How much does it change your life??????????

[IT100]

I would say it changed my life massively. It just takes away all your self consiousness about your body image. Allows you to wear clothes that make you look good and if you look good, you feel good. It gave me more confidence with girls, lets me mess around on beaches with my mates etc without feeling I have to keep a t shirt on. I race triathlons now, which means wearing lycra, something I would never of done before and I recently completed an Ironman Triathlon (2.4 mile swim, 112 miles on a bike and a marathon run to finish it!) It was a long term dream to do it and I finished in 15 hrs 8 mins. I never would of done this with gyne.

Personally for me it changed my whole outlook and approach to life, which is massive really.

IT

[IT100]

Had it done almost 4 years ago now. When I first took off the bandages I thought the results were nothing short of horrific and could of easily sobbed... couldn't bear to look etc... I was pancake flat... which just looked weird.

But very quickly chest got it's shape back. And I reckon that my results were 90% there within 4 weeeks. The last 10% took maybe another 6 -8 months. I was very happy with the results after 4 weeks. and obviously even happier after 8 months. I cactually think my chest is one of my better body parts now!

IT

[Done_n_dusted]

@bkkross, and others (sorry for any typos, had a few beers)

I had my surgery with Levick in Nov 06. It took me a year before I felt comfortable, I wore my compression vest for quite a lot longer than a month. Even now if I apply pressure to my left side I feel a bit sore. I have some asymmetry and will need some lipo to the left side. I've already met Levick and he's agreed that in a few months he'll sort this out (without additional charge).

I think I've posted before that I think the recovery time is proportional to the severity and longevity of the condition. I've had gyne for ever (literally), even pre puberty I had "breasts". It doesn't take a great stretch of the imagination to see that the glands and fat that have developed over years (in my case) are more "firmly attached" than someone who develops the condition over a short period of time through illness or some other means. I firmly believe this is why my recovery time has been much longer than most people posting here that have only recently developed gyne (in total I had reckon I'd had mine for 20 plus years).

To answer the original questions of "How much does it change your life". The answer is "massively", if you start out with realistic expectations. If you think you'll end up with perfect pecs you'll probably be disappointed, most men don't have perfect pecs anyway so why some people believe that after surgery their breasts will become pecs of iron is beyond me. Before surgery I'd strongly suggest giving your surgeon a scenario and asking them whether it's realistic before committing to surgery; something like "I want to be able to wear a tight t-shirt and look normal" or "I want to be able to go on the beach without a top on and look like a normal bloke". For me I just wanted to be able to weart a t-shirt and now I can. So I'm happy.

And another thing ( )....I don't like Levick, I find him an impersonal, money grabbing, shallow, slimy bastard. But, as a surgeon I do believe he can help people with gyne. Yes, some people on here have had a negative experience, but proportionally I think these people are a minority - I'm not trying to belittle these people but I think any comments they make have to be taken in the bigger context i.e. he does 300+ of these operations per year and there seems to be only a few people on here that aren't happy.

I hope my ramblings help.