Hi All -- so I followed a lot of advice from people who've had success on here, and took the plunge to get surgery, rather than continuing to be worried about what t-shirts I can wear and not going swimming in public for the past 5 years.
I had the bilateral gynecomastia with liposuction (+ glandular excision) done 11 days ago now. I've taken some personal photos at 4, 6, 8 and 11 days post-op. I never got to see the result immediately after surgery or within the proceeding 2 days. I knew though that immediately looking would provide a good idea of what the final result will look like shape-wise. Not sure why I didn't get the chance to see it early on?
Anyway, all I can say is that I'm really disappointed with what I can see so far. Basically, it looks about 10% different/flatter, in that the protruding nipples I had are certainly flatter, but the prominence of my overall chest is certainly still there.
I was told right before surgery during being marked up, that the chest prominence is residual fat being caused by the gynecomastia, it would be "vacuumed out" and appear flat once the gland has been removed. Well, it looks like it hasn't been touched...
I had my post-op appointment yesterday with my surgeon and voiced my concerns. He said the result looked "perfect" which I kind of giggled at and said "seriously, but what about this chest shape sticks out a lot still". He said there is still some residual swelling and we can't properly assess the final result until at least 3 months. However, prior to the surgery, he told me after 2-3 weeks it will appear flat...... Since 2 weeks is a few days away, I can't see much changing now.
I kind of feel like I've let myself down by doing this and spending a tonne of money on it, when it's done nothing at all... I know the healing process is long, but after doing A LOT of research over the past 6 months, I've noticed a trend of the vast majority of patients being satisfied shortly afterwards, otherwise they are likely to see minimal improvements/be less satisfied.
Not really sure why I'm writing this, other than to share my own experiences with gynecomastia and the result that surgery has provided me with. I hope this can help others in one way or another -- don't just go for it, because there's a chance you won't get the results you want. Then you'll be left feeling very disheartened.
I went with a surgeon who's named is touted all over this forum, other forums and other sources of plastic surgery patient review sites, etc. I'm not in the name game, but it's fair to say that I'm thinking I should have gone with someone else!
Anyone else had a similar experience/can offer any advice? Surely I'm not going to see a dramatic improvement in the next 2 weeks?
My saving grace is my surgeon offers revisions at no extra cost for those unhappy with the result within 18 months. He also said that about a third of his patients come back. Obviously I was hoping I wouldn't be one of them but I think I already am. I just don't want to go through it all again. I traveled internationally to get surgery with him, hotels pre and post-op, domestic trains, you name it!