Top Surgery for Butches: Have you thought about it?

[*Anya*]

I posted here a couple of years ago. My long-term ex was heavy and had extremely large breasts. She hated them.

She did not ID as male but absolutely identified as very masculine of center. She liked being called sir and hated that when she turned around and they saw her chest, people would get flustered and apologize, calling her ma'am.

I don't even know what size they were or what the largest size actually is.

She did have frequent back aches and grooves in her shoulders.

She had insurance through her job-a PPO.

She researched plastic surgeons and found one comfortable with reducing them down to less than an A.

The surgery went well. She was in the hospital for at least 2 days (this was probably 20 years ago) and she had drains in both breasts. When she woke up from anesthesia, she felt both breasts that were heavily bandaged (you still could hardly see them) and she cried with happiness.

I did admire them (without touching). They were perfect and very, very, very small. She never wore a bra again and did not need to. She then lost a lot of weight and they never changed size or moved from their perfect smallness.

You do not need to go the route of complete removal unless you truly want to!

Options!

Explore reduction. I saw her again about 3 years ago and in a shirt, I could not see any difference! They never grew and never sagged.

No gravity for her!

From plasycsurgery.org:

Breast reduction candidates

Overly large breasts can cause health and emotional problems. In addition to self image issues, you may also experience physical pain and discomfort.

The weight of excess breast tissue can impair your ability to lead an active life. The emotional discomfort and self-consciousness often associated with having large pendulous breasts can be as important an issue as the physical discomfort and pain.

Breast reduction is a good option for you if you:

Are physically healthy
Have realistic expectations
Don't smoke
Are bothered by feeling that your breasts are too large
Have breasts that limit your physical activity
Experience back, neck, and shoulder pain caused by the weight of your breasts
Have shoulder indentations from bra straps
Have skin irritation beneath the breast crease

https://www.plasticsurgery.org/recon...ion/candidates

[Wrang1er]

I, too would love a reduction. Size a would be A-mazing!

[ClintB]

Anya- thank you for the post... I'm glad to hear that so,done went that small who was full figured and you found it attractive.

I have heard that some insurances willl limit the amount of tissue that can be taken. Maybe a size b wouldn't be so bad either. Still could get down to flat with a sports bra... I think. I would like to get rid of my binders though.


If push came to shove, maybe I could save up and pay out of pocket. Yikes, but I have a good job and it may be doable.

[Mel C.]

When I think of myself, I think of a chest, not breasts. If I had a medical reason, I'd have them removed.

[JDeere]

I want a reduction really bad but they wont give me the size I want and I have seen many overweight transguys with full top surgery, they just look like heavy cis male, I'm not trying to be offensive or anything but that is how I see it, from my own experience.

I hope everyone gets what they want and need because some of us won't ever get it.

[BullDog]

I want to have chest surgery and not a breast reduction. That's obviously a personal choice for everyone. The older I get the more uncomfortable I am with my chest. So I really do need to come up with a financial plan to make it happen.

If I do get it I'll look like a chubby butch with a flat chest because that's who I am. I think it will be very freeing for me and the aesthetics are definitely secondary to how it will make me feel in my body.

And what's wrong with big butches, FTMs and males anyway?

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by *Anya*

I posted here a couple of years ago. My long-term ex was heavy and had extremely large breasts. She hated them.

She did not ID as male but absolutely identified as very masculine of center. She liked being called sir and hated that when she turned around and they saw her chest, people would get flustered and apologize, calling her ma'am.

I don't even know what size they were or what the largest size actually is.

She did have frequent back aches and grooves in her shoulders.

She had insurance through her job-a PPO.

She researched plastic surgeons and found one comfortable with reducing them down to less than an A.

The surgery went well. She was in the hospital for at least 2 days (this was probably 20 years ago) and she had drains in both breasts. When she woke up from anesthesia, she felt both breasts that were heavily bandaged (you still could hardly see them) and she cried with happiness.

I did admire them (without touching). They were perfect and very, very, very small. She never wore a bra again and did not need to. She then lost a lot of weight and they never changed size or moved from their perfect smallness.

You do not need to go the route of complete removal unless you truly want to!

Options!

Explore reduction. I saw her again about 3 years ago and in a shirt, I could not see any difference! They never grew and never sagged.

No gravity for her!

From plasycsurgery.org:

Breast reduction candidates

Overly large breasts can cause health and emotional problems. In addition to self image issues, you may also experience physical pain and discomfort.

The weight of excess breast tissue can impair your ability to lead an active life. The emotional discomfort and self-consciousness often associated with having large pendulous breasts can be as important an issue as the physical discomfort and pain.

