What do you think about my consultation?

[aeroumr]

Yesterday, I went to see a PS in St. Peters, MO.  The consultation was free, so that was a plus.  The doctor was very friendly, eager to answer any of my questions.  He explained the procedure very well, and took some photos of me (for research, presentations, etc.).  

However, when I asked the doctor to see some before/after pics, he said that he didn't have any.  He told me that he didn't take before/after pics for any of his procedures.  His justification of this is that a doctor would just show you his or her best work, and you wouldn't learn anything from it.  I guess logically this is true, but it still concerns me.  

When I asked him how many gyne surgeries he does, he said that he only does about 1 or 2 a year.  He told me that men are embarrassed about gyne, and that is why not many surgeries are performed.  

This PS has 13 years of experience, a very nice establishment, nice staff, etc., so I don't know what to think.  I have 2 other consultations with other doctors in the area scheduled in the next couple of weeks, so I'm still shopping around.

Is this typical of PS's in a relatively small town without "big name status"?  Has anybody else had gyne surgeries by a PS that performs only 1 or 2 a year?

[shiver]

when i asked my surgeon about how frequently she performed the surgery per year i was also disappointed about how few she performed (8 or less - if i recall correctly) but he ( and she ) were correct that in general, men do not seek to have their gyno corrected by surgery (even if they are aware that they have it). Most men tend to live with it or adopt behaviors that cover it up so the low frequency actually made sense in that context. So, to get a better understanding about how her expertiese..i asked her questions about techniques, decisions she makes while in surgery, what her goals are for my surgery, etc. i wanted to get a better idea of how she would approach my problem.

[Preds]

My surgeon told me he did about 12 a month.  That was comforting.  Yes we are ashamed but I feel that the more a surgeon does the better they should be.

Ask yourself this.  If it was your heart that needed the surgery woud you want him?

[phantom]

Some surgeons may only show the better results to prospective patients.  I went to my surgeon armed with questions like "How have you dealt with patients where surgery did not meet either theirs or your expectation?"

I felt no need to ask that question as he presented me a slide-show of a patient with one moderate breast and one very large breast and a slide by slide progression of his surgery.  The end result of the surgery was on 'normal' pec and one flat, but saggy-skinned pec.

The point here is my surgeon had no issue showing me a complex patient, one where despite a massive improvement, there was still an issue with excess skin on one side.  Apparently the patient was so happy with the result that he didn't even want revision for skin excision!

I would be very suspicious if a surgeon had no pics to show, it must be the most obvious things prospective patients want to see.

You have two other consultations to go to.  Personally I would be cautious if male chest procedures made up less than 10% of their annual caseload.

After reading about the same surgeon so many times here in the UK (by other users of this website) I went to see him (along with two other consultations).  I think word of mouth is probably a safer form of advertising here.  You have one chance to get this right first time.  And no matter how experienced your surgeon is at this particular procedure, it's his or her main responsibility to manage a realistic expectation and see that it is met by both them and yourself a few months down the line.

Hope that helps.