Hard Lumps - general queries w/ linked pics!

[The Owl]

Hi all - first off I would like to say thanks to the Doctors and Members on this forum for all the information and sharing of experiences, it's been a great source of knowledge for me.

Brief summary of where I am at - I'm in my 20s and have had the gyno since before I was 10 years old - I am not even sure how old I was specifically as I have no real memory of inspecting my own chest without mantits!  I've always been varying degrees of chubby, never anywhere near obese.  Right now I am as in shape as I have ever been in my post-pubescent life - I did lots of cardio and weights on the chest area recently I saw an overall improvement in my body generally, but despite this the moobs were still ridiculous - take them away and I would basically look pretty ordinary.  So I decided that I shouldn't have to achieve and maintain the body of an athlete just to not have breasts, and opted for the surgery. Having said that I plan on regular work out and sport once I am back to full mobility, and I have cut about 90% of junk food/sugar that I used to consume regulary.

I had my procedure about 3 weeks ago - I went for lipo (ultrasonic/vaser) only, no excision, based on the analysis of the surgeon during my consultation with him, where he said that my problem was due to fat in my chest rather than gland.  I wore my compression garment 24hrs a day for two weeks, then started taking off at night for a few days for comfort, but now im back to 24 hours as the soreness has reduced a lot and Im aware of how beneficial the vest is.

As of now my chest is definitely smaller than it was before, but at the moment I have these lumps on the lower parts of both my breasts, causing them to still look like breasts.  It feels uncomfortable when I poke these areas, and they are harder and more defined than any other part of my chest.  I currently massage/press these areas at every opportunity rather than going for a 'twice a day' routine.  I will do it when I have nothing else o do with my hands!

I have drawn in red roughly where these hard lumps are.  The areas above and next to the red are really soft, and there doesnt seem to be anything hard directly 'behind' either nipple too, which as I understand is where gland would form?  As you will see in some of the pics, the areola itself is pretty flat, so its not that the nipples themselves are pointy, but this hard mass beneath both breasts is causing my chest to protude in a way that resembles pre-op gyno!

I have seen my doctor again and he didn't really go into detail other than saying to allow 3 more weeks (6 weeks post op) for swelling/bruising etc to subside, and to see my final contour.  While I 100% trust him, it's always better to get more opinion - or at least give me something to do to pass the time.  My question is basically this - Is what I am experiencing common, and how long post surgery can I expect it to go away?  Is this what is referred to on here as 'scar tissue'?  Is there a big risk of it staying here for more than a month?  Please let me know what you think.  

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[ddh]

I'm 12 weeks post-op and I have the same area of hardness and swelling after my surgery.

But, as the weeks have progressed, both areas of hardness have slowly reduced in size to very small areas. And I hope it continues to slowly disappear.

I try to remember to massage these areas (I presume they are scar tissue), but I loose interest pretty quickly.

I recommend giving it all more time.

[The Owl]

I'm 12 weeks post-op and I have the same area of hardness and swelling after my surgery.

But, as the weeks have progressed, both areas of hardness have slowly reduced in size to very small areas. And I hope it continues to slowly disappear.

I try to remember to massage these areas (I presume they are scar tissue), but I loose interest pretty quickly.

I recommend giving it all more time.

How bad is it now after 12 weeks?  Do you remember it at 3?  Does it still affect the contour, or hurt or inhibit you in any way?  Do you feel pain when you press it?

[kaka]

i am 5 weeks post op and i am experiencing the same thing. although my chest look flatter than before the surgery, but my chest still protrude outward like breast a little bit. i fell hard lumps in both breast that i didn't not feel 3wks ago. i hope it goes down.

[ddh]

You asked:
How bad is it now after 12 weeks?  Do you remember it at 3?  Does it still affect the contour, or hurt or inhibit you in any way?  Do you feel pain when you press it?

For Me:
The hard lumps are much smaller at 12 weeks than they were at 3. Now, they are only located immediately around and under the nipples. They don't hurt (unless I massage them really hard) and I have full range of motion. (At 3 weeks I felt discomfort if I stretched too much and didn't quite have full range of motion).
But my contour has changed. it was better at 3 weeks than it is now. My boobs have kinda dropped some since week 4. I preferred the contour at 4 weeks than what I have now.

[The Owl]

You asked:
How bad is it now after 12 weeks?  Do you remember it at 3?  Does it still affect the contour, or hurt or inhibit you in any way?  Do you feel pain when you press it?

For Me:
The hard lumps are much smaller at 12 weeks than they were at 3. Now, they are only located immediately around and under the nipples. They don't hurt (unless I massage them really hard) and I have full range of motion. (At 3 weeks I felt discomfort if I stretched too much and didn't quite have full range of motion).
But my contour has changed. it was better at 3 weeks than it is now. My boobs have kinda dropped some since week 4. I preferred the contour at 4 weeks than what I have now.

Thanks for the reply - I have seen your 4 week after thread and it looked good then.  Have you thought about putting up some new pics?  Even though I read you preferred the contour at 4 weeks, has the reduction in the lumps meant that the protrusion of the breast has also decreased?

i am 5 weeks post op and i am experiencing the same thing. although my chest look flatter than before the surgery, but my chest still protrude outward like breast a little bit. i fell hard lumps in both breast that i didn't not feel 3wks ago. i hope it goes down.

Hi kaka, same areas for the lumps?  You had only lipo too?  Did you talk to your doctor about it?

Any of the board's Surgeons willing to shed some light on this?

[kaka]

I had Lipo and Pull - through technique. ( tissue were pulled out from the same Lipo incision) when i took off my vest the 3rd day and felt the area the lump/breast tissue used to be Pre- op, it was gone. now it seems like they came back. I haven't talk to my DR yet because all they are going to tell me is to give it more time to heal. My next visit will be in Mid June.(3 months post - op) so if i still have the problem, then i can tell him about it. for now, i am just working out trying to lose as much fat and gain muscle to see the end result.

[marshall09]

I'm in the same boat as most of you guys. I just had a small amount of glandular tissue removed. Now 12 days into my recovery most of the swelling has gone down but I can feel scar tissue that is twice as hard and big as the glandular tissue that was removed. This scar tissue is causing the areolas to protrude the same as they did before i had the surgery.  I know it's still earlier to tell but I just don't see this scar tissue completely dissipating which is really disappointing considering the amount of money i spent on this.

[DrBermant]

Hi all - first off I would like to say thanks to the Doctors and Members on this forum for all the information and sharing of experiences, it's been a great source of knowledge for me.

Brief summary of where I am at - I'm in my 20s and have had the gyno since before I was 10 years old - I am not even sure how old I was specifically as I have no real memory of inspecting my own chest without mantits!  I've always been varying degrees of chubby, never anywhere near obese.  Right now I am as in shape as I have ever been in my post-pubescent life - I did lots of cardio and weights on the chest area recently I saw an overall improvement in my body generally, but despite this the moobs were still ridiculous - take them away and I would basically look pretty ordinary.  So I decided that I shouldn't have to achieve and maintain the body of an athlete just to not have breasts, and opted for the surgery. Having said that I plan on regular work out and sport once I am back to full mobility, and I have cut about 90% of junk food/sugar that I used to consume regulary.

I had my procedure about 3 weeks ago - I went for lipo (ultrasonic/vaser) only, no excision, based on the analysis of the surgeon during my consultation with him, where he said that my problem was due to fat in my chest rather than gland.  I wore my compression garment 24hrs a day for two weeks, then started taking off at night for a few days for comfort, but now im back to 24 hours as the soreness has reduced a lot and Im aware of how beneficial the vest is.

As of now my chest is definitely smaller than it was before, but at the moment I have these lumps on the lower parts of both my breasts, causing them to still look like breasts.  It feels uncomfortable when I poke these areas, and they are harder and more defined than any other part of my chest.  I currently massage/press these areas at every opportunity rather than going for a 'twice a day' routine.  I will do it when I have nothing else o do with my hands!

I have drawn in red roughly where these hard lumps are.  The areas above and next to the red are really soft, and there doesnt seem to be anything hard directly 'behind' either nipple too, which as I understand is where gland would form?  As you will see in some of the pics, the areola itself is pretty flat, so its not that the nipples themselves are pointy, but this hard mass beneath both breasts is causing my chest to protude in a way that resembles pre-op gyno!

I have seen my doctor again and he didn't really go into detail other than saying to allow 3 more weeks (6 weeks post op) for swelling/bruising etc to subside, and to see my final contour.  While I 100% trust him, it's always better to get more opinion - or at least give me something to do to pass the time.  My question is basically this - Is what I am experiencing common, and how long post surgery can I expect it to go away?  Is this what is referred to on here as 'scar tissue'?  Is there a big risk of it staying here for more than a month?  Please let me know what you think.  

3 weeks can be very early after surgery with some techniques.

Posting Standard After Gynecomastia Pictures can help other better understand your concerns. Putting up the before surgery pictures next to the after surgery images can show what progress has been made with the surgery.

