthetic look of them being there, you can always ask the surgeon to not try and reconnect the nerves to them? And make it known you hate the sensation you get from them ect.

Surgeons for top surgery are NOT doing microsurgery and reconnecting nerves. The surgery is a modified mastectomy. The nipples are removed and the skin is stretched in a hopefully masculine modified chest. The areolas and nipples are quite literally resized and stapled at an entirely different place in the chest. Nothing else. The nipple is unconnected with the duct structure which exists in a breast (male and female).

Any sexual feelings that people have from touching the nipples are between the ears. I am not saying they are lying, but the brain is a fantastic sex organ. People are making associations between past feelings and present. I've heard that Dr Garramone has kind of said such a thing.

I think regular skin to skin type contact feeling (what I've heard called "protective sensation") is possible with top surgery but even that isn't necessarily the case. I feel hot, cold, pressure, and touch (even light), but not erotic sensation. This would be possible as it is connected to skin and skin has feeling, whether skin has erotic sensation, well probably does in some cases due to the brain. A lot of people really get no sensation at all, and it is more numb. I also consider that a normal result to top surgery.

--Jay

Bimmer Guy · July 16, 2014, 07:51:18 PM

Quote from: aleon515 on July 16, 2014, 03:52:30 PM
Surgeons for top surgery are NOT doing microsurgery and reconnecting nerves. The surgery is a modified mastectomy. The nipples are removed and the skin is stretched in a hopefully masculine modified chest. The areolas and nipples are quite literally resized and stapled at an entirely different place in the chest. Nothing else. The nipple is unconnected with the duct structure which exists in a breast (male and female).

Any sexual feelings that people have from touching the nipples are between the ears. I am not saying they are lying, but the brain is a fantastic sex organ. People are making associations between past feelings and present. I've heard that Dr Garramone has kind of said such a thing.

I think regular skin to skin type contact feeling (what I've heard called "protective sensation") is possible with top surgery but even that isn't necessarily the case. I feel hot, cold, pressure, and touch (even light), but not erotic sensation. This would be possible as it is connected to skin and skin has feeling, whether skin has erotic sensation, well probably does in some cases due to the brain. A lot of people really get no sensation at all, and it is more numb. I also consider that a normal result to top surgery.

--Jay

Hey, Jay, I am glad you came in to share the above with Mac (the scientific part). I can only feel pressure. I can't feel cold (just put a cold bottle up against my areola, and nada.) I don't feel anything brush against my areolas/nipples

Mac, you made a comment in your first thread about there being individuals who choose to not get areolas. Historically, the reason for this is because people would "lose nipples", until surgeons got better at it. Most of the time the guys who didn't get areolas because they feared this happening. Instead they would go and get areolas tattooed on.

A number of guys go into surgery thinking they will never want to bare their chest, but they change their mind later on and are disappointed that they didn't go with a plastic surgeon who specializes in top surgery, didn't try to take care of their scars, and not getting areolas are an example too of regret. Just some food for thought.

MacG · July 16, 2014, 09:02:28 PM

Hmmm. I didn't say a areolas... But I did say I saw guys opting out of nipples. These were very recent surgeries though. One plans a large chest tattoo.
But this anecdotal evidence that there's not much sensation makes me feel better. I don't have any tattoos right now, so don't know how I feel about committing to a chest piece anyway.
I'm looking forward to going shirtless, but I already have a lot of scars from various surgeries. Oddly, I also have a vertical scar under each moob from two separate tree-climbing incidents in childhood haha!

Bimmer Guy · July 16, 2014, 10:20:13 PM

We all need to go with what feels right to us. I was just tossing out some food for thought. Good luck thinking it through. Does not seem to be an easy decision.

aleon515 · July 16, 2014, 10:34:13 PM

As for nipples specifically, I don't have ANY feeling in them. (I was thinking of areolas not nipples.) The feeling I have is skin to skin, so it's understandable that I wouldn't have any in the nipple. In some cases the surgeon puts a hole in the aerola and places in the re-sized nipple inside and in some the nipple seems to go outside. Not sure how Dr G does this. But it appears placed over the aerola somewhat. So you basically have a graft on top of graft arrangement. With all the stitches I'd imagine that there's sufficient scarring to block any sensation.

The actual nipple, at least the way Dr G does it they are VERY small. Various surgeons size this differently but mine are maybe the size of a small pencil eraser if that. My nipples are VERY small and my right one is barely there.

I don't think it would cost less to not place the nipple. I don't say any point not to have it placed. But I would look for a surgeon who uses smallish nipples. I've noticed there is quite a range in what surgeons like as far as that goes. You might see them as "normal' looking but I think they are part of a normal appearing chest where you wouldn't notice unless it's not there.

--Jay

Kreuzfidel · July 16, 2014, 11:15:31 PM

I almost decided not to have nipples, too - I had terrible chest dysphoria before surgery and was similar to you in regards to cringing with the thought of my chest being touched (or when it actually was even accidentally touched). But I held on to the hope that I could finally go shirtless with male-looking nipples on my masculine chest. And at 6 months post-op, I only have a tiny amount of sensation at all in my entire chest area anyway - so when my wife touches my chest/nipples, I feel only strange sensations like when your foot is waking up from being asleep.

I also thought about the no-nipples = large chest tattoo, but decided I just wanted to see if my feelings changed having an actual mal chest after surgery - and they did. I don't mind being touched on my chest now, but it's taken time to get used to it.

Bimmer Guy · July 17, 2014, 06:34:39 AM

Quote from: MacG on July 16, 2014, 09:02:28 PM
Hmmm. I didn't say a areolas... But I did say I saw guys opting out of nipples. These were very recent surgeries though. One plans a large chest tattoo.
But this anecdotal evidence that there's not much sensation makes me feel better. I don't have any tattoos right now, so don't know how I feel about committing to a chest piece anyway.
I'm looking forward to going shirtless, but I already have a lot of scars from various surgeries. Oddly, I also have a vertical scar under each moob from two separate tree-climbing incidents in childhood haha!

I meant areolas/nipples. I have never heard of a person having their areola attached, but not their nipple?

I have the pressure feeling I mentioned on the areola, but like Jay I have absolutely no sensation on the nipple (assuming I correctly understood what he was saying). I went to Garramone, as well.

aleon515 · July 17, 2014, 12:41:03 PM

Quote from: Brett on July 17, 2014, 06:34:39 AM
I meant areolas/nipples. I have never heard of a person having their areola attached, but not their nipple?

I have the pressure feeling I mentioned on the areola, but like Jay I have absolutely no sensation on the nipple (assuming I correctly understood what he was saying). I went to Garramone, as well.

Yeah Brett, sensation of the areola but not the nipple, exactly. Just was trying to describe the process of creating the graft, and I *think* depends on the surgeons, but either way USUALLY it isn't very large. Normally male nipples are not. And it won't have feeling imo. Maybe someone else will have sensation isn't. Mine doesn't. It's not even odd really. It's a not even there thing, so it's not a funny sensation or anything. The areola sensation is skin to skin and 100% really.

--Jay

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Opting to not have nipples