How to tell you've been binding too hard or too long...

[Miniar]

It's a serious and a legitimate question.

Last couple of weeks I've been feeling a little winded.
Most of the time that is.

It usually gets worse as the day progresses and by evening I feel exhausted just cause of how winded I'm feeling.

I've made my excuses. I have anxiety. I'm exhausted. I'm out of shape. I'm exhausted. My fibro's acting up. I'm exhausted. I smoked too fast. I'm bloody exhausted. etc, etc, etc,..
but I can't deny the possibility that I might be doing harm.

So.. How bad do I let it get before I stop binding?
How can I tell it's the binder? (And no, I'm not taking "a couple days off", it's not an option.)

Any other thoughts?

(On a positive note, I have a first appt. with a doc regarding the chesticles on the 29th, so this might be a Really short term problem.)

[Robert Scott]

My doctor said if you have trouble breathing your are binding too tight.  If you can breath it is okay

[emil]

what you're describing sounds like a "common side effect" of binders. i suffer from it too at times....i wear mostly velcro binders and sometimes i just velcro them together too tightly - i don't even notice it any more because it doesn't give me any immediate discomfort, but i believe that we do take a deeper breath once in a while without being aware of it and again without being aware of it we breathe "flatter" while wearing binders. i'd suggest a binder that has more give, or a velcro binder which you can loosen when you need to. after all we also tend to slouch more in the afternoon/evening so a binder doesn't need to be as tight at that time of the day.

[Miniar]

I've been binding for a long time, well over a year. None of my binders are "terribly" tight, mostly cause my chest is extremely soft and loose from that whole baby thing.
This is "new".
I wouldn't mention it if it was old news.

[xAndrewx]

Miniar do you take yours off at night? Also, do you cough hard a few times after it's off? Lately I've been having the same issue and between doing those first two things and making a point of breathing deeply a few good times every couple of hours, which is probably something most guys do and I just didn't think of it until recently, I've been feeling less winded and don't feel like I need an inhaler anymore.

[Miniar]

Don't sleep in the binder but no, I can't "cough" on demand.

[LordKAT]

The deep breathe thing is the issue. It is why you need to take the binder off for a few hours and wearing it over night is not a good idea. You can get a gadget to use which measures  your lungs air capacity. If you don't want to be short of breath, use it to max out your lungs to capacity each day and use the measurements to be sure you are not losing the ability to breathe right.  I lost almost a quarter of my lung function before HRT, the breathing exercises and not smoking have returned some but I will not likely ever get it all back. I started smoking again which is no help and have to quit again before I see my endo next. You usually get one of these breathing things when you have surgery for afterwards.

[jmaxley]

You can get a gadget to use which measures  your lungs air capacity.

I think the gadget's called a peak air flow meter.  I've got pretty bad asthma and have had one in the past (and probably need to get another one).

[LordKAT]

I think the gadget's called a peak air flow meter.  I've got pretty bad asthma and have had one in the past (and probably need to get another one).

Ye, that's the thing.