Breast reduction is a good option for you if you:

Are physically healthy
Have realistic expectations
Don't smoke
Are bothered by feeling that your breasts are too large
Have breasts that limit your physical activity
Experience back, neck, and shoulder pain caused by the weight of your breasts
Have shoulder indentations from bra straps
Have skin irritation beneath the breast crease

https://www.plasticsurgery.org/recon...ion/candidates

Anya, I do remember you talking about this before. I believe I did not say anything at the time because I didn't want to seem argumentative or like I was being picky. However, I feel that it wouldn't be right to not correct what you are saying this time, because I WAS that hopeful butch with C breasts who went to a plastic surgeon with dreams of getting an A chest. I was disappointed for the next 14 years until I finally decided that I would get top surgery. This was before I decided to transition.

I'm sorry, but, it simply isn't possible that your ex had what is termed a "breast reduction" in plastic surgery, if she was large chested and now has A cup breasts. It simply cannot be done though standard breast reduction procedures.

Your ex had to have essentially gotten a subcutaneous, bilateral mastectomy (most likely), or peri, or keyhole, (aka "top surgery"), and the plastic surgeon left breast tissue because this is what she requested. If she truly had a "breast reduction", her breasts would have increased in size if she gained any weight and they would have probably decreased in size if she did lost weight. Just like any other woman with a breast reduction. However, this did not happen because the surgeon did not leave the fatty tissue that needs to be present in order for that change to occur.

Back then the term "top surgery" wasn't even coined yet. It makes sense that the surgeon even used the term breast reduction. It was also paid for by insurance because it was coded as such.

Some larger trans men/butches leave tissue so that it does not look odd. One could describe their breasts as "A cups", as well.

All day, every day I talk to trans people and gender non-conforming people about their bodies and the surgeries available to them in order to alleviate their distress and/or physical discomfort.

You ex said what she wanted and the surgeon gave her that. They both called it a "breast reduction", because that was the language they had at the time.

Originally Posted by JDeere

I want a reduction really bad but they wont give me the size I want ...

Right, they can't give you the size you want if you are asking for a "breast reduction". Every women is limited by how small she can go when she gets a reduction.

Originally Posted by BullDog

I want to have chest surgery and not a breast reduction. That's obviously a personal choice for everyone. The older I get the more uncomfortable I am with my chest. So I really do need to come up with a financial plan to make it happen.

If I do get it I'll look like a chubby butch with a flat chest because that's who I am. I think it will be very freeing for me and the aesthetics are definitely secondary to how it will make me feel in my body.

And what's wrong with big butches, FTMs and males anyway?

BullDog, I know that you do not identify as trans in any way. However, you can get "top surgery" (through your insurance, if they have trans health care benefits), as long as you are willing to say that you have gender dysphoria of some sort and you would feel better with no chest. There are non-binary people (people who don't identify as women or men and/or as female or male), and they get covered.

If you DO have insurance (private, healthcare market place, or Medicaid) and you are in a state that requires that all insurance companies provide trans health coverage, then you have it. Alternatively, you can see if you can find a plastic surgeon who will code it as a breast reduction, but that is very hard to find.

Some people get part time jobs at places like Best Buy, Starbucks, Apple, and many other places so that they can get top surgery. Bigger companies like that also don't give people a hard time when they are trying to get surgeries covered, either. They follow WPATH standards and all that needs to be said is that your chest causes you "distress", and due to this it is medically necessary that you get the surgery.

When I got my top surgery and was identifying as butch, even if my company had trans health insurance I couldn't have gotten it because I didn't identify as transgender. It is different now. It is about the person's medical need to feel more comfortable with their body, if they are in distress about the parts of their body that we connect to a person's "gender".

[ClintB]

Originally Posted by JDeere

I want a reduction really bad but they wont give me the size I want and I have seen many overweight transguys with full top surgery, they just look like heavy cis male, I'm not trying to be offensive or anything but that is how I see it, from my own experience.

I hope everyone gets what they want and need because some of us won't ever get it.

So that is my observation as well, overweight FTM men with fulll chest reconstruction look just fine... just like any other guy of their size.

Certainly nothing wrong with being overweight... it's my own insecurities combined with what I've heard from a cis females wanting reductions about "medical standards"

i am overweight. I essentially want to appear flat chested to the world and I don't want to really have to "deal" with breasts. But.... I'm not sure I want a male looking chest.

Luckily I was just looking and some pre and post op pics... and I think I was wrong (as well as my ex). There were a few overweight individuals who went really small (like a b cup) and it actually looked just fine to me. So I'm less worried now.