My UK Gyno Journey

[LondonLadSE8]

Hello Good People,
 
Like many of you guys, I have been visiting this forum many times over many years. Thank God, my journey is now over but I thought I pay it forward for all the good advice/ideas I got from the forum.
 
Gynecomastia affects you both mentally and physically so eventually I’d had enough so I decided to take the plunge.
 
Put it this way, if you’ve gone past puberty and had it for years, it isn’t going to go away without external intervention.  For the avoidance of doubt, I’m, talking about true gyno here where there is a hard fibrous gland under your nipple not pseudo gyno which is typically excess fat.
 
Below is my honest and personal view, I am not affiliated to any surgeon.  I just want to give a little back to you guys. J
 
Surgeons
 
I was faced with the usual dilemma, what surgeon should I flaming choose?
 
It was between Dr. Karidis, (Dr. Nurein @ Be Cosmetics) & one other surgeon.  I went with Dr. Nurein in the end my reasons were due to locality (nearest to get to), speciality (as far as I am aware, he only does gynecomastia surgery now and had definitely done hundreds if not thousands of them over the years), price (he uses local (LA) rather than general anaesthetic (GA), personally I believe (GA) should be reserved for major internal surgery because it carries a higher risk ( I didn’t want to be so comatose that someone/something else was breathing for me but make your own decision.  I was able to have a chat with the doctor as he did his work.  On a scale of 0 to 10 for pain with 10 being the worst, I’d say it was at worst a 2 for a few seconds then 0 once local kicks in), and finally attitude to any potential corrective work if I needed it.  Dr. Nurein carries out his procedure in house so any corrective work he agrees is done on premises.  The other shortlisted surgeons carried out work in a hospital which meant even if the surgeon agreed to do any corrective for you you’d most likely have to pay for the hospital room/costs again, and it isn’t cheap!
 
Price
 
The price, well that varies depending on the grade of gyno you have and whether you need additional work like liposuction, body tightening etc.  I had gland extraction and lipo so it was circa £4.5k not too long ago.  It was good value I believe, and money well spent.
 
Preparation
 
If you can safely get in shape, make sure you do.  It usually makes a difference the surgeon’s work is easier, recovery is faster and results tend to be better because they don’t have to lipo so much.  In my case it’s the liposuction that’s the killer lol.
 
Timings
 
Needless to say, get it done in the preceding autumn or early winter if you want to enjoy the results in the summer.  Anecdotal evidence suggests you don’t want to wear a compression vest for a few weeks during the summer.  Even if surgeon says he’s booked for the date you first wanted be reasonably flexible, someone cancelled last minute so I still got it done in the month I wanted but on a different day.
 
Recovery
 
For me, I took a week off desk based work and I was ok.  Helps if you have someone around to help you wash or put clothes on though.  In respect of long term recovery, we are all different, for me, I consider myself middle aged, from operating table to standing in front of the mirror happily with no obvious signs of gyno surgery or any nipple sensitivity was about 8 months.  During the intervening period I roller massaged (occasionally) and applied scar cream (daily).  Incision surgery always leaves a scar but overtime they ordinarily fade to a point where it will not be noticeable to the casual observer.  If you understand that, you will be ok.
 
Outcome
 
Well I no longer have to worry about the tops I wear or their colour, or going on holiday, taking my top off, or whether the weather will be warm.  You can’t put a price on that kind of freedom.
 
I have only one regret, I wish I had done it sooner!
 
On a final note for true gyno, there is no cream, no exercise or snake oil that will get rid of it.  Gland extraction is the only way.  If there’s very little or no gland left then there’s no gyno, it’s as simple as that!
 
Pick a good surgeon and get it done if you can afford it.  Better still we are in the middle of a pandemic so if you’re working at home no one will ever know lol.