Hey folks!
Has anyone had, considered having, or know anyone who's had what he calls Manscuplture? (masculine lipo-contouring)
I can't find much info on it outside of his website.. :o
Obviously he recommends it himself, but I'd love to hear from anyone who's actually done it!
Also, can anyone recommend things to do in Florida after surgery (besides sitting on my arse)? I'll be there for 2 weeks with my dad, and we'll have a car. :)
I've been wondering that too, actually. I've seen the result pictures on his site, and it doesn't look too bad, in my opinion.
I considered it. I just can't afford the $3500-4000 on top of the base price for top surgery. I heard that he just lipos, not takes away skin. So if your skin is loose like mine (due to weight loss) then it'll still look saggy, probably even more so. But if your skin is pretty tight, then it would likely give good results.
As for what to do, I'm only staying a week so I probably won't do much of anything besides sleep. But if I had an extra week, I'd go see some museums, eat out at places we don't have in my state (like Indian food). The Stranahan House in Fort Lauderdale looks interesting. They have ghost/haunted house type stuff.
Best of luck with your surgery!
I don't think it's worth the money. You could work out and get pretty much the same results.
I've considered it, as I have wideset hips, but the extra money is a huge deterrent.
Congrats on surgery, man... hope everything goes well. I'm planning to go to Garramone myself but don't know much about the mansculpture procedure. From the few pics I've seen it looks great though.
As for Florida, lot of great vacation spots depending on what you like to do. But since you'll be in recovery I'm not sure how much you would be up for... personally I'm not that big fan of Ft Laud/Miami area, so I'd venture out to a gulf coast beach probably. St. Pete/Clearwater beach area is awesome and not far from Tampa which has a lot going on. But if you wanted to stay in that area I'd go to south beach in Miami.
Hey guys,
Thought I'd update here since others seemed curious about it too, and it may be helpful to some. :)
So, I went for the Mansculpture in the end, and I have to say I think it's worth it (for me anyhow)!
Had my top surgery on June 28th, so I'm 2 and a half weeks post-op now. Everything went brilliantly, and I'm super happy with the results. Seems to be healing well so far, though most of the tape stuff is still on the incisions. The bits where it's peeled away look very neat, however. Garramone is awesome! :)
I've had very little pain throughout. Besides the one they gave me at the hospital after waking up (which I don't even remember), I never used any of the prescription pain meds I bought. And I used only a couple of regular Tylenol, on the second day post-op. I preferred to go without, so I could tell when I moved in a way that wasn't so good for my body. But it was nothing major even then!
Mostly it was just discomfort I had from the ace bandages being so tight - I couldn't laugh, cough, yawn, sneeze or breath at a normal depth for a week! Pretty irritating. P:
Now any soreness is pretty much all gone, unless I press on my chest. Still being incredibly careful with movement, but it seems like the only thing I can't (/don't want to) do now is raise my elbows above shoulder height.
I have sensation pretty much everywhere (nipples + a couple of other spots are a bit numb)
So the point of posting in this old thread was..
Some extra info about the Mansculpture that I hadn't seen on the net:
- It brings a lot of extra soreness and discomfort, mostly because of the girdle-like binder you're supposed to wear day and night for up to 6 weeks post-op. I've tried two different surgical binders and neither are very comfortable (one is too short, the other has these ridges that dig in). So that's a bit of a pain in the arse, but just something you have to put up with for a while.
- You can end up with a fair bit of swelling, that could take up to a couple of months to fully settle. Luckily I got most of my swelling around my belly, that I'm not so fussed about. And it actually seems to be going down pretty fast. If my hips had swollen out I'd be annoyed, but they were in fact significantly smaller than pre-op even immediately after surgery.
- You end up with four additional small incisions - two at the front supposedly below the waistband (though they are higher than I'll comfortably wear my boxers), one in the belly button, and one at the top of your butt crack. :> They are small and barely noticeable though, about half a centimetre long. I didn't have my thighs done (no real excess fat there) so I guess there's be a couple extra incisions if you have that.
- Indeed as Adio said, if your skin is already saggy, you won't have good results. I don't think Garramone would even suggest it in these cases.
And as Andy says, you could just work hard with exercise, and let T do it's thang for longer, to end up with similar results.
