I will be performing self-surgery soon

[NZfish]

First of all, I'm an 18 year old (poor) premed student so I know quite a bit about anatomy and dissections.

I live near a big hospital. I will go into one of their toilets and will be doing the surgery under sterile conditions. I will use a knife to cut a small, clean incision lateral to my nipple and just below my armpit and I will be using topical anesthetic. I will also have fishing wire to use to close up the wound. As far as I know, there are no major blood vessels connecting to the glandular tissue of the breast so the risk of significant bleeding is small. Pictures of the surgery being performed on the Internet seem to confirm that the area is a relatively bloodless area. However, if something goes wrong, then it will only take a few seconds for me to get professional help.

The biggest risk is, of course, infection. I'll be doing lots of research over the next few months but I understand that this risk can never be 100% mitigated. Let's hope this doesn't happen for me.

[Viking75]

Please don´t take this the wrong way!

I think you should go see a shrink! What you are writing/suggesting is just not normal.

[hatemymoobs]

You're going to end up worse than before.
See a shrink if you're serious. If you're that demented maybe insurance will cover it to keep you safe. 

Good luck and stay away from sharp objects.

[pharmerjoe]

jesus christ! I hope you're just joking, but getting the feeling you're not. Please consider your options in getting surgery from someone that is qualified. It may seem a million miles away, but anything is possible if you just stop and think for a bit.

[Endless]

dude, dont do it. i can really empathize on how shitty it feels!! gyne sucks!!!!! it destroys life!!
but u just gotta do things the RIGHT Way. pls sit down and explore all ur options. make a realistic action plan. email doctors, ask help from friends or family, dont give up. i also know how the embarassment feels, and the frustration. we're all going thru this crap..

think of the worst case scenarios. it might be even more embarassing if something goes wrong. they might not even help you. or worse, they may just declare the right to call you insane and confine u in their psych ward against your will, tie you up.

if you aint insane, and ^ people saying u need to see a shrink. well personally i hate shrinks & if you do this, you may just end up forced to see one, among the many other crappy things that are bound to happen.

[thetodd]

Definite troll

dont feed this clown

[hatemymoobs]

Definite troll

dont feed this clown

I thought the same thing, but he has another post about a month ago asking about surgery in new zealand.
You never know man, people are pretty desperate and cuckoo out there... no offense to OP...

[NZfish]

I understand why you think I am a troll so here is a picture of my gynecomastia as proof.



Anyway, I guess it was my mistake that I did not introduce myself at first. Basically, the reason why I am here is because I am an 18 year old guy who is taking finasteride (the same active ingredient as propecia) to combat hair loss. Currently, I'm in the so-called "shedding phase" of finasteride which means I'm losing more hair than my baseline and now I have a semi-noticeable bald patch on the top of my head (vertex) which was never there before. I also have NW2 stage frontal recession which, oddly enough, is worse on my right side than my left. My left side is about an NW1.5 whereas my right side is closer to an NW2-2.25.

I am also using another substance called ketaconazole which is very likely to be an androgen inhibitor. I am not using minoxidil however because it is very expensive.

Finasteride works my inhibiting an enzyme called 5 alpha reductase (II) that converts testosterone into a type of hormone called dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT is an antagonist/inhibitor of estrogen and so its loss causes an increase in both the amount of estrogen produced and exacerbates the effect(s) of the increased estrogen production. Furthermore, since less testosterone is being converted into dihydrotestosterone, more testosterone is aromatized into estrogen and various estrogenic compounds in the body. For some people like me, the result of this is - you guessed it; gynecomastia.

Have I explored all my other options? I sure have. As I have only been taking finasteride for about a month and a half, it may be possible for me to use drugs such as tamoxifen which inhibits estrogen selectively on the breast tissue while maintaining an osteoprotective effect at the expense of hepatotoxicity - or a more general aromatase inhibitor such as aromasin or letrozole which inhibits total body estrogen. Unfortunately, however, due to customs laws it is VERY difficult to get these drugs across the border to New Zealand. The same, I believe also goes for Canada and Australia. Without these drugs, it is inevitable that my gynecomastia will continue to progress.

Furthermore, it would be most likely a hopeless endeavor to attempt to secure a prescription for such compounds as they are mainly used for treating breast cancer and not for "petty" issues such as gynecomastia. I also do not want any healthcare professional to know that I have the condition as I fear that they may cancel my finasteride prescription. Even the GP who prescribed me the drug was reluctant to prescribe it.

Please keep in mind that I am a premed student and am aiming for a degree in biochemistry up to the postgraduate level with possible graduate entry to a professional programme such as medicine. I know quite a lot about the workings of the body, am a fast learner, and both me and my peers see me as being a responsible, calm, and collected person.

Thank you, and sorry for my post being so long.

EDIT: I forgot to add that I'm not worried about scarring or anything like that because I pretty much never take my shirt off in public. It's not because I'm overweight or anything (my BMI is pretty much exactly on the middle of the healthy range). Rather, I want to get rid of my gynecomastia because I don't want to have manboobs jutting out of my chest and I want to be able to wear t-shirts again. Right now, I'm forced to either wear a hoodie or a flannel shirt whenever I go outside which would be impractical in the summer. The interesting thing is; my gynecomastia seems to progress in "spurts" where there is pain accompanied by tissue enlargement followed by long periods of time where I either don't feel anything or it feels like the skin between my armpit and my nipple is being uncomfortably pulled/stretched. Also my left breast is the bigger of the two (apparently common in drug-induced gyno). After I do the surgery, I'll give finasteride a year to see if it works for me and if I happen to be in the 15% of whom it has no effect or I reach NW3 (whichever one comes first) then getting out of this hormone hell through castration (no clowning) is probably the only way to go.

[thetodd]

Its impossible, you wont physically or mentally be able to do it

youtube.com/watch?v=zzteVGz6cvM

If you think that you can do this, in a hospital toilet with no training, correct equipment or proper anesthetic

then your a mug. You need to get this crazy idea out of your head

[gynebob3]

are you going to do the liposuction yourself too? haha
if you just cut out the glandular-tissue you will have a big indentation in your chest unless you use liposuction or fat flaps to even out the contour

[Paa_Paw]

The man who treats himself has a fool for a Doctor.


The Doctor who treats himself also has a fool for a patient.


This sort of thing does not work out well.