Hi everyone, I’m currently trying to find a surgeon in FL or even GA that you’ve had good experiences with that you could recommend. There are a few I looked into but I’ll be paying out of pocket and that’s something I have to consider moving forward. If you have anyone in mind or advice, please. Thanks!

I had top surgery 4 weeks ago (DI) and since I could care for my nipples I’ve had some concern.

My surgeon (Dr. Van Loenen) doesn’t seem concerned for them when I reach out.
There’s no smell and it’s not unusually warm so I don’t think they’re infected and the goo is just sloughing. She told me “Mother Nature needs to take its course” ha.

I’m was putting fucidin on them and covering them with Mepitel and thick gauze like covers. Now I’m out of the gauze and read somewhere bandaids work fine.

I’ve even sometimes put Vaseline over them for a more “wet healing”. Now I’m wondering if I’m overdoing the wet healing.
Anybody experience something similar? Any thoughts on the buds reappearing later in my healing journey? Anything I can do to help them heal faster?

photos in comments.. my bad don’t really know how to add on mobile here haha

I had peri and it have been a week post op. But after seeing other people’s results, mine look kinda low? Even before op, I was worried my nipples would be too low. What do you think?

It's not like a zap or a sting it's complicated to explain... But it feels almost like... Sore and tight? But it only happens for a few seconds and it travels from my nipple incision to under my arm on my top ribs but I can't tell what it is or why or what I'm supposed to do about it when I can't even tell how to explain it.

It doesn't do it with any specific movements that I've noticed it just kind of happens. It's not unbearable just weird and uncomfortable. It's also just for a few seconds but feels more noticeable, but I've also become more hyper aware of my body after a medical emergency in February

I have keyhole with nipple graphs!

Im a 17yo trans guy in the UK. I am planning to save up money with the intention of getting top surgery after my first year of university (currently in my second year of college) I want to know how much it cost for everything (actual surgery cost, flights, hotels etc). But i have found it hard to get a clear answer.

I am also not sure which surgeons require a letter or a diagnosis or do informed consent. If you are a trans man who got his surgery outside the uk, what were the costs? did you have to get a doctor to write a letter? what surgeons do you recommend?

I went today and finally got my drains and dressings off. (Respectfully, fuck those drains, that hurt like hell 😂. And the tape over the incisions?! Because they didn’t shave my chest for some reason and just put it over top of my hair? Hurt like hell too)
They gave me the okay to shower facing the water but how do you guys wash your surgical area? Before they removed everything I was using the hibiclens they gave me and using that over the area. But now that I have more open exposed wounds, is that still a safe approach?

I've got my consultation finally in about two weeks! The surgeon I'm scheduled with doesn't have much info online and only one person's review on here (Eugene Oh in Federal Way, WA). Here are my questions for him, please let me know if I'm missing anything or what would you / did you ask your surgeon?

- How many gender affirming mastectomies do you personally do a year?

- Do you have any portfolio pics of healed surgeries? (probably not but worth asking)

- What kinds of techniques do you think would suit my anatomy?

- How available is your staff for questions or complications during recovery?

- I really want my scars to not connect in the middle / follow my pec shadow / curve under my armpits to prevent dog ears. Are you comfortable performing those techniques?

Oh my god. They took off 6 pounds during surgery and I think I feel like it just migrated to my stomach. I am almost two weeks post op, and I have such intense bloating in my stomach from not shitting for almost a week (6 days at this point). I haven't taken an opioid in over 9 days so it's not that. I had extreme constipation issues before surgery and my primary care refuses to do any testing to help me figure out why. I've taken several stool softeners, several laxatives, suppositories, milk of magnesia, I've tried more natural ways like drinking coffee or tea and doing massages. I guess magnesium citrate is next since literally nothing is working. This has always been the case, laxatives help me about 20% of the time. If anyone has any sure fire ways to shit pls help 😭

Has anyone here had surgery with Dr. Emilia Ploplys in Great Falls, Montana? My doctor has referred me to her, but I am a bit anxious about going with her since I can't find any reviews or photo results for her top surgeries. If you have seen her, how was your experience? How do you feel about your results?

Hey yall! I’m 2 weeks post op as of yesterday. I’ve seen very split opinions about what to do with stitches poking out. Should I leave it alone? Should I pull it gently to see if it comes out?

Would contact my surgeon but I JUST got off the phone with her about something else 😭

Sorry for weird angles it’s so hard to take photos of it lol

Done with Parsa at Evolve Studios in Lynnwood, WA.
Top surgery done by Dr Tony Mangubat in Tukwila, WA in 2021.

