Okay, so. Hi everyone. This is my first post, my first serious inquiry down this road. I have a lot of questions.

My first, and biggest question regarding MTF transition relates to breast growth when on hormone treatments. At 16 years old I had very large, firm, and sensitive male breasts. Perhaps my body was trying to tell me something. Anyway, they made my life hell at the time so I elected to have them surgically removed. And for a time, all was well.

I have always had a secret desire to be a woman but I kept it locked away. I have been crossdressing in secret since childhood. I could never figure out why and I wondered if there was any kind of connection to my male breast growth. Now at 24 I am exploring those desires, apparently with enough interest to actually make inquiries.

I have heard that in cases of FTM reversal regrowth of breast tissue is not possible and I am concerned the same may be true for me. My idea of success in this endeavor rather hinges upon my ability to grow natural, sexually sensitive breasts of my own. Originally I had hoped that the hormone treatments would simply enable me to grow new breast tissue. I do not want implants.

I'd appreciate any advice any of you can offer on this subject. I have a lot more questions to ask in addition to this. And thank you.

Hey Elle

Firstly, welcome to Susan's    Great to have you here - looking forward to seeing you around the forum.

As to your question, I would think that if they removed the glandular tissue it might make it unlikely that you would be able to regrow your breasts. Sorry I can't be of more help than that. It's possible someone on the site has had a similar experience. However, the best thing to do would be to ask someone who is medically qualified to give you all the pertinent facts, that way you will know for sure.

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Cheers

Grace

Im so sorry, but there is a very real chance that you will never be able to grow breasts again.
In the end implants may be your only option, as for nipple development i can't say.

If it's of any consolation, even trans women who didn't undergo a mastectomy prior to hrt still find it hard to grow anything bigger than A or B cup
good luck

If you've had actual breast tissue removed, then unfortunately it's unlikely that you can grow breasts again - as you've noted, trans men and cis women post-mastectomy can't either. You basically get one shot at breast development. However, that's IF what was removed was all of your breast tissue and ducts; if they weren't thorough in the surgery and/or what they took was only fat, there's still hope.

(I had gynecomastia - actual breast tissue development, if small - before HRT, and it turned out that my body was super sensitive to estrogen, especially in the breast growth department. So it's possible that if a few variables line up in your favor, including that the surgeons assumed a "male" body wouldn't need a full mastectomy and that your own apparent gynecomastia indicated high E sensitivity, that you will be able to finish your breast development on HRT now. You'll likely end up smaller than you would have been without surgical intervention, but there still might be "real" breasts. As for nipple/areola development, that too depends on both whether you had any before and whether the surgery interfered with the necessary structures.)

Wow, that's completely devastating. I know this is a very specific case but I would be most appreciative if anyone could give me anymore information. Maybe I should make a topic with gynecomastia in the name to attract more specific responses?

The only person who could tell you is the surgeon that worked on you. Read a copy of your medical records and find out.

You can try, but I do think this is likely to be a pretty rare situation. The closest analog might be to cis girls who had similar surgery midway through puberty, though I admit I don't know if that's a thing that happens all that often either. (Since most cis men with gynecomastia who have surgery are not going to try estrogen afterward, it's hard to know what would happen if they did. However, that surgery can also be called mastectomy... and when done as thoroughly as a cis woman's full mastectomy, there should be as little hope of regrowth, sadly.)

Your best source of actual information would be the surgeon(s) who worked on you; they should know precisely what they removed and how. I know it's been 8 years, but you do still have the right to your medical records.

Incidentally, my speculation that they removed breast tissue is based on the fact that you described your breasts as "firm" - some conditions called gynecomastia and surgically corrected as such are basically just the removal of fatty tissue (=liposuction), but that would feel like fat, not firm and dense and solid. There *are* some instances of regrowth after gynecomastia surgery, but that requires that some glandular tissue have been left in place, which is why the only person likely to have answers is your surgeon.

Quote from: elledaily on October 05, 2014, 02:00:10 PM
Wow, that's completely devastating. I know this is a very specific case but I would be most appreciative if anyone could give me anymore information. Maybe I should make a topic with gynecomastia in the name to attract more specific responses?

Hi Elle

Sorry, but cross posting is not allowed

Please review rule 12

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Thank you

V M

Apologies, I'll refrain from reposting in the future.

I will talk to my surgeon about it, thanks for the advice.

Okay, so let's say that breast tissue regrowth is not possible. Would it still be possible to achieve normal arousal/sexual excitement with implants and HRT? Honestly, I think it would be impossible to feel like a woman if my breasts were good for nothing at all.

I am probably wrong about this but I would think that since I have never been on hormones I would be starting in the same place as a normal male starting HRT -- I have no breast tissue. Is it crazy to think that hormone treatment would spur the growth of new tissue?

I think another idea along with talking to your surgeon is talking to a therapist in gender issues

Unfortunately, you would not be starting in the position of a "normal male," as both males and females have rudimentary breast tissue - in rare situations cis men can even lactate, for example - and it's that basis which allows trans women to develop breasts naturally. Basically, there's a "seed" of breast development present in everyone at birth, and it can flower into full-grown breasts once per person. HRT will trigger that growth once, but if you really did have naturally developing breasts, that means your body's own estrogen already tripped that switch (which is unlike most cis men) and it can't be done twice... unless it was only partially finished *and* some of the glandular tissue survives. Hopefully your surgeon will have good news for you on that front.

Nature tends to work that way, in that everyone has the genetic blueprints for both possible outcomes, but you only get one shot at each - trans men who have top surgery don't regrow their breasts, trans women who have bottom surgery don't regrow a penis (thank GOD!!).

As for implants, I hear that sensation can sometimes be lost, but isn't always; if you still have erotic sensation after your first surgery, maybe your odds are better than average.

That's extremely discouraging. Perhaps I made a grave error in having the breast tissue removed. At the time I really believed it was my only shot at being "normal" so I didn't give the surgery a second thought. I have no sexual sensation in my nipples but I do have feeling. Plenty of time has passed for healing so I don't have any numbness. I just assumed that, as a male, nipple stimulation was not supposed to really do anything for me. But I know for a woman, and even a trans woman on HRT that is absolutely not the case as the hormones remap your erogenous zones.

I imagined my experience as transitioning to a woman to be beautiful in a sense...growing natural breasts that have erotic sensitivity just seems like a natural part of the process. I don't know how I would manage if that experience  was lost forever with no hope of recourse. I feel robbed. I would settle on implants if I absolutely had to but I don't think I could live with completely nonfunctional breasts that have approximately no erotic function.

My breasts are regrowing after a bilateral reduction. However I asked the surgeon to retain the breast capsule while removing other tissue.  Hope that you achieve the outcome that you desire

Safe travels

Aisla

I had surgery for gynocomastia about a decade ago and after two years on hormones never really got beyond a A cup. It will hinder your development unfortunately.

I don't know, I heard they can regrow. I guess it depends on if they nipped the problem in the bud or not. (Sorry). I was going to have surgery, but I just never got around to it, cause I'm lazy and a lot of people liked them, meaning women. Ironically, I don't even like women, but I'm an EOD, Equal Opportunity Dater.