Early after surgery swelling can mask residual deformity or contour advantage.  How Tissues Heal After Gynecomastia Surgery depend on many factors. Firm tissues after surgery can be residual gland, fat, but also can just be healing tissues or scars.  Different surgical techniques injure tissues to different degrees. 

I see many patients who complain of residual "Swelling" Puffy Nipple Gynecomastia after another doctor's surgery.  There are many possible problems causing such a deformity.  The most common is remaining gland behind the areola as seen in these Anatomy of Puffy Nipple Drawings.  Check out the images with the link for remaining gland after surgery to see what I mean. 

Here are just a few of the many examples I have seen and treated:

• Revision Gynecomastia After Failed Liposuction By Other Surgeon
• Revision Puffy Nipple Gynecomastia After Failed Liposuction By Other Surgeon
• Revision Gynecomastia After Liposuction and Partial Gland Excision By Other Surgeon.
• Revision Gynecomastia After Partial Gland Excision
  

The body typically needs to heal before considering revision surgery. Rushing into secondary surgery can be a mistake unless there are complications that need to be addressed or the next surgery is component of a staged procedure.  Time to tissues softening can vary depending on the original problem, what was done, after surgery care, Scar Care, After Surgery Compression Garments, and many other factors. Options depend on the problem to be treated. Time can range from 6 months to a year but can vary depending on many issues best explored with your doctor.

Hope this helps,

Michael Bermant, MD
Learn More About Revision Gynecomastia Chest Sculpture

[The Owl]

Thank you for the reply Dr. Bermant

It seems that swelling/apparent tissue irregularity post-surgery can be the cause of any number of things

Is there any way I can identify what is the likeliest cause for my case of swelling?  All I really want to do is put a rough timeframe on things (when I should expect to stop feeling any pain/restriction and when the swelling might cease and so on) so I don't worry about it constantly, feel the lumps throughout the day etc.  It seems to be able to do this I need to try and somehow figure out what is causing the swelling.

The worst thing would be to find out it was gland or something... But surely the fat that I had liposuctioned wouldn't have been able to conceal lumps in my breasts like this without me noticing (My moobs originally weren't actually THAT much bigger than the pictures in my first post)

[DrBermant]

Thank you for the reply Dr. Bermant

It seems that swelling/apparent tissue irregularity post-surgery can be the cause of any number of things

Is there any way I can identify what is the likeliest cause for my case of swelling?  All I really want to do is put a rough timeframe on things (when I should expect to stop feeling any pain/restriction and when the swelling might cease and so on) so I don't worry about it constantly, feel the lumps throughout the day etc.  It seems to be able to do this I need to try and somehow figure out what is causing the swelling.

The worst thing would be to find out it was gland or something... But surely the fat that I had liposuctioned wouldn't have been able to conceal lumps in my breasts like this without me noticing (My moobs originally weren't actually THAT much bigger than the pictures in my first post)

That is why seeing what a doctor's early after surgery pictures look like can be of great value. What I have posted on my website are typical for my patients and their swelling after surgery.

It is not easy for a patient by himself to determine cause for the swelling. Such issues are best discussed with your original surgeon or someone you see for a second opinion. When I am evaluating this type of problem, I prefer to have much more detail before rendering an opinion. This includes either an in office examination or during a Preliminary Remote Discussion where I can see a more complete set of Standard After Gynecomastia Surgery Pictures, review the operative report, doctor's office notes, and other factors that can help in my formulating my opinion of the problem and what can be done.

Hope this helps,

Michael Bermant, MD
Learn More About Revision Gynecomastia and Chest Surgery

[Del]

Hi ,
   I am 65 and due to treatment for a prostate problem 10 years ago my boobs have slowly grown  so I now have to wear a 38D bra with obvious embarasment.I am afraid of having an operation.  Any suggestions please.   Del

[The Owl]

Hi ,
   I am 65 and due to treatment for a prostate problem 10 years ago my boobs have slowly grown  so I now have to wear a 38D bra with obvious embarasment.I am afraid of having an operation.  Any suggestions please.   Del

Hi, firstly I would suggest you find a plastic surgeon in your area that deals in this area and book a consultation.  He will be able to tell you what your options for surgery are after examining you, and you might be able to have an operation that is less invasive than you think.

secondly it's probably better to post this as a new topic, since it is not really relevant to this one, or this area of the forum (post-surgery & healing)

[The Owl]

4 weeks and 5 days since surgery, and I still have breasts, am in no way ready to walk around without the compression vest, still sore to the touch

I am really worried this is gland, or something else that wont go away.  Surely the doctor would notice this during the surgery and told me if that was the case?