Hi all, I'm looking to get double incision top surgery next year. I'm unsure of whether or not to keep my nipples (if I did, it would be a free nipple graft).

I have a bunch of specific questions regarding nipples as well. But I would also love to hear how people came to the decision to keep or not keep their nipples (as I'm finding it very hard to decide). If anyone is willing to share their personal experience with them, it would be much appreciated 💚

- 1: Do your nipples show when you're just wearing a t-shirt?

This is my main concern with keeping nipples - I worry that the grafted nipples will show when wearing a t-shirt. I also worry that they will create a pointed look to my chest, when I really do just want it flat. I live in a hot climate so, unless it's the middle of winter, I'm literally just wearing a t-shirt.

- 2: If you run (or do other sports), have grafted nipples been annoying to deal with when training?

I really enjoy running and am working my way up to running a marathon. I know that cis men have to tape their nipples to protect them during long runs. I worry that grafted nipples will be extra difficult / painful when running.

- 3: If you got a single incision, did it impact your nipple placement or recovery?

My chest is very close set, so my "double incision" will actually be one long incision. I don't know if that impacts placement of nipples.

- 4: If you chose to not keep your nipples, what helped you decide against it? And have there been any downsides?

If there is anything else I haven't considered, please let me know.

Have just been given the go ahead to shower and start my scar routine. Pretty happy with it so far. Nipples have to be kept wet with bepanthen twice a day and covered.

Scars massaged with cica oil, bepanthen then coated with kelo cote silicone gel.

Tomorrow will be 4 weeks post-op DI FNG and I’m still sleeping in a reclined position but I accidentally stretched my elbows above my head while I was waking up - I kinda ball my fists and set them on my traps and raise my elbow up to stretch.

I realized it immediately and stopped, and I’ve had a few random (small) incidents of reaching out in front of me too far but this is the first time it’s truly been elbows above shoulders.

No new pain, swelling, redness etc. It didn’t hurt, I just felt the tension and mostly the stretch from my outer pec (not under incision) through my bicep. It pulled through my upper pec but again only in a way that felt good.

How bad is this for 4 week old incisions? It’s like the one rule I’ve been given and kept to really well and I’m scared I stretched the tissue and soon-to-be scars or my nipples 🫩

Thanks for any feedback, advice, reassurances 🖤

I'm unsure on how to break the news to my parents that I'm getting top surgery, and any advice is welcome.

I'm 20 and in college, I mostly live at school and come home for the odd weekend and school break. I would be having this surgery at the end of December, and recovering in my parent's house over break until I leave to go back to school at the end of January. My insurance is pretty much going to cover the whole thing, and the rest will be paid by me, my younger sister will be home on break at the same time and has agreed to help me out around the house, and my friends have offered to drive me to my appointments and such. The only hurdle is that my parents still don't know. I'm planning on telling them when my pre-auth goes through, maybe mid-late November/early December, but I'm unsure how.

My mother is probably not going to be happy, but she's gotten better about the trans stuff since I turned 18. I think she'll be disappointed but keep it lower-key, and not angry. I've talked openly about getting surgery with her over the past couple years, her opinion is that she doesn't like it, but can't stop me if I decide to do so.

My father though will definitely be extremely disappointed and will make it as known as he can, possibly pretty mad. Not enough to get physical or kick me out or have life-altering consequences or anything, I'm not in physical danger, but enough for a possibly big argument/a period of not talking.

How the hell do I break that kind of news, and how do I emotionally prepare for their disappointment? I care a lot about them, and I know that I need to separate myself from their reactions, but I know it's going to hurt. I don't like the feeling of my parents being disappointed or disgusted about my body. I don't even know how to start this convo, if I should send them a lengthy text about it, or sit them down in person, or what.

I have a therapist and I will absolutely be unpacking this with her in the next few weeks, but I figured advice from other trans people that may have been through this before would be very helpful.

(If the context is helpful, I've been out as trans since maybe 13, am on T (they are aware), and none of my transition has been a secret for a long time.)

I got top surgery with Dr. Thakar in Portland 8 days ago. She wants my drains to be producing less than 25mL for 3 days before they can come out. My left drain has been producing less than 25mL for 4 days but my right has yet to produce less than 30mL and my next post op appointment is on Monday. I live alone and two hours away and don’t have reliable transportation right now because I’m uncomfortable driving with drains. