#Mastectomy

[thimmyneutron]

scars

✂️: 3/21/22

[nqueso-lies]

Just a heads up because I'm not sure how things will unfold.

I found a lump two weeks ago, and I had a doctor's appointment for it. Today, I discussed my options and long, emotional story short, I'm getting a mastectomy.

I'm thankful I caught it early. Due to everything my mother went through, I am unfortunately very knowledgeable of the signs.

It's fucking weird. I'm moving back to LA for the surgery because I want the oncologist my mother had. This isn't a "boohoo feel sorry for me" post this is just an "I don't know where I'll be mentally in a week or so and definitely not three months from now."

But I'm hopeful for the future.

This is also a post to remind you to be aware of your body and go to your doctor at the first sign that something is off. ❤️

[kiitoskiitos]

confusing comic about existing as a trans person during confusing times of trans visibility.

[the-transgenda-agenda]

Friendly reminder that you can just tell your surgeon to make you "as flat as possible," and they'll do it.

[that-trans-lad]

Excited with progress starting to show.

[nihilism-0]

I'm very tired, good night little weirdos

[a-boy-too-weird]

How free you feel the first time you wear a binder and how free you feel the last time you take it off

[princefleabitten]

Tittus Deletus🎉

[cool-frog-hours]

Peace and Insomnia - Comic made for class about the first time I ran after getting top surgery this past November.

[twobruhsinahottub]

Psa that when a transmasc only gets one surgery or only wants one surgery, that may not necessarily be top surgery. Personally i like my boobs and wanna keep them. But i would like to have a penis or at least some bottom growth. A lot of people think all trans guys want top surgery and all trans guys dont want bottom surgery. This isnt true. We're all different. Also, gender affirming surgery isnt exclusively bottom and top surgery. It can also be hysterectomy or ffs or [insert name for the adams apple being shaven down, i forgot the term sorry] as well as other things. If it affirms your gender, it is gender affirming.

[that-trans-lad]

It been a long day enjoy my selfies.

[nihilism-0]

[sp1derb0yfriend]

Today it is my birthday. I turn 2 today, because my life started 2 years ago. Not my only life, but the one I'm living now, the one I've come to love so, so much. I remember when I woke up after surgery. "How are you feeling?" asked the nurse. I remember, in my dazed state, I just smiled and the tears rolled hot out of my eyes. "I just feel so happy," I said. That's the only thing I said. I kept crying. When I got home I looked into the mirror. What was so phenomenally strange about it was that I looked so... familiar. So normal. This was the body I'd always longed for, the one I always saw through the glass. Now that it was reflected back at me, it did not provoke any surprise with its newness, not at all. "Finally, at last, I get to feel normalcy. It all just finally feels so normal." My body did not feel alien anymore. I cried all throughout the next week.

Today I passed by the hospital on the way back from the gym. I was making a side trip to buy my roommate some over the counter medication for her stomach. I'd only realized the date about 10 minutes beforehand. I didn't feel upset when I realized I'd forgotten my "birthday" until that moment. I felt glad. "This is what it was all for," I thought. "Normalcy. For this day to pass and feel like any other. To not have each day before or after this date counted in the margin of every class notebook. To almost forget about how much it meant." But never completely of course. I could never forget. I stopped walking at the driveway of the hospital and sent in a mental wave of my hand, a "hello and good luck and I'm waiting for you" to someone who was soon to be laying on a table inside two years ago.

[askganon]

you have a sword right? can you slice off my tits. not in a sexy way but in a trans way (i can’t pay for surgery)

I can, but I am no medicine woman. A mastectomy via the sword will not be as clean as one performed by a careful hand.

[crymsonkira]

Vi undergoes top surgery, and Caitlyn helps her through recovery (Transmasc lesbian Vi)

(Based on a true experience of a Transmasc Lesbian)

[boy-gender]

Post-Top Surgery Weight Gain: Will My Breasts Grow Back? (Nope!)

I've had a couple people message me asking about this privately, and it was something I had a fear of when I was getting ready for top surgery, so I wanted to address it in a public post:

After top surgery, your breasts will NOT grow back, even if you are not on testosterone. No, not even if you gain weight.

The chest is, to borrow Shrek's wisdom, like an onion, and has many layers. The ones top surgery is concerned with are the chest wall (muscle), the breast tissue, fat, and skin, in that order.

Your chest wall is a bunch of muscle that protects your organs. This will not be removed or touched. Your breast tissue sits on top of that, and this is what will be removed during surgery, leaving just enough tissue to make your chest proportional to your body. Very few people have totally flat chests. On top of this is body fat, much of which will also be removed or reshaped during surgery. Then there is your skin, and your nipples. Typically nipples (including areola, the area around your nips) will be taken off, trimmed down to a smaller 'masculine' shape, then grafted back on. Or you don't have to get your nipples back at all! I didn't, so it's up to you.

To reiterate: your breast tissue will NEVER regrow. Your nipples and areola will NEVER regrow, regardless of if you are on T or not.

However, FAT may fluctuate in this area. If you lose weight, whether on T or not, you will probably lose fat here and may have loose skin, which many surgeons can address in revisions. If you gain a substantial amount of weight and are not on T, you may gain more fat here- take a look at your close female relatives. When they gain weight, do they gain it in their breasts and side-boob area? When they lose weight, do they go down a cup size?

If you are on T, testosterone will change the way your body distributes the weight it gains. Look at your close male relatives. I'd be willing to bet money that when they gain weight, they gain it predominantly in their stomach. When you are on T, your body will probably begin to redistribute the way it gains fat to a more 'typically male' pattern, like the stomach, as opposed to hips, thighs, and chest.

Something to keep in mind, especially for fat people but really for anyone getting top surgery: YOUR ANGLE IS DIFFERENT! Look down at your chest right now, pre op. You can see aalllll the way down your cleavage. But if you asked someone standing in front of you if they could see all your cleavage, they could not. Even if you were naked, you seeing your own chest from a top-down angle makes things look further out/rounder/bigger than how other people see you.

Please keep this in mind when you look at your surgery results- the fat that was left behind and reshaped on me looks bigger/rounder to me, looking down, than to other people looking at me. And this is only in resting position! Move your arms around (once it's safe dont do this freshly out of surgery please dear god), raise them over your head, put them out to your sides and T pose. Look at the way the fat moves under your skin and around your body; how it looks 'flatter' in some positions and 'rounder' in others. This is totally normal! This is what skin and fat are supposed to do, and do on everyone who has skin and fat! These are NOT breasts, and they will NEVER be breasts again.

I hope this helps some peoples fears be assuaged. I know it can feel silly to ask if your breasts will grow back, but it is a valid fear, especially for plus size people, and it is also a fear I hope is now at rest. Your breasts will never come back. You're gonna look and feel great.

tl;dr- no, your boobs will never come back after top surgery, regardless of whether you are on T or not. you might have leftover fat here or gain fat here, but this is a universally human experience, and happens to cis men just as much as any other person. also, your angle viewing your own chest from the top-down is a misleading optical illusion that is not accurate to what other people see looking at you front on.