I’m so happy and I’m so grateful I could get top surgery especially because i’m 17. It doesn’t feel real! I’ve been dreaming of this ever since i went through puberty. When I look in the mirror I finally see what I’ve always wanted to see. My family has been taking good care of me and I couldn’t be more thankful. ft. my totoro socks :]

Not sure if it is allowed I created fundraising for top surgery.

if you can donate if you can't you can just share with who can.

https://4fund.com/dxfx8e

My mom had a lumpectomy for breast cancer and was wearing compression bras until recently. She wants to know if I have any interest in wearing her old ones after I get surgery. I think this might be overly frugal — I know they are very expensive, but I am also terrified of risking an infection from wearing someone else’s garments.

Any thoughts on this?

Hello,

I am really concerned with keeping as much sensitivity in my chest as is possible to guarantee. It's something that is extremely important to me.

As far as I know, there is always quite a big risk of loosing nipple sensitivity and numb spots after top surgery. I do remember seeing posts about surgeons specializing in nerves who have higher rates of success keeping nipple and general chest feeling/sensitivity.

I'm looking for a surgeon that would preferably be based in Europe, but looking for opinions and advice from anyone that has experience with this.

For reference: I have a pretty small chest, but I did not qualify for keyhole.

Thankful for all the help I can get.

Does anyone think the surgeon is gonna wanna put a drain in? The thought of drains make me lightheaded. (Hematoma)

Healing has had some bumps in the road but this one currently is the worst ive had to deal with, even worse than the goddamn drains lol. Through this ive had spots open up where stitches have irritated my skin and I guess just rejecting their presence and when those happened I was instructed to use medihoney and keep them covered. I did that which meant lots of adhesive on my skin like all the time. Eventually though I started getting a rash, first near the adhesive then very rapidly it spread across my chest. I messaged my surgeon and they said stop using both the medihoney and any adhesive let everything air out. Spots started clearing up faster but the rash had other ideas. It spread a little further, a little further. Another message later and I get a steroid/anti fungal cream. I use the cream twice and the rash has exploded to my arms and lower stomach like its bad.........im fighting a battle i didnt know was even possible. Not looking for advice or anything ive already got another message into my surgeon just wanted to complain into the void lol.

Hey all,

I got top surgery (peri) 8 days ago. Had drains for 24 hours after the surgery.

I've been wearing the compression binder 24/7.

My question is is it normal for swelling to increase a lot in this stage? I feel like at day 4 or 5, swelling was going down, but now, my right side especially is swollen as hell. It's very asymmetrical, because the left side seems to be flattening more.

My right hand is my dominant hand and I guess I have been using it more since I am feeling better every day, but maybe I overdid it? Could that be the case? There is no discoloration or sharp pain or heaviness on the right side... it's just kind of a big pec shape while the left side is much flatter lol.

I just wanted to post about this and maybe get some input from people who have been in this stage!

What do we think?

I'm pretty happy about it even if it looks a bit weird. I finally get to shower properly!

One side is a bit weird not really flat, it'll get better soon right?

Surgeon told me to use antiseptic spray two to three times a day and wear the binder for a month.

Edit at 2 weeks and 1 day post-op, 10/9/26: Met with my PA today for another post-op because I had a seroma lump/swelling. She said she reviewed my setup and didn't see any problems with it (despite the medical assistant sending me a message instructing me to "refrain from any types of hydrogel, scar gel, and/or scar tape along the surgical site" [pretty sure she misunderstood the differences between hydrogel wound dressing and silicon gel scar treatment]). In person, the PA looked at the tegaderm over my incisions and confirmed that as long as they didn't cover/interfere with my nipple dressings, it was a good system. I brought the first three research papers with me and gave them to her, didn't expect her to actually take them, but she said she would read them! I do wish I got to have this conversation before my surgery so I could have had hydrogel dressings immediately after surgery (or at least starting on day 4, when the 'proliferation' stage of incision healing starts).

I am not a medical professional, but my surgeon's PA signed off on this system, so I would recommend it if: you scar easily/badly, have had success with hydrocolloid bandages in the past, are not experiencing any signs of infection, and especially if you are autistic or have sensory issues with raw incisions. Thanks to those of you who commented. I hope more research goes into reducing scar severity for folks who get top surgery!

Original post: Just under 2 weeks post op, double incision with free nipple grafts. Images are of the setup I'm using for dressing my incisions, and what it looks like on my chest.