However, T hadn't shifted any fat from my hips so far, and I was very dysphoric about them. I always hated running so I know it would be unlikely I could keep that up long enough to really trim down.. And I wouldn't be able to start even trying until a couple months post-op. Plus, I could afford the extra $3k. P: I was still on the fence until I spoke to Dr.G, but now I'm definitely glad I went for it. It's made a big difference to me personally - My whole torso looks so much more male to me now! :) Just can't wait until I can keep this girdle off, and all the swelling has totally gone..
And to totally illustrate the results of the surgery (at 2.5 weeks), here's my Pre/Post op comparison pics: http://i51.tinypic.com/esjig6.jpg (http://i51.tinypic.com/esjig6.jpg)
Dayyam, you are looking fabulous!
Wow you look incredible Banf! Congrats man
Really nice! You can't even see the swelling.
Dude! You look awesome!!!
Wow, that was definitely worth the extra money! Your upper body looks amazing.
Goddamn you're hot. Amazing, amazing results. 8)
Jealous El Capitan is jealous :P
hey man you look great i would get the mansculpture if i was going to garramone but i not but i might get lipo on the hips area anyway.
hey man you look great! congratulations! Now I want to check in with my surgeon in a few months to see if he can do something similiar to Garramone's Mansculpture. (have already recently had top surgery.
Your results look great, Banf. I'm really happy for you. :)
You look so good I hate you for it a little :P
I am actually moving to Jacksonville and your pics alone just made up my mind on where I am going for surgery. It will still be about 2 years away for me to save up the money but with the "mansculpture" it will completely be worth it for me. So random I stumbled on this post now since I missed it before your operation. I was recently telling my wife that I was going to look into doctors who would do lip suction to give my hips/thighs a more male appearance.
What is really considered large for thighs for men? I have never even really thought about it other than feeling like mine are larger than they should be but I never really know, is it true or just the way I feel about my body you know? They are definitely larger around than my head is so... idk, any opinions on that one guys? Am I going to be depressed now that I asked? lol I hate it when that happens.
I was on hormones for 3 years with no results that made me look even as close to as masculine as you do post op though so definitely going to be contacting Garromone :)
I'm just at that weird point where i know it will be coming up in the next couple of years and I'm starting to "long" for it and "despise" my body. Impatience can get the best of us sometimes.
Man, you look amazing.
I have to admit that when I first read about Dr Garramone's 'Mansculpture' procedure, I quietly rolled my eyes and assumed that it was a huge waste of money and a completely unnecessary procedure for guys who were already saving up and shelling out for top surgery. Your before/after photos prove that it's anything but a waste. Congratulations on surgery, and happy healing!
Honestly it surprises me how many guys say they were convinced it was just a random unnecessary surgery. Not all of us have hips and love handles that just slip away while on hormones lol. I think we like to THINK we do, because there is a difference from before taking T and afterwards with the weight distribution. However, if you're not overly into fitness (especially cardio), very few of us actually end up with a male shape in our hips/buttocks/thighs area.
Most of the guys I know do look very male but really if you look at it objectively a good portion of us wouldn't immediately be taken as men if it weren't for our flat chests, facial hair, male looks, muscles, etc. Basically if you put us behind a sheet only showing us from the waist down in something fitting like tights most of the ftm men I know would still be pegged as either female or merely "uncertain" even with a good packer or bottom surgery.
I know for a fact that even being an average to small sized build with little extra weight on me to begin with I would for sure be taken as female in that sort of contest. I had never even heard of mansculpture until seeing this post today and had already thought of the idea on my own as something that would really be necessary for myself and like I said, I am not that big of a guy to begin with. Even 3 years of T did not make enough of a weight distribution change to my body to hide my hips and thighs. Those are, to this day, only hidden by clothing. The way i wear my pants, the cut I wear, the length and width of my shirt and how it hangs on me.
Mansculpture seems like something that is so obviously a good idea to me, in that it can make a huge impact in our ability to really pass without having to think of the little crap (like do these pants hug my thighs? lol) on a daily basis. I'm just surprised to see so many guys say the idea sounded so, untrue and a waste to them.
I am scheduled for surgery next month with Dr. Garramone and I would love to have this done while I am there. My fear is I have too much fat to make myself not look funny or will have too much skin. I don't have the cash, but I could take out a loan from one of a few companies that are highway robbery in the making. I plan to make sure I have all my loans on the table and talk to Dr. G's office tomorrow to see if it would be worth it for me. Then I have to decide if a loan that would put me in more debt for 3-4 years would be worth it. On the flip side..... this procedure was never offered to me and now that my date is set and my flight and stuff scheduled....I may not have a choice regardless of what they say because I can not afford to reschedule. I have this figured out financially and can't afford a revision.
