My story: Gyne surgery + abdominal & flanks lipo / Los Angeles, Dr Dadvand

[Bobby - LAgyne]

I'm not affiliate with with Dr. Dadvand and his business. This thread is not intended to be an advertisement for him.  I paid for my own surgery and I'm not getting paid for writing this. But I truly appreciate his artistry and skills in gynecomastia correction surgery.

I put my time to write and evolve this thread as things progress for the sole reason of showing that there is hope!  If one does his homework and chooses the right surgeon and be patient during the first few months after surgery, the outcome can and will be life-changing.


Comments are appreciated.

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Hello!

My name is Bobby.  I’m 38 yo, 5-10, 175 lbs - stable weight.  I work out moderately and watch my diet, not just for the sake of weight loss but also because I want to live a healthy life with a healthy body.  

Let’s go back in time…. I remember when I was in my early teen ages, I had so much pain around my nipple area and my nipples were so sensitive to the t-shirt’s fabric rubbing against them that I used to put band aid over my nipples.  I can still remember throbbing sensation under the nipples. I even remember that when I squeezed the nipples hard enough, a few drops of milk would come out!!   So I believe my case was one of those rare cases that the G doesn’t go away on its own to begin with.  I started going to gym and working out, but my body came to a better shape, except for the chest, the boobs; they were just there, jiggly and squishy.  I hated them!  I then made things worse, when I started using anabolic hormones for a few months.  In my mind, I was hoping to build more muscle and get rid of the weird and embarrassing softness of the chest.  I got bigger and stronger and the overall appearance of my body did improve, except, you guessed it right, the chest part!

The female looking chest had such a pronounced effect on me that for the past 12-13 years that I have been living in beautiful sunny southern California, I went to beaches a handful of times.  I was either alone with my wife who knew the pain I was going through, or with a handful of extremely close friends and family that I was a little more comfortable with.  

About 5-6 years ago, I started Googling male breast and how to get rid of it.  Very soon, I was introduced to this term, that I didn’t even know how to pronounce, “Gynecomastia” and you can only imagine how thirsty I was to learn about it.  

I now had a new mission: I needed to get rid of the moobs and the only way was surgery!!

[Bobby - LAgyne]

Here are a few pictures of my gynecomastia, or the before pictures:

[Bobby - LAgyne]

Two more before pictures:

[Bobby - LAgyne]

and the hideous view of the G from below:

[Bobby - LAgyne]

The Plan: I read many many posts on this forum, some were experiences of other guys and some, advice from the Doctors which we all agree are the best gyne specialist in the world.  

I knew I had to follow a few rules:

1)  G needed to be stabilized before I go for surgery, which was the case for me. I also talked with my primary doctor and he completely supported the idea of having surgery.  He ran the whole hormonal blood work and everything was normal.

2)  I needed to be close to my ideal weight. So in January of 2014, about a year before the surgery, I started working out moderately (free weight and spinning classes) and also started eating healthier.  By the time I went for consultations I had already lost about 15 lbs and I felt great!

3)  The surgeons MUST be a board certified plastic surgeon by the American Board of Plastic Surgery (abplsurg.org) with lots and lots of experience in G correction. I made an exception for Dr Levick for being certified since he doesn’t live in US.  Other credentials were important, but not a deal breaker like not being a board certified plastic surgeon.  

Read my post here:    https://www.gynecomastia.org/smf/index.php?topic=29874.0


4)  I should not let cost and money play a role in my decision making.  I know the cost is a very touchy subject for many people. I’m not a rich kid myself.  I’m middle-class with a regular 8-5 job and I knew the surgery was going to cost me a lot.  But I also knew money can be saved and replaced, but a disastrous result from this type of surgery can never be undone completely. I mean, read all the regrets on this forum and elsewhere.  Revision surgeries doesn’t cost less anyway and you can never get perfect results from revision surgeries compared to what could have been done in hands of a qualified surgeon to begin with.  So, my wife and I worked out a portion in our monthly budgeting plan to save for the surgery.  There were a lot of compromises to be made and it took us a while to save.

5)  I needed to have at least 3 consultations.  I am lucky to live in a city saturated with great plastic surgeons.  But I didn’t let being local play a major role; I wanted the result that could not be surpassed.  So, I made a list of candidates all over the map including Dr Jacobs in New York, Dr Delgado in San Francisco, Dr. Pope in Orlando, Dr Levick in UK and several surgeons in southern California and closely read their reviews and contacted the reviewers; some got back to me.

[j86ui]

Sounds like your a man on a mission, good on you, no point wasting any more time letting it control your life. When roughly do you think you will be getting the surgery?

[Bobby - LAgyne]

Sounds like your a man on a mission, good on you, no point wasting any more time letting it control your life. When roughly do you think you will be getting the surgery?

J,

Thank you! I'm actually done with surgery, sitting here in pure joy!  Hang in there for juicy details.

---Bobby

[Bobby - LAgyne]

Appointments for consultations:  so, I narrowed down my list to 3 doctors to have consultation with. All three were relatively local.  I thought to myself, if I don’t feel any of these three doctors can deliver the type of result I was looking for, I would move on to doctors further away, and that never happened!

