Anyone still post here?

[sawyer]

I haven't posted here in years..
I wanted the surgery about 5 years but never got round to doing it. Don't see half as many posts as before, where's everyone gone?
No-one seems to be going with Karidis anymore, whys that?
Since Levick's retirement people only seem to be interested in Vik Vijh, but I can't find any actual completed surgeries from him.
Does anyone actually still post here?

[thetodd]

Yeah very quiet these days, not sure if thats a good sign or a bad sign to be honest i dont like the way the forum was redesigned, i think it i was to come across it as a new user id be put off by the adverts etc for the surgeons. But yeah the UK community has definitely petered out.

When i joined Levick didnt have a good rep, to be honest that was probably unfair bias by ex patients i think Levicks policy that you could have free post op surgery may have given people unfair expectations. There was a thread about a guy attempting to sue him, and i think that put a lot of doubt in people's mind thats when Karidis really became popular.

Myself and others probably were the main proponent of Karidis's popularity. There was a surge of people getting surgery in 09-10 literally you could login every day and there would be a diary for Karidis and Levick was seen as the lesser option at the time. He had a following but Karidis was seen as the main man.

Then Levick had a new method that put him back on the map, with the all in one removal with all the surgery done through the armpit lipo hole. There was a lot of skepticism about it at the time, and Polish surgery started becoming an option so it was £2k in poland/£4,5k in the UK so Levick was no longer the cheapest option. Some users decided to guinea pig it, and had excellent results this might have been like 2011/12 at a guess. Then the tides sort of started shifting back to Levick.

Karidis raised his prices, and that really pushed people towards Levick. I had my surgery with Karidis, and have great respect for him he knows his stuff and having a 10 minute conversation with him can really make you see your body differently. On the face of it hes a salesmen, but hes a decent guy for sure.

However the same went for Levick, i never had surgery with him myself but i spoke to him after i wanted to have kenalog shots on what i thought was scar tissue post op because Karidis was to expensive. Paul/his wife advised me to go back to Karidis for his opinion, didnt fob me off and i really appreciated that.

But yeah going off course slightly. I think the problem is that everyone is striving for that one perfect surgeon, the truth is there is no such thing everyone reacts to surgery differently and your going to get the odd person who isnt happy with their surgery and will find a outlet to vent on. I think unfortunately at the time for Levick was that a lot of the forum bias made Karidis seem like the best in the field. However in hindsight they were probably evenly matched, and with Levick being cheaper/having a new method it could have allowed more lads the opportunity of surgery.

I used to post really regularly back on here in the day, because basically there was so much misinformation and the post op care that Karidis's team offered was frankly total shite. I remember being told 1 week week of work, and results within a few months. Then you'd get people sign on here in an utter mess thinking their surgery has been a total failure and falling into a depression. I've just had a look on the site and it actually says final result is 6-9 months which just astounds me!

I've consoled a few people over the years over post op surgery, so ill mention this briefly, since the forum is so quiet someone considering surgery maybe reading this now. The surgery is the easiest part, you get it done and you wake up the next day have a totally flat chest, Take off your compression vest, and you feel absolutely euphoric its probably the biggest relief i ever felt. I remember being all excited and taking a load of pics and posting them on here. Then a week passes, your all bruised up and swolen everywhere hurts and you feel terrible but you've got that 6 month mark in sight until everythings sorted so you ignore it. 3 months passes, the swelling has subsided but you now have a lot of scar tissue, you massage it everyday and hope for the best. The 6 month benchmark the post op team has given you is now in sight, but your chest looks terrible you go and see Karidis, and he says recovery is great, all done as far as hes concerned. I remember coming home and absolutly blasting Karidis on here, looking back i was probably a bit depressed but since i had such unrealistic goals set by the post op advice this further planted doubts in my mind. 6 months later i contacted Paul Levick, and i think he probably saw that it was more of a psychological issue than a physical thing and told me to go back to Karidis. I went back and Karidis took it seriously, and i walked out just accepting my chest, and since then ive been cool with it but that year post op was a dark time for me and i really do blame this on the post op care, and the timeframes told to me in the consultations.

The truth is you dont see the final result for at least a year, for me it prob took 2 years to accept it properly. Psychologically its a massive change, you've spent years hunching over not to push your chest out now you can stand tall, but in your head you still see your gyne in the mirror. I could talk about it for hours to be honest, its a difficult time lol. People would then sign in and see my surgery diary, and others on here which to be honest gives a massive misconception on how surgery is post op. I think thats why there was such a strong network at the time we'd all be on here talking about how were getting on post op posting pics etc. Maybe thats not a healthy thing to do, since your just comparing yourself to everyone else. I think maybe if i wasnt on the forum at the time, i would have had a smoother recovery possibly but it was just great to have a network of people who could relate to you.


