I'm looking into breast augmentation, and I had a few questions.

1. Are saline implants still the only one allowed in the US still?

2. How fragile would my breasts be with the saline implants or implants in general? i.e. Do I have to worry about my breasts 'popping'?

3. Would I need some kind of letter to get this surgery?

4. On average, what would the cost be for implants?

I'm doing my own research, but I was trying to find out the personal experiences of the girls who have gotten augmentation.

Implants supposed to last about 15 years I believe,
though the info on this is spotty.
Expect other operations for sure after the first one.

I don't think you need a letter, since its
not really irreversible like SRS. though the surgeon
will probably want to talk to you.

There are male CD's who've had breast implants,
so hey, you can get anything if you want to pay for it.

Re: SOC, I think you're "supposed" to have a minimum of one year of HRT prior to breast implants.  At a presentation by a surgeon famous in the trans community, however, the good doctor said that no one actually follows that rule, rather it's all about the money.  Really think about it though; if you haven't got enough breast tissue yet to cover the implant, your chest could end up looking awful, like some of the girls here: http://www.secondtype.com/breastimp.htm.  The bolted-on look is not too sexy.

Lia

the surgeon will most likely want to speak with you first... I dont think most plastic surgeons even know about the HBSOC and probably wouldnt follow them anyways...

they do allow Silicon implants in the US again, there of much higher quality than the older models...  Theres the silicon gell type and the newer "gummy bear" type... the later having no chance of rupturing... but requires a much larger insicion to inscert the implant through

for good implants your looking at 7-10k though you could get them done for about 5k by most plastic surgeons...  This is US pricing... my ex was constantly considering implants for herself and allways telling me about the boob-jobs her coworkers had gotten and who they had seen so yeah...

Posted on: February 14, 2008, 02:22:54 AM

---

Though if your on HRT Id recomend waiting atleast 3 years in before getting any sort of implant...  it takes a long while for your breasts to grow and you dont want to end up OVER endowed because you were impatent.

Quote from: Angel on February 13, 2008, 04:25:24 PM
I'm looking into breast augmentation, and I had a few questions.

1. Are saline implants still the only one allowed in the US still?

2. How fragile would my breasts be with the saline implants or implants in general? i.e. Do I have to worry about my breasts 'popping'?

3. Would I need some kind of letter to get this surgery?

4. On average, what would the cost be for implants?

I'm doing my own research, but I was trying to find out the personal experiences of the girls who have gotten augmentation.

I did some research with a breast surgeon and he told me that saline implants are not very good and go out of shape quite easily. Also he said the silicon implants they use these days are very different and better to the one's used in the past.....

Quote from: Angel on February 13, 2008, 04:25:24 PM

1. Are saline implants still the only one allowed in the US still?

No, silicone breast implants are back; there are also the ones called gummi bears.

Quote from: Angel on February 13, 2008, 04:25:24 PM


2. How fragile would my breasts be with the saline implants or implants in general? i.e. Do I have to worry about my breasts 'popping'?

I have saline implants.  C cup.  I guess it depends on the size.  My breasts are very sensitive and bounce like any other breast.  I just had my BA one year ago, and thankfully I didn't develop any complications but perhaps it is still too soon to tell.

Quote from: Angel on February 13, 2008, 04:25:24 PM


3. Would I need some kind of letter to get this surgery?

I don't think you need a referral letter to get a BA, but I am not really sure.  I had mine along with my SRS, so I suppose my therapists' SRS letters worked out for the implants as well?

Quote from: Angel on February 13, 2008, 04:25:24 PM

4. On average, what would the cost be for implants?

$5000 to $6000 depending on the type of implant (and how it is implanted), the surgeon you choose, the location (city, state) where the operation takes place. 

Quote from: Angel on February 13, 2008, 04:25:24 PM

I'm doing my own research, but I was trying to find out the personal experiences of the girls who have gotten augmentation.