With shake in my voice and phone shaking in my hand, I mustered enough courage to call and make 3 appointments a few days apart. 

I’m not going to mention the names of the two surgeons I didn’t have surgery with for the obvious reason.  I hope you understand.  Gotta love Google and YouTube though!

[Bobby - LAgyne]

Consultation with Dr Dadvand:

The consultation itself is free, but they asked for a credit card number.  I was told they will not charge the card unless I don’t show up at the appointment or don’t call a couple of days ahead to cancel, which I understood.

Parking:  The entrance to the parking is really tiny and I missed it the first time.  But when I made turn and came back, got lucky and found a spot on the street, 2 hrs max, $1.50 per hour.

The office: he shares the office with two other plastic surgeons: Beverly Hills Profiles. Later I learned they use the same surgery room.  The office itself is nice and modern with refreshments available at the waiting area. 

Waiting time: less than 10 minutes, enough to fill out the forms.

Dr D went over my history and examined me.  He rated the severity of my G at around 2.75 on a scale of 4.0.   He explained how the procedure will be done and what results we should be expecting.  He explained how the abdominal and flank liposuction will be performed and where incisions will be placed.

By now you should have a pretty good idea what type of person I am!  I went in with my notebook and pages of questions!! Dr D patiently answered every single of those questions without being upset, and believe me I felt bad asking some of those questions.  He knew I may very well never come back, but he spent 1 hour and 20 minutes in room with us.  I never felt I was rushed through or anything like that. 

Dr D is this young, cool, down to earth dude with MENSA quality intelligence with whom I felt I can trust with such an important issue.

A few points that really stood out with him:

1.   He is a hands-on doctor and does pretty much everything himself.  He puts all the stitches himself and does pretty much everything in the OR.  He removed the stiches and drains himself.  You will be amazed what other surgeons do! Just ask them during the consultation.

2.   Despite his young age, he has done about 1000 G surgeries.  About 3-5 per week.  I’m actually surprised nobody has ever talked about him on this forum. 

3.   The results of his past surgeries looked really natural to me.  I didn’t see any overly done liposuction that left the breast like it’s been amputated.  The abdominal and flank liposuction results looked nature also.

We walked out of his office feeling really good about him to the point that my wife told me just cancel the other ones and let him do it.  But remember rule number 5, at least 3 consultations!!

[Bobby - LAgyne]

Skin-tightening Dilemma:  you can see I had a large case of G. It was both fat and gland. Doctor D and another doctor that I consulted with told me breast skin will naturally retract after the fat and gland are out and recommended to remove the gland via periareolar incision.  The other surgeon told me I need skin tightening to begin with.  He even refused to perform periareolar incision method.  

To help myself decide, I brought the issue to this forum and asked the experts and eventually chose not to perform skin tightening.

Please read my post here:
https://www.gynecomastia.org/smf/index.php?topic=29994.0

[Bobby - LAgyne]

The Cost:  I’m not even going to try to sugarcoat it. Dr D is not cheap.  As a matter of fact his quote was the highest out of the three.  But I had decided that I want to get it done right at the first try regardless of the cost.  

Dr D said he will perform my surgery under the general anesthesia with a board certified anesthesiologist doctor, not a nurse anesthesiologist.  That inevitably adds to the overall cost.

[Bobby - LAgyne]

The Surgery Center: He normally performs his surgeries at a surgical suite he shares with two other plastic surgeons at his office.  But for that particular date I was looking for, the suite was already taken.  So, they told me that I will have my surgery done at a different surgery center.  It was a few minutes away. 

This alternative surgery center was a professional establishment with two operating rooms.  Everything was professionally conducted and I knew I was in good hands. 

[Bobby - LAgyne]

The Surgery:  we showed up at the surgery center at the crack of dawn, took care of the paperwork and were put in one of the prep rooms.  Dr D came in and drew the lines on my chest and abdominal / flank areas.  We have all seen videos on YouTube how (quickly) many plastic surgeons draw those lines.  What struck me was the fact that Dr D was so meticulous with his drawing.  He took his time to squeeze every single millimeter of my breast, abdomen and flanks while drawing the lines.  That’s what to expect from a perfectionist.

Then the IV was put in and the anesthesiologist injected a cocktail; man it felt good!  I was walking to the OR in the back and I felt I was walking on the clouds.  I remember the circulating nurse situated me on the table.  I remember Dr D and the anesthesiologist standing by me and then……  I remember my name being called and hearing my surgery is over!!!  IT WAS OVER!!

About an hour in recovery room and wheel-chaired to the car!

Duration: I walked to the OR around 8:30 AM and they called my wife at 2:15 PM to tell her that the surgery was just finished.  The actual part of the surgery that Dr D had his hands on me was 4 hours and 15 minutes.  

[Bobby - LAgyne]

The Lines:

[Bobby - LAgyne]

What Was Taken Out? 

Fat:

Chest – my right side: 400 ml
Chest – my left side:  300 ml
Abdomen – 800 ml
Flanks – 300 ml each side

Total: 2100 ml.  Dr D told me what was liposuction-ed out was about 80% fat.  He used super-wet technique for which less tumescent liquid was injected.

Glandular tissue: see the picture below: