17 And Need Help (NHS)

[Flaj]

Hello to everyone on the site. Im 17 about 5"11" and weigh close to 12 stone. Ive been browsing this site for a while now and ive suspected that i had gynecomastia. So today i went to the doctors and told her that im worried about the fat on my chest..as its been like that since i was a child you can even see it mildly in my baby photos. So she says well we dont touch anything until 25 i was in shock but soon recovered when she aksedif she could have a look. So i pulled up my top and she says in a symathetic tone "hmm severe gynecomastia" but before i could say anything she reasurred me and said that i needed to have a talk with a specialist. She also said theres a new way that this operates as the patient is alowed to choose where he/she wants to have their appointment so she gave me this print out with my password, reference number and a list of choices. The choices that were given on the paper are below;
A) One stop breast service - Birmingham treatment cente @ City hospital
B) General Breast Clinic - University Hospital Birmingham @ Queen Elizabeth hospital
C) Breast service - Treatment centre @ Good Hope hospital
D) General Breast surgery @ Sandwell General Hospital

So me being eager to fix the problem i phones City hospital as soon as i got back home...(Im 17 so i cant afford to go private and city hospitals only 10 mins away from me) they say that they needed to register me and that they would phone me back around lunchtime to give me appointment times. So they phone me a couple of hours later and i get given the choice of next moday @ 9, 10 or 11 am..i chose 9. She said she would post me the details, she also told me the name of the person i was going to speak to but i forgot and ill update when i get the letter.

Could anyone advise me on if ive made the right choice ?
and i was reading on some other posts that the people were going to see plastic surgeons...i dont think the person that im going to talkto is a plastic surgeon so maybe he wont do want i want him to do (gland removal and lypo?) i think hes only a breast surgeon? has anyone done this op with a breast surgeon? how did it go?

And i know it still early days but im eager to get this problem fixed...ive had it for too long

Sorry about the stupid spelling/grammer and other general stupid mistakes

[GynO_DuDe]

Definitely made the right choice ...

Its 10 minutes away from you ... and thats not even the best bit!

I went to Dr.Levick (Private Surgeon) at the Priory Hospital in Birmingham (took me about an hour to get their from St.Albans), and told him about my experience with the NHS however he told me that because I also had severe gynecomastia any one with severe gynecomastia can have the operation done for FREE on the NHS .. I told the one in my area didnt do it, he was like well the Birmingham NHS does it.

BUT as ive already been messed around for over a year on the NHS and now im 20 I dont want to wait ... Ive also saved up 4k so im getting it done in less than 2 weeks with Levick on the 17th August.

Good luck with yours mate, I know when I was 17 theirs no way I could have afforded 4 grand to get this op done! .. Its costing me an arm and a leg but I know it should be the best 4k ive ever spent in my life.

[Flaj]

17th August Nice going

and yeah i got a bit worried when the doc said we dont touch anything until 25 :0

But im a little worried that they will only take out the gland as the person is most likly going to be a breast surgeon and not a plastic surgeon

[sickman]

your in brum
right next to levick
go see him man
talk to ur parents too
i wouldnt trust the NHS for gynecomastia...

[GynO_DuDe]

your in brum
right next to levick
go see him man
talk to ur parents too
i wouldnt trust the NHS for gynecomastia...

True, true, true ... Never know though, the NHS might be aright ... but I suppose this operation aint about 'mights or should be'z' ... I think you should see Levick for a consultation to be honest because your in brum. Beg your rents to sort out the funds for the op.

[Flaj]

Ill try... but ill not get my hopes up
and my dads had a fair few ops with the nhs and they were all fine for him so hell just use that against me lol
but ill try
See how the appointment on monday goes first

[steve21]

your in brum
right next to levick
go see him man
talk to ur parents too
i wouldnt trust the NHS for gynecomastia...

Hang on a minute... You wouldnt trust the NHS for gyne?

The NHS has many highly skilled plastic surgeons with particular expereince in dealing with cases of gynecomastia. Many of them while primarily private, do carry out operations on behalf of the NHS and paying for a procedure definately doesnt equate to a guaranteed good end result.

Please dont swallow the NHS bashing FUD dished out by the gutter press tabloids. Its not without its faults and i accept that getting treatment can be a postcode lottery, but it certainly isnt as bad as some would have you believe and you have the assurance that its highly regulated.

I would want to see a plastic surgeon however, not a general suregeon who could treat it as a mastectomy, which would be disastourous. There are people here unhappy with their NHS treatment but the same is true of Levick. He definately wouldnt be my choice if i was paying.