Dr. Larry Foster in Lake Tahoe (California) is very well-known in the community and his fees are very affordable compared to other surgeons'.  I understand that he is also very good at what he does...


tink

I went to dr. Zukowski in Chicago. It was around $5500. They both wound up under my armpits so he did a revision. The left one stayed up but the right one came back down and to the side. When I went to Dr. Kunaporn for SRS he tried to fix the right breast but still no luck. We made the decision to fix it the night before SRS. I just wanted everything to be over and not have to go through 6 months of waiting and more anesthesia back in Chicago. Dr. Zukowski is going to try to fix it in March, but he was very upset that I let someone else work on it and because of that, contrary to his free revision policy, it is going to cost me $$. Dr. Zukowski goes in through the nipple so there is barely perceptible scarring and I had no loss of sensation. After Dr. Kunaporn worked on my breast, I wound up with a scar in the crease and a pretty big one on the side. On the other hand, the SRS procedure worked out great! I would have thought BA would be the easiest part because it's such a common procedure, but...not for me. I guess any surgery is a gamble.

I have felt the gummy bears.  I think they would look great but I would still be afraid of them oozing.  That stuff is still kind of runny and sticky.  Some surgeons want to overdo the breasts to make you look stereotypical female.  But if they make you end up looking like you belong slithering around a stripper pole I can't see that looking very natural.

Kristi

The ideal breast size depends on your current band size, I'm down to a 32B, yeah that's small even for a women, and hope I reach C, but I think that it also has to do with how fit I am.

I'm not 36-26-37, which for someone 6 foot tall, is very thin. I think I'll probably be 34-26-37 when I finish shrinking (those muscles sure took a lot of space!). If I gained a bit of weight, I'm guessing I'd already be C. I've lost 33 pounds since the start of HRT, that's a hell of lot of weight to lose, I was 188 -> 155. I'll probably wind up around 140 pounds at the end of the process.

I'm the proof that muscle mass is the main driver of weight loss, I've got plenty of muscles, and losing weight is very very easy, just activate them a bit and wham they eat up calories like there is no tomorrow.

Quote from: Kristi on February 21, 2008, 11:54:34 AM
if they make you end up looking like you belong slithering around a stripper pole I can't see that looking very natural.

rofl.......
what a way with words!

Bev

Keira,

You seem to be the resident fitness expert so I have a question.  Right now I am 33-32-39.  I have smaller A cup size breasts.  My waistline has a stomach pouch as I have gained weight with HRT.  Do you think that exercising frequently and losing the stomach fat will help breast growth?  I do remember you posting about metabolic syndrom.  I have been working out (lots of cardio) after work nearly every night. 

I don't like the thought of BA and will not get it no matter what size I end up.  I think that as I have only been on HRT for a year I am going at an ok pace.

Audrey

If you lose weight, there's a chance you'll stall at A cup and your band size will probably decrease. That's what happened with me, went from 38B to 32B, that's a huge difference in size, its not just the breasts that shrunks, the back muscles and pectoral shrunk too. It depends how much muscles you had initially. Since you've got a 33 bust, I'm guessing you didn't have much upper body muscles initially. Me I had a 40 bust with no breast tissue initially, now with breasts I'm around 35.5.


Audrey, you should concentrate more on building muscle mass instead of doing aerobics. If you muscle mass is low and you don't sustain it, aerobic doesn't work very well, it will just shrink your muscles and fat at the same time making it harder and harder to lose fat. That's the most common problem with women doing exercises. Then they complain they don't lose weight!

So, do muscle building exercise for the buttocks, and core muscles and the upper leg muscles.
Don't do little piddly weight, that won't build muscles. Find a trainer at the gym to devellop a serious programme for those parts.

As an extra, this makes you look shapely :-). Look at figure skaters, they've got a LOT of lower body muscles and they look GREAT.

