I've been binding everyday for the last three years, but not at night (I wear a loose-ish sports bar at night, or on one or two occasions, a loose binder). In the last couple of months I've noticed that on one side my rib cage has a 'dent' in it, about 3 ribs wide. I'm pretty sure this is due to one side of my chest being larger and therefore there has been more pressure on that side and those ribs, pushing them in a bit. It's not painful and not something I'm particularly concerned about, I'm just wondering if anyone else has had this, and if so, did your ribcage spring back after top surgery (if you had it)? Stopping binding is not an option, and hopefully I'll be having top surgery within the next year.

I had a dent-thing in my side back when my mother made me wear a bra. It should go away a while after you have surgery (since you aren't going to stop binding). Loosing weight can also help.

I've never used a normal binder for a few reasons but I just wanted to say that it is completely plausible. Think about people who wore a corset back in the day. After years of daily wear it reshaped their bodies, so I'm sure a tight binder could do the same.

I'm hoping due to the flexibility of the rib cage it'll go away once the pressure is no longer there. And once I can actually breath properly allowing my ribcage to expand like it's supposed to, that'll help.

If you're in the house alone, go without a binder. It's not really good for you to be binding more than 12 hours of the day. Also, it would be worth not binding at night completely. Wearing anything even remotely tight at night is a bad idea with temp changes and swelling along with body position. Even if something appears loose when up and around, lying with a binder on + temp fluctuations make binding at night bad news. People with loose watches who wear them at night often wake up with marks on their wrist where the normally loose watch is.

When it comes to bones they're not elastic so it's best to address the issue now than assume they'll just bounce back. Pressure is causing them to bend, there's not going to be an opposite pressure to bend them back out the way. Think of it like a car. If you have a small surface dent, in time it may gradually pop back out. But if it's a bigger, deeper dent, the only way to fix that is to hammer it back out from the inside.

Your binder is likely too tight.  You should ALWAYS be able to breathe properly with a binder on. I pass all the time and I have DD moobs!  I wear the same size binder I do out in the streets as I do in my Taekwon-do class where we train to almost passing out levels and I can breathe fine. If you're binding with more than one binder, try just one. If just one, go a size up. You need to take pressure off and see if the small dent will just relax over time and fix itself. If you keep putting pressure on it, it could just get worse and worse and it may well become irreversible! Si is right about the corset thing. There's women today competing for smallest waist size with corsets and their xrays show the ribs have been forced into the shape of the corsets so much so that their internal organs have been relocated.  They say if some of these women removed their corsets they could literally snap in half.  So changing the shape of your ribs is possible. 

As much as you want to be flat right now, try thinking of how you'll look post top surgery if you make the dent worse and it doesn't fix itself. It might be worth seeing a medical professional and getting xrays. That way they could see what is going on and if you're at risk of your ribs breaking!

Quote from: Jack_M on August 11, 2013, 07:51:35 AM
.When it comes to bones they're not elastic so it's best to address the issue now than assume they'll just bounce back. Pressure is causing them to bend, there's not going to be an opposite pressure to bend them back out the way.

I assumed you had meant the side fat was dented. If it's the bone though, Jack is right, you need to address is ASAP

Quote from: Jack_M on August 11, 2013, 07:51:35 AM
There's women today competing for smallest waist size with corsets and their xrays show the ribs have been forced into the shape of the corsets so much so that their internal organs have been relocated.

That's only for tight-lace corseting/waist training. And it's the intent of the act, just fyi.

But yeah, your binder may be too small. The tissue can only be compressed so much, so wearing a binder that's too small isn't actually going to help flatten them any more than a properly sized binder. If it is only the fat that was dented, then it should go back, though it can take quite a while.

I am aware that rib bones themselves cannot be bent, but I was meaning the muscles and tendons in the ribcage. They are by definition flexible, or else the rib cage would be pretty rubbish at doing it's job! Being 25, my bones have finished developing.

I know if I were to go to a GP, the only thing they would say is to not bind, and as it's not painful I doubt they'd do any x-rays or anything.

Up until last week I was living with other people so not binding at home was also not an option. No way in hell am I gonna let other people see what I myself cannot bear to look at. Even though I am now living on my own, I had dismissed not binding at home as not gonna happen due to horrible dysphoria, but I remembered a proper sports bra I have, so am giving it a go this evening. So far so good, so thanks for suggesting that. 

The only times I've worn a binder at night has been when I've been sharing rooms with other people, 3/4 times a year at most. As regards marks from watches, anything will leave marks if you lie on it for long enough, but I get what you mean.

As far as exercising and binders, I'm impressed you can do that much. I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that you are the exception not the rule as far as that is concerned, but I'd love to be proved wrong! Surely a binder by default will restrict breathing at least a bit as it's designed to apply pressure to try to squish flesh. My binder is the correct size (according to the sizing guide) and does not get me anywhere near as flat as I would like. There are many more reasons why I don't pass as consistently as I would like, mainly due to that fact that you wouldn't find 12yo boys in most of the places I spend my life!! I do actually have a looser binder, but don't really wear it out of the house because I am too self conscious in it as it doesn't bind as effectively.

Soren, no offense, but I think that was a bit of a massive "duh!" when I specifically referred to smallest waist competition, not much added info for that fyi :-/.

Plenty of guys work out or do sports with binders and can still breathe. The issue with it should be more to do with over heating and range of motion. It's far preferable to work out without a binder, that's why I bought my own weights, but it is possible. One of my mates is a distance runner and he just got back to it following top surgery and says that he loves being free and not constricted. He can run without a shirt now too. But as for breathing, there's not much difference.

There's a tendency for folks to bind super tight and it's overly flat. Guys aren't totally flat, they still have shape, so having a little shape is okay. If you're worried about it, baggier tees or an overshirts will hide things in a safer way than binding so tight you can't breathe properly.

Also, you could try working out. The bigger your arm and shoulder muscles, the more your chest just looks buff.

I guess how folks can cope is that they breathe more from the diaphragm, but it is extremely important to have periods where you aren't binding. Even muscle damage isn't always fixable, and if you have a dent in your side caused by binding, they most likely would do an xray, or at least should. Now that you live alone, try and one up on your dysphoria and continue just wearing a loose bra and put a baggy tee on so you can't notice. Then just maybe a tee by itself at night.

When I refer to watch I don't mean marks from lying, people get them lying on their back. It's caused by the body swelling in certain places at night because of position and temp fluctuations.

If you can't take a deep breath with your chest with a binder, and wear it too long during the day (and night), you also run a high risk of pneumonia and that would mean going a long time with no binding whatsoever! :-/

I find the best way to handle dysphoria is the same way I've handled intense pain with broken bones. I keep telling myself that soon this will be nothing but a memory. I'll look back on it but it will still be over.