Luckily, I love to work out and play sports but I have refused to do it since I moved a few months ago because I can not work out properly with a binder and I don't want to be seen as female. I gained 40lbs in the last 8 months (for various reasons) and I am not proud of that, but I look at it this way.... if I get it, I will look and feel better which will motivate me to keep up with it and look better. If I don't get it at least I for rid of the 1 item on my body I totally hate and keeps me from being as active as I would like and will have even more motivation to work out and look the way I have wanted for so long.
Either way it is a win. I can use money for surgery, or use it for the gym.
Quote from: Cowboi on July 17, 2011, 07:11:16 PM
I know for a fact that even being an average to small sized build with little extra weight on me to begin with I would for sure be taken as female in that sort of contest. I had never even heard of mansculpture until seeing this post today and had already thought of the idea on my own as something that would really be necessary for myself and like I said, I am not that big of a guy to begin with. Even 3 years of T did not make enough of a weight distribution change to my body to hide my hips and thighs. Those are, to this day, only hidden by clothing. The way i wear my pants, the cut I wear, the length and width of my shirt and how it hangs on me.
Cowboi your thoughts are mine identical.
Even being on T for almost 3 years myself, the fat redistribution just hasn't occurred and I hate how big my thighs are. I have to be careful on the fit of pants and shorts, etc. Yeah getting some sort of procedure with lipo is something I am going to def save up for now.
I always figured this part of my dysphoria was something I have to live with, no matter the amount of cardio.
Thought I'd put in my 2 cents. I was at Garramone's office a few days before OP and I opted for a modified mansculpture and I'm so glad I did.
I've been working out feverishly this year with the goal of getting back near my college basketball playing shape. I had gotten so big for a variety of reasons. Anyway, I lost about 50 pounds from Jan 1 to surgery date at the end of June. I still had/have plenty to lose though so I opted to give it a try.
When I say modified I mean I had my hips, outer thighs and butt done, but not my stomach. I opted for the areas that make a difference in gender looking form. The first week I was very achy, especially in the hips. I did not have any seepage at all after the surgery...but I swelled up huge. It was so frustrating. I gained 10 pounds in edema weight and several inches around the hips.
The first week I did nothing really...laid around and watched the Casey Anthony trial. But I was so tired of laying around. On the 8th day I pushed what Dr. G told me I could do and I went for an easy 2 mile walk to work the stiffness out (I was doing 6-10 miles pre op so it wasn't a big stretch for me). For me that was the best thing I could do. I'm not saying you should do it, because you have to know your body and listen to it. But it worked wonders for me. I continued that pace each day of week 2 and ended up losing the 10 pounds I had gained plus another 5 which would be my body starting to absorb the stuff that was taken off of it.
Week 3 I continued and I did 2 longer walks also...and got plenty of rest after them...and very carefully monitored all parts of my body and healing. Lost another 10 pounds that week which is about what I should have lost from the surgery. I also noticed that the light swinging of my arms while walking really loosened up my chest and gave me fairly quick return of range of motion.
I'm 3.5 weeks post op and have lost 15 pounds from my stable pre-op weight and 2.5 inches off my hips so far. The best part of that is one side of my hips is virtually straight in line with my love handles and has no noticeable female hip bulge. The other side is coming along nicely, but it had further to go. I have full upper body range of motion back. Scars are healing very nicely.
Bottom line...if you can afford it I highly recommend mansculpture. I'll never forget the 1st time I was at the deli counter post op and someone came up from behind and called me sir because I no longer had a Beyonce butt or Shakira hips. Great feeling.
Oh, and fwiw, I used just plain Under Armour compression shorts and have had no issues with them at all. They are extremely comfortable.
Push your body at your own risk. My body heals fast. That means nothing except that my body heals fast.
Just wondering, for all of you who have had 'mansculpture,' did you have any nerve damage in your hips/thighs/stomach or whatever area you had done? I remember that the lipo I had with top surgery caused some nerve damage, resulting first in numbness, then oversensitivity to pain, on one side of my chest. It's getting better, but I don't think it'll ever be 100% back to normal.
So, anybody experience something like that with the mansculpture?