[Jackd]

I find it odd that you have been referred to breast clinics.. the doctor really should have referred you to an endocrinologist.. you're only 17.. you need to get your blood tests done and checked by an endo, to check your hormone levels and so on... before anything else IMO. I'm only a few years older than you, and done the same recently, I was sent for blood tests then referred to an endo.. they found I have low testosterone and a possible pituary tumor so I've had MRI scans etc.. waiting on the results... It would have been pointless me getting surgery done before finding all this out as the chances are it would have come back, or at the very least, I wouldn't be completely "fixed" ..

Just my thoughts anyway...

[Flaj]

your in brum
right next to levick
go see him man
talk to ur parents too
i wouldnt trust the NHS for gynecomastia...

Hang on a minute... You wouldnt trust the NHS for gyne?

The NHS has many highly skilled plastic surgeons with particular expereince in dealing with cases of gynecomastia. Many of them while primarily private, do carry out operations on behalf of the NHS and paying for a procedure definately doesnt equate to a guaranteed good end result.

Please dont swallow the NHS bashing FUD dished out by the gutter press tabloids. Its not without its faults and i accept that getting treatment can be a postcode lottery, but it certainly isnt as bad as some would have you believe and you have the assurance that its highly regulated.

I would want to see a plastic surgeon however, not a general suregeon who could treat it as a mastectomy, which would be disastourous. There are people here unhappy with their NHS treatment but the same is true of Levick. He definately wouldnt be my choice if i was paying.

Whats Mastectomy???

[Flaj]

I find it odd that you have been referred to breast clinics.. the doctor really should have referred you to an endocrinologist.. you're only 17.. you need to get your blood tests done and checked by an endo, to check your hormone levels and so on... before anything else IMO. I'm only a few years older than you, and done the same recently, I was sent for blood tests then referred to an endo.. they found I have low testosterone and a possible pituary tumor so I've had MRI scans etc.. waiting on the results... It would have been pointless me getting surgery done before finding all this out as the chances are it would have come back, or at the very least, I wouldn't be completely "fixed" ..

Just my thoughts anyway...

I dunno, maybe they might ask me to take the tests when i see the consultant??

[Flaj]

I got the letter from the hospital yesterday and they say that my consultant is Mr H Brown??? i  dunno if thats guna come much help for you lot as i dont know nothing about surgeons 

And if this is for general surgery should i go back to my doctor to ask for a Plastic Surgeon or will the general surgeon forward me on?

And i forgot to add in my first post that i go gym 4 times a week and i do taekwondo/thai boxing 4 times a week

[RUI]

Whats Mastectomy???

Skin-sparing mastectomy: In this surgery, the breast tissue is removed through a conservative incision made around the areola (the dark part surrounding the nipple). The increased amount of skin preserved as compared to traditional mastecomy resections serves to facilitate breast reconstruction procedures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastectomy

My surgeon called the condition" Bilateral gynaecomastia" and the surgical procedure" Bilateral simple mastectomy".

I have it in black and white on my discharge summary note 

[Flaj]

huh? so isnt the procedure just the same for both ops just that they have a different entry route? 
.. im confused 

[TommyA]

Dont let a general surgeon do the operation, insist that this is done by a plastic surgeon. The General surgeon may not have much experience on this operation and their techniques perhaps less careful.

Make sure you ask at your appt how many they have done, how they actually do the operation, how they will make it look natural

I would not go to Levick either - results seem to vary enormously

[steve21]

your in brum
right next to levick
go see him man
talk to ur parents too
i wouldnt trust the NHS for gynecomastia...

Hang on a minute... You wouldnt trust the NHS for gyne?

The NHS has many highly skilled plastic surgeons with particular expereince in dealing with cases of gynecomastia. Many of them while primarily private, do carry out operations on behalf of the NHS and paying for a procedure definately doesnt equate to a guaranteed good end result.

Please dont swallow the NHS bashing FUD dished out by the gutter press tabloids. Its not without its faults and i accept that getting treatment can be a postcode lottery, but it certainly isnt as bad as some would have you believe and you have the assurance that its highly regulated.

I would want to see a plastic surgeon however, not a general suregeon who could treat it as a mastectomy, which would be disastourous. There are people here unhappy with their NHS treatment but the same is true of Levick. He definately wouldnt be my choice if i was paying.

Whats Mastectomy???

Wiki "In medicine, mastectomy is the medical term for the surgical removal of one or both breasts, partially or completely. Mastectomy is usually done to treat breast cancer; in some cases, women and some men believed to be at high risk of breast cancer have the operation prophylactically, that is, to prevent cancer rather than treat it. It is also the medical procedure carried out to remove breast cancer (tissue) in males."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastectomy

Basically, its a procedure for the treatment of breast cancer. This procedure has been perfomed on men to rid them of gyne but it can result in possible nipple loss and horrendous scarring. This was years ago however, before the emergence of far more successful methods.

The name for the procedure that you will undergo is bilateral gynecomastia excision and, in my case, liposuction.