So ive gone on a massive tangent here lol, but yeah the long and short of it is that everyone is striving for perfection and that probably leads to a bit of unfair bias. Id recommend Karidis all day, and i would have recommended Levick i dont know anything about the new guy. But if hes been trained by Levick and like you say can produce some before/afters theres no reason to doubt his talents there definitely needs to be a choice. Its sad to see the forum so quiet, this did used to be a really friendly place for discussion a few years ago.

[Stan19]

Thetodd a great post. I concurr with everything you say. I see loads of guys on here contemplating surgery with totally normal male chests which if id had i would not of had the op. Guys think long and hard before you take the plunge. Maybe i was too late at 43 but i am left with creases and craters at 6mths post op my chest is not pretty. My surgeon is retired now so i feel rather alone today. I am hoping there is improvement between 6 and 12 months but like OP says there is hardly anyone posting these days let alone guys who are 1 year post op. 

[kingboob]

 Its sad to see the forum so quiet, this did used to be a really friendly place for discussion a few years ago.

Yes sad to see a good forum just die off but it often happens. The adverts are quite tacky.  I just hope guys with moobs can still find the help they need elsewhere.  

 I remember you 'thetodd'.   You have summed up nicely what happened on here over the years.   I've been a member on this site for a long time and I was always very cautious about the whole Levick vs Karidis vs Poland debate that took place back in the day.  

I met Levick and liked him and he did look after me well.  Unfortunately some of those that ventured off to Poland didn't get any after care and IIRC at that time Karidis was a bit hit and miss too.

There was one poster called 'patient x1' that was very unhappy with his results and put a lot of people off going to Levick.  Maybe he did have a bad outcome but some of the stuff he posted didn't ring true to my extensive experience with Mr Levick. 

At the end of the day all surgery is a risk and the outcomes are not as predicable or as easy as the media would lead people to believe.  I suspect if you ask any honest cosmetic surgeon they would tell you revisions are part of the business.  Once you start nipping and tucking one area it can be a slippery slope in trying to perfect things / fight the ageing process...... 

My advice for anyone  still reading is if you have severe moobs and it is ruining your life you will not regret the surgery as any lumps or bumps or scars afterwards will be a small price to pay.  However if you have a very mild case and you are seeking perfection and to get on the cover of men's health magazine you might well be disappointed.   (frankly a lot of the guys posting on here at one point had body image issues and no objective deformity that actually required surgery).  Expect a 9 month recovery. 

Vik Vijh -  Levick assures me he is very good but I've yet to meet the guy.   I probably will do at some point as I want a scar revision on my thigh. I did want Levick to do it but I simply didn't have time to get it done before he retired. 

[sawyer]

Seems a bit hypocritical of me to ask if anyone's still here and not return for a good month.. my bad.
thetodd, I'm glad you replied. You were the number 1 person I was following all them years ago when I was set on surgery.. There's been hundreds of threads so you probably won't remember, but this was mine: https://www.gynecomastia.org/smf/index.php?topic=23885.0
Due to personal and financial reasons I never got the surgery. I got to around 3 grand but had a change in my circumstances which left me having to spend the money.
However, looking back on them pictures my gyno was ALOT worse than it is now.. I dunno whether it's because I've added a bit of mass to my frame and I look more manly in a sense? Or if I've lost enough fat around the area for it to look semi-normal.
After I accepted I could no longer afford the surgery I invested in a compression vest and this changed my whole life for the next 2 years. I gained confidence over night. Who would of thought such a little thing could have such a big impact on your life?
To anyone reading this, waiting on surgery, or even not knowing what to do, buy a compression vest. It hides 99.9% of the gyno.
The problem was, I relied on the vest. I couldn't go anywhere without it on. It actually started to hurt me (coupled with a herniated disc) it was almost impossible to walk long distance without pain. But I couldn't go out without it. I knew I couldn't go on like this, so about a year ago I made a decision to stop wearing it. My back/leg pain immediately went away. But I was back to choosing what I wore very carefully.
Now I'm content with how it looks. As I said, it looks normal half the time, it's just the other half I'm worried about. I'm in a much better position for surgery. I have no major events in my life (until september when I'll be returning to college as a mature student), I have ample funds, but my desire to get the operation is not as strong as it once was. I have a few doubts.
My hips are quite big for a man, I'm wondering if I get the surgery, will they appear even bigger? I was also set on Levick when I returned to these forums, mainly because of the technique, but he's retired. There seems very little information on Dr Vik Vijh, which leaves me with Karidis. I'm just indecisive.

It's a shame it's quiet nowadays, I'm sure more people focus on their body image and working out so I'd imagine it would be booming. But I agree the design is terrible, it's been a major pain typing this post out..
My moobs aren't severe, nor ruining my life anymore. But I have the disposable income and around 5 months free time.. I just don't know what to do.
No matter what I do I'll always be annoyed by gyno, it definitely changes the way you think about everything, but will surgery correct this 100%? or will it even risk making it worse?