Quote from: Keira on February 21, 2008, 09:16:54 PM



Audrey, you should concentrate more on building muscle mass instead of doing aerobics. If you muscle mass is low and you don't sustain it, aerobic doesn't work very well, it will just shrink your muscles and fat at the same time making it harder and harder to lose fat. That's the most common problem with women doing exercises. Then they complain they don't lose weight!

So, do muscle building exercise for the buttocks, and core muscles and the upper leg muscles.
Don't do little piddly weight, that won't build muscles. Find a trainer at the gym to devellop a serious programme for those parts.

As an extra, this makes you look shapely :-). Look at figure skaters, they've got a LOT of lower body muscles and they look GREAT.

i can add also try to do some weight lifting  such as curls. and some bench press alone with come single

weight lifting exercises. as these will also build up your upper body in the curse area and as well as the

strength in your upper  body area also another thing to  Audrey to remember is to start small and work

your way up to the bigger wieghts . and do it slowly. so that way your body can handle it. and so you

wont get so sore by starting small and working your way up to the bigger weights . my self right now iam

at lefting 25 pound hand weights . and iam doing bench press too. which iam lifting  about a 100 pounds

right now and curls iam doing about 45 pound. but thats where iam at for me right now .  hope that helps

you audrey . and also too ask your or a trainer for some tip,s as they are always willing to help with

different types of training exercises and so forth

If you determine your one lift max and work at 85% for short series 3x to 5x (and say 3 of them
with breaks in between),
you can go near your initial max. Usually its the number of repetitions that kill you, not the weight.

IF you don't train near your max you don't improve, you gain resistance which will help you lift
50x a smaller weight, but not build muscles.

When you get too tired to lift near maximum, stop because you'll just injure yourself
and you'll not be able to lift enough weight anyway to improve.

IF you want to build muscles you also have to heavy on the proteins, less on fats and use carbs as your main source of fuel instead of fats. Especially those that digest over longer periods, so you've always get a steady fuel reserve instead of big rush of energy that can't be spent and is thus stored as fuel.

Quote from: Keira on February 21, 2008, 09:16:54 PM
Audrey, you should concentrate more on building muscle mass instead of doing aerobics. If you muscle mass is low and you don't sustain it, aerobic doesn't work very well, it will just shrink your muscles and fat at the same time making it harder and harder to lose fat. That's the most common problem with women doing exercises. Then they complain they don't lose weight!

So, do muscle building exercise for the buttocks, and core muscles and the upper leg muscles.
Don't do little piddly weight, that won't build muscles. Find a trainer at the gym to devellop a serious programme for those parts.

As an extra, this makes you look shapely :-). Look at figure skaters, they've got a LOT of lower body muscles and they look GREAT.

I completely support this.

I'm a professional athlete now(yes even in transition) and a multi-certified personal trainer making a living off of telling people this stuff.

Fat is lost by increasing the metabolism, by which the best means is to increase how much the body burns 24/7, not just doing long calorie burning sessions.  I have a 3% bodyfat and I don't do cardio.  I've gotten clients down from obese to 12% and then to bodybuilding contest prep, 5%, in 14 months, from building muscle and eating like a pig, not being anorexic and dying on the treadmill.

The information this woman is giving out really needs to be respected and taken into account a lot more.  I don't know why she isn't in the 100+ rep range.

^ But Kalt, I have a question,

Lets say someone starting transition has just recently begun HRT.

And lets say that they are muscular in a manly build.

1) Wouldn't bench pressing, lifting wieghts and dumbells make it harder for them to lose a "male build"?

2) So if question 1 is YES, then they're supposed to concentrate more on the lower body- forget a little about the upper body?

3) Isn't 3% body fat a bad thing for females(considering you are one mentally)? Or is this simply a false myth and that it will make the more curvy actaully?


By the way, I used to be pretty strong. I had a 4% body fat at only 14 yrs old. I didn't even pick any wieghts at that time or workout...But the irony is that most guys are now much bigger than me and I haven't completed male puberty(so happy I didn't)