I wanna know so more about top surgery

[x-icecubes-x]

For the most part, I wanna know if you get scars after your breasts are removed or whatever they do to make them go away. And is it really noticeable that youve had an operation done to other people that dont know you are transsexual? And what age do you have to be to get it done....just wondering if 14 is too young

[Teknoir]

As for method - that depends on the amount of tissue to be removed.

As a general "what you can expect" - anything bigger than a B, and you're looking at DI (Double Incision - the one with the long scars under the pecs).

Smaller guys can get away with Keyhole or Periareolar (usaully refered to as just "peri").

[Carson]

It depends on how much tissue is being removed, more than B=Double Incision which mean nice big scars. Whether they will fade or not really depends on you. How susceptible to scarring you are, how well you take of yourself(healing after surgery as well as if you do anything to reduce them). I have heard of a few FtMs getting it done when they were a bit older than you but it depends. Are you on hormone blockers? because if not then it might not make a difference, if you got the surgery now and aren't on hormones or hormone blockers they could just grow back... which wouldn't be good.

Also I have heard somewhere that some people have gotten away with saying that their scars are from a collapsed lung(but 2 collapsed lungs that happened at the exact same time may seem a bit fishy). But if you have good pectoral muscle development you cna essentially hide the scars under the crease of your pecs.

[myles]

I know a few younger guys as well as a few docs that work with younger guys, they all have to wait until they are 18 for surgery. At this points their parents will not sign for them even if they could find a doc, of the four the one that has been on blockers since a young age and just started t (at 16 I believe) has a very small chest as the blockers at 14 stopped the growth. There are the Standards of Care and then for a minor you also need parental consent.

[Carson]

If the surgeon performs the operation properly, they should not grow back even if he is on neither hormone blockers nor testosterone, because the breast tissue is removed. If it is not fully removed then yes it could grow back, but there are many guys who have had surgery before T or with no plans to go on T.

I just meant that if he hasn't gone all the way through puberty, when breast growth changes a lot... I know that physically mature guys can get it without going on t.

[Radar]

I noticed some of you guys saying that over a B would need a DI. I got the impression that an actual B would still need a DI and only A's and smaller could get peri.

[Carson]

I noticed some of you guys saying that over a B would need a DI. I got the impression that an actual B would still need a DI and only A's and smaller could get peri.

yeah that's pretty much true, I think everyone was trying to say B and above.

[gqueering]

For those who have had it: how much pain is involved (post surgery) and how long to heal?

[Nero]

For those who have had it: how much pain is involved (post surgery) and how long to heal?

No pain at all for me. None that I was conscious of anyway. The wounds were healed after a few weeks. But it still takes several months before you should go back to lifting weights and stuff.
I had my surgery at the end of May and the scars have healed well. Nearly invisible now, except the right side was a wider scar for some reason and still visible but improving.

[JonasCarminis]

i had quite a bit of pain the day of surgery and a little pain the day after.  didnt take any pills for pain after the second day (not even tylenol) and then i had some ache-y pain after bandages were off a week later.  probably from the minor swelling because there was no more compression on the area.  i took pain pills sparingly for about a week after that.  i could have lived with the pain, it wasnt that bad, but i didnt really feel like being miserable when i had the resources to not be in pain.

i resumed carefully sleeping on my side about a week after the bandages were off. (do not recommend, could have caused my stretched scars) and i reached for things unless i felt pulling and didnt push myself to stretch for anything until my body just let me.  i had my full range of motion back after a few weeks and i didnt try to exercise for quite some time.  past what they recommend actually.  i just never felt like doing it.

along the incisions everything was healed within a week of taking the bandages off except the drain hole on one side which wouldnt close and then later had an infection.  now its a gnarly scar.  the nipples took quite a while to fully heal.   probably like a month.

[myles]

The best results happen with peri if you are smaller chested, so your results will very if you are a B or larger. I had one doc who would do a peri on me the other wouldn't. In the end I chose the doc that wouldn't because I knew my results would not be good on a peri. While I have scars in the end I will not need revisions, another thing I have heard of if you are larger and do peri. If you are smaller and can definitely go for it. As you can see with Alex the result are great.
As far as healing I had surgery in August and not much pain , but was on medication for most of the time. Lifting has been another story, I started to workout to soon and that caused swelling and lift at work so it will be a while until the final swelling (from lifting too early) goes down.

[millsy]

For those who have had it: how much pain is involved (post surgery) and how long to heal?

i am currently 5 days post op- go me!  The pain is more discomfort, if you don't move too much its not too bad, i have been sleeping lying down for the last 2 nights on my back but it is impossible to sleep on my side, nor d i want to try it. i have mostly full movement back now, just reaching for things hurts. i have been keeping on top of the discomfort with a codeine based drug i have been prescribed which works fine. We went for a walk yesterday which in hindsight was a bad idea, because it was a bit painful and took a lot out of me! But i'd say overall that the constipation from the aneasthetic is worse than the overall pain. lol

[millsy]

I have a question for the post-op guys. I know you can't sleep on your side for a while after surgery, but how do you keep yourself from rolling over in your sleep?

I think your body just subconsciously knows not to- but i'e been sleeping with a pillow under my arm too.

[Radar]

i am currently 5 days post op- go me! 

Congratulations!

[noxdraconis]

I have a question for the post-op guys. I know you can't sleep on your side for a while after surgery, but how do you keep yourself from rolling over in your sleep?

I have a bit over half a year before I get top surgery, but back when I had other issues that required me to sleep on my back, I slept on the couch.  Since it was much more narrow than my bed, it made it so that I could not roll onto my stomach, my preferred way of sleeping.

[myles]

I was not so successful at that, keeping off my side. One nap time I rolled over on my side and smashed open my drain. Blood and stuff all over the bed not good.
Andrew