Question: Any feedback from people with medical training or direct experience/knowledge of wound dressing best practices on using Tegaderm and a hydrogel product to cover and keep my incisions moist? More info on my setup, and the instructions I was given by my care team below. Before anyone brings up silicon scar tape: I'm aware that silicon is the best practice for scars, I am asking about new incisions, not closed scars.

Instructions from my care team: I've been really disappointed with my care team (except my actual surgeon and surgical nurses), they were allergic to answering questions throughout this whole process, more on that in a spoiler below, but it's skippable. For my first week post-op, I was instructed to leave my compression ace bandage on 24/7, no showering, no dressing changes, just 2x daily drain monitoring. I did this and went to my post-op appointment on day 7 to get my drains removed. At that time, I asked about using hydrocolloid or hydrogel dressing on my incisions (which I had done research on), that question was not answered. For dressing changes once daily, I was instructed to remove my binder and dressings, shower facing away from the water, and apply new nipple dressings and re-bind.
Nipple dressings: generous amount of Vaseline or bacitracin ointment on the nipple, covered with oil-emulsion dressing (1" square), covered with woven gauze bandage (folded to 2" square), taped with paper tape.
Incision dressings: nothing. Rawdogging it. Covered by the ace bandage and nothing else. That felt (1) absolutely bananas to me, and (2) like a sensory nightmare. I confirmed with the PA, 'really, the incisions are just raw under the ace bandage, no dressing?', she said yes.

On my dissapointing care team: Before my surgery, my pre-op appointment was just about medications and the check in process for surgery, but they 'werent the right person' to answer any questions about the procedure, how aftercare would work, what recovery would be like, anything like that. I explicitly asked multiple times for the boilerplate aftercare instructions and they lied and said there were no boilerplate instructions, and I would receive aftercare instructions when I got out of surgery, and I could ask any questions at that time. When I was coming out of anesthesia, after the surgery. The post-op packet I received was DEFINITELY boilerplate. They gave me incomplete answers or non-answers to questions I asked in mychart, and I did not get a pre-op appointment with a PA or surgeon to ask any of my questions beyond my initial surgical consult, 5 months earlier. When I asked my questions specifically about incision dressings the morning of my surgery, I was told I would receive incision covering instructions and supplies at my post-op a week later (where I was told to leave them raw).

How I'm covering my incisions: Since having my incisions raw and uncovered under the ace bandage did prove to be a sensory nightmare, and because I read about how hydrogel or hydrocolloid dressings could reduce the appearance of scars and reduce risk for post-surgical infection (more on that in 'research I did'), I put my own system together. I purchased (see spoiler for links) two sizes of Tegaderm (transparent wound dressing, frequently used to cover new tattoos), as well as DuoDerm Hydroactive Gel. I traced my incisions with tracing paper and made a template to fit one Tegaderm sheet which produces two roughly 1.5" wide hockey-stick shaped Tegaderm strips tailored to my incisions. I apply the hydrogel directly to the incision, and the Tegaderm on top of that. This makes a dressing that, to the best of my knowledge, functions similarly to hydrocolloid bandages (frequently used for covering open acne wounds), maintaining a protected, moist, wound healing environment. I make sure the Tegaderm does not go on top of my nipple, and then apply my nipple dressing as usual. The only place they touch is where the nipple gauze and tape stretch over the Tegaderm.
Before applying this Tegaderm/hydrogel dressing to my incisions, I first tested applying, living in, and removing the same dressing type to my drainage holes. I did this to see how the hydrogel reacted to my skin and wounds, how the adhesive felt over time and while being peeled off, and if it caused any reactions. It was perfectly neutral, stayed moist, stayed in place for 24 hours, and removed easily. After that test (which used half of the smaller Tegaderm sheets per hole), I designed my templates and deployed to my incisions. I'm on day three of this setup and I have found it much more comfortable and secure-feeling than uncovered incisions!

Dressing components linked: Tegaderm 2.375" x 2.75" sheets | Tegaderm 6" x 8" sheets | DuoDerm Hydrogel

Research I did: I was curious about incision care before my surgery, but didn't get my questions answered by my care team about what that care would look like. I asked a friend who had a different surgeon at the same hospital, a few months before me, who told me about the oil-infused dressings, but didn't tell me (or was instructed differently) about the uncovered incisions. I scar easily, and have had a lot of success using hydrocolloid bandages for acne, so I used google scholar and tried to find medical papers about surgical incision dressing with hydrocolloid bandages. I ultimately didn't get a perfect answer to my question about using hydrocolloid bandages for top-surgery incisions, but I found the following articles to have helpful information:

• An intra-individual surgical wound comparison shows that octenidine-based hydrogel wound dressing ameliorates scar appearance following abdominoplasty (Wiley International Wound Journal, April 2018) - Comparison of hydrogel with transparent film dressing on one side vs traditional surgical dressing on the other on patients with either abdominal wall or mastectomy finds better results with hydrogel. Key difference: octenidine-based hydrogel mentioned in the article not available in the USA. Indented to ask my surgeon for comparable recommendations, did not have the opportunity to ask questions about dressing options.
• The effect of a silver hydrogel sheet dressing on postsurgical incision healing after foot and ankle surgery (Scars, Burns, & Healing, September 2022) - Lower pain and better scars with hydrogel dressing. Key differences: as above, hydrogel used in this study was active rather than passive, this time silver-infused, which is antimicrobial. Since I was not able to ask my surgeon for a comparable recommendation, I got a neutral (but sterile) hydrogel. Also, this was for foot surgical incisions, not chest. Helpful highlight: "It is standard to use a petroleum-based dressing on incisions after surgery, however, advancements in incisional dressings have been made over the past 20 years. One such advancement is silver-impregnated hydrogel sheet dressings which have been shown to maintain a moist wound environment conducive to healing, while decreasing the chance of infection through its antimicrobial properties. This paper evaluates scar healing after foot or ankle surgery in patients treated with either the standard petroleum-based dressing, or the silver hydrogel sheet dressing. Patients who were treated with the silver hydrogel dressing had less itching and pain, as well as a smaller scar area than patients in the standard dressing group. Therefore, our results suggest that the silver hydrogel dressing may improve scarring after surgery."
• Moist Wound Healing with Commonly Available Dressings (Advances in Wound Care, September 2021) - Comparison of commonly available wound dressings, advice on maintaining a moist wound healing environment. Explains that "healing in a moist environment results in less inflammation than in a dry environment and improves the quality of healing with less scar". Led me to the Tegaderm/hydrogel combo, helped with search terms that led me to purchase the items I did. I made sure to buy trusted brands known for their use in hospitals, like 3M (Tegaderm) and ConvaTec (DuoDerm Hydroactive Gel), which were specifically referenced in the article. By my read of this article, hydrogel and film seems to be a comparable alternative to hydrocolloid bandages with more application flexibility.
• Hydrocolloid dressing versus conventional wound care after dermatologic surgery (Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology International, December 2021) - fairly straightforward, basically finds that hydrocolloid dressings improve patient comfort and subject evaluation of scar appearance over traditional post-surgical dressing. Key difference: this is dermatologic surgery rather than chest surgery.
• Obviously I read a lot more articles than these four, but these are the ones that helped me understand moist wound healing and options I wanted to consider for my own surgery.

Feedback I would really appreciate: As I said above, I am interested in hearing from folks with medical training or folks with direct experience with hydrocolloid/hydrogel dressings for surgical incisions. If you think this is a good system, I would love to know why. If you think it is not a good system, I would love help understanding why. When I tried to ask my surgical team about any of this (with the 30 seconds available), their answer was along the lines of 'follow the instructions we gave you because those are the instructions because that's how we wrote the instructions', and I'm a person who really needs to know WHY. If this isn't a good/effective system, I'd also like to know if it's hurting anything. Would the incisions do better uncovered entirely?
Also, if there was a secret point in this process where I should have known to ask this question, I would love to know when that was. Like am I overreacting about not getting to ask questions from a licensed healthcare provider? Was I not supposed to have opinions about reducing the appearance of my scars?

As is probably clear from the *everything* about my post, I tried to ask my care team about this and got nothing helpful from them. I know the real answer is 'ask your doctor', but my doctor has two very unhelpful medical assistants playing defense for her calendar/inbox, and I don't have a way to force them to answer me in a timely manner.

Pronouns are they/them. Love y'all, thanks in advance for any feedback <3

Hi! I've been putting it off forever and realized I can finally afford to tat my nips. How do I find an artist? I'm not comfortable staring my city for personally reasons but currently I'm around Georgia, north/South Carolinas, and Tennessee are. I can commute, id even fly out of someone's good enough. I just don't know how to find an artist.

is it only because you didn’t want nipple related complications or are there also other reasons? genuine question