Hi Jmxt,
If I were you my first thought in finding a surgeon would be who is experienced and good at this procedure? My second thought would be where are they?The quality and experience of the surgeon has to be paramount in my experience. Some sufferers have had the surgery on the NHS but you pretty well take pot luck with who is available and often have to fight tooth and nail to get it done anyway. Most people seem to have taken the private route and if you have a good read of the UK section of these boards you will see that a number of sufferers have had surgery with Mr Levick in Birmingham and
Dr. Karidis in London. Both appear to be very experienced. Quite a few sufferers have gone to Poland for their surgery which (again if you read the posts) is less than half the costs of the UK surgeons. One patient has found a Spanish surgeon who does all his consultations in London but does the surgery in Spain at a lower cost that the UK surgeons.
You need to do your homework as far as surgeons are concerned if you want to find a good one. The kind of questions I would be asking of a surgeon are:
1. How many of these procedures has the surgeon done before? I
would want to be sure the surgeon is well experienced in this procedure otherwise I would find another.2. How often does he do them (different to how many, as he could have done 30 but over the last 30years)?
I would want to know if he does them regularly.3. Is he going to do the operation himself or is he going to supervise someone else?
I wouldn’t let anyone practise on me.4. Does he have “before” and “after” photos for you to see the results of previous patients?
This would give me an idea of how good he was.5. Is he going to remove the gland and perform liposuction to remove the fat as well?
It is pretty much the experience of patients on here that liposuction to remove only fat doesn’t give a good result. The gland needs to be removed as well.6. What method does he use?
Some make small cuts around the underside of the areola to remove the gland and lipo out the fat. Some make small incisions under the armpit to remove both gland and fat through a long canula. Some (and I would avoid these surgeons) make large cuts across or under the boob to basically perform a full mastectomy. Note gynecomastia reduction is NOT a mastectomy.7. Does the surgeon recommend the wearing of compression vests for weeks or months afterwards?
Most do, and I would want to know why a surgeon doesn’t (I’d keep an open mind).I would add that how you feel about the surgeon when you first meet him is important, so I would suggest you have initial consultations with at least 2.
Good luck and feel free to ask questions.
