Excess Skin?

[chester101]

Hi,

I was supposed to have lipo + excision this week for gyne, but decided not to go ahead at the last minute due to concerns the surgeon raised about the problem of excess skin. I was originally told that the gyne that I had was moderate and execess skin was not mentioned at the original consult. However, it seems that after the op, I would have been at considerable risk of this and it made me so concerned about the outcome that I refused to go ahead. I've had this condition for 20 years and am desperate to get rid of it, but the thought of having an outcome worse than the status quo really put me off. Has anyone who's had the surgery experienced any potential problems with excess skin afterwards?

[Time_to_fix_it]

Hi Chester,

Maybe you should post some pics on here to get opinions as to the level of your gyne?  The reason I suggest this is if your gyne is moderate and others had a similar level of gyne prior to their own surgery, then they would be well placed to offer the benefit of their experience as to excess skin.

Something else I wonder about is the experience of the PS you have consulted with.  If he does a lot of gynecomastia corrections then he would know what to expect and his words of caution would be based on experience. If he doesn’t do many then he might only be guessing.

Even in the worse case scenario there are surgical ways to remove excess skin.  Some sufferers who have had severe case of gyne have taken that route to obtain a flat chest.  I guess it just depends how much you want to get rid of your gyne.

My own gyne prior to surgery was described as moderate, and I raised the potential problem of excess skin with my PS.  He said “no problem” and he was right.  I’m 50 and I thought that at my age the elasticity of the skin would be greatly diminished and excess skin might be a problem.  It was not.  I was surprised just how flat my chest was after surgery and has stayed that way.

If I was you I would post pics on here for people’s opinions and follow that up with a consultation with other PS’s who do a lot of this type of surgery.  If they also thought excess skin might be a problem then I would discuss with them the options of further surgery to remove it.  I can only say what I would do. I was desperate to get rid of my gyne and if that was going to take 2 surgeries then so be it.

Good luck

[chester101]

Hi Time_to_fix_it,

Thanks for your reassuring words. Re the surgeon, well the original consultant has a lot of experience in doing gyne surgery, but when I arrived at the hospital I discovered that a different plastic surgeon was going to perform the surgery. This was the first of several things that threw me and a factor, I guess in ultimately deciding not to go ahead. I will now have to wait to see the original consultant again to discuss the 'skin' issue and then decide again whether to go for it. I don't want to really consider skin reduction as a follow-up surgery, so the relative risk of a skin problem will ultimately decided whether I go ahead.

I was all set to have got rid of this condition last week and so have been really down since all this happened - the outcome was very different to the one that I expected. Hopefully if I do still go ahead I will not have to wait another six months for the surgery to be rescheduled.....