Top surgery, also called
After the breast tissue and any excess skin is removed, the remaining tissues must be repositioned to create a masculine contour to the chest.
A mastectomy is used to remove all breast tissue if you have breast cancer or are at very high risk of developing it. You may have a mastectomy to remove one breast (unilateral mastectomy) or both breasts (bilateral mastectomy).
During a simple mastectomy, the surgeon removes the breast tissue (including the nipple and some of the skin) and the tissues that cover the chest muscles. Rarely, the surgeon also removes the muscles of the chest wall. This is called a radical mastectomy.
Top surgery, or male chest reconstruction, involves the surgical removal of breast tissue and tailoring of the remaining chest skin, when needed, to generate a masculine chest contour. Usually, the surgery involves reducing the size of the areola, the darker skin surrounding the nipple.
Ask your surgeon about this. Some surgeons say you can shower after 24 hours, but you should shower with your back to the shower head to protect your healing incisions from the direct spray of the water.
We remove breast tissue and excess skin to create a masculine-looking chest. Top surgery is more than simply removing tissue. It includes careful contouring of muscle and nipple to create a pleasing, natural-looking chest.
Well the short answer is yes, breast tissue can grow back after surgery, under certain circumstances. It's more likely to happen to younger women whose breasts are still growing. Especially if they also have significant amounts of glandular tissue.
Background: Nipple preservation at the time of mastectomy is increasingly performed to enhance the overall result from the reconstruction. Unfortunately, some of these patients may lose their nipples for oncologic reasons or because of necrosis.
A skin-sparing or nipple-sparing mastectomy removes your breast tissue but spares the skin and/or nipple to use when reconstructing your breast. Mastectomy with breast reconstruction.
Healing takes time.
Having body parts removed takes a long time to heal. Some parts of my chest still feel swollen, I had a seroma drained last month and feel like another one is forming in the same spot and there are days when I still get very, very tired. This is not a surgery with a quick recovery time.
A mastectomy scar is across the skin of the chest and may go up into the armpit. After surgery to the lymph nodes, the scar is in the armpit and should not be noticeable from the front. To begin with, the scar will be red if you have white skin, or darker if you have dark skin. It will also be firm and slightly raised.
Reports indicate that 40 to 60 percent of patients who undergo mastectomy suffer from chronic pain — pain lasting longer than three months.
The biggest factor that you'll need to consider in choosing your top surgery is the size of your chest. Small to moderately-sized chests, particularly those with good elasticity, do very well with periareolar surgery.
It's encouraged that pain medication is used when needed, but patients typically find that pain during recovery is very minimal and subsides after a couple of days. Apart from some pain, patients will experience slight discomfort from the swelling and bruising of the chest, but this can be managed with ice packs.
MYTH: You Will Regret Getting FTM/N Top Surgery
Regret after top surgery is extremely rare, and is almost never related to transition regret, but instead can be related to having had complications, or to results that are not optimal.
Recovering from Top Surgery
For several weeks after surgery you should not lift your arms greater than 90 degrees away from your body or over your head. You should also not push, pull or lift anything greater than five pounds during these four weeks.
The bolsters are removed by the surgeon after 5-7 days and the patient is instructed to cover the nipple grafts with a non-adherent dressing (eg, Telfa) treated with Aquaphor or Vaseline for another 2 weeks. The new NAC eventually darkens with pigmentation over the next 3-9 months.
Smaller injuries can heal with proper care. However, if a nipple is completely damaged or removed from the body, it won't grow back.
The female breast is mostly made up of a collection of fat cells called adipose tissue. This tissue extends from the collarbone down to the underarm and across to the middle of the ribcage.
On average, the range of breast tissue removed for most reduction surgeries is in the range of 450 and 600 grams. If you have larger breasts or you desired more tissue removed, you may be able to shed as much as 1 kilogram of weight from your body.
The amount of breast tissue left may also be affected by the surgical technique. Studies of skin-sparing mastectomy revealed that 5-60% of cases have residual breast tissue on the skin flaps [7,8,9]. The risk is higher in flaps thicker than 5 mm.
But new research shows that having a high BMI is not a major risk factor in top surgery. A 2021 study from Georgetown University found that although rates of minor complications are higher for patients with obesity, acute complications from top surgery are comparable for patients with and without obesity.
You will be sore and will need to rest for about a week after surgery. During this time, you may need someone to help you at home. We do want you to walk around the evening after surgery to prevent blood clots form forming in your legs. Avoid strenuous activity or lifting more than 5 pounds for two weeks after surgery.
Keyhole Top Surgery Procedure
This technique is recommended for people with an A cup-size and lots of chest skin elasticity. A small incision is made along the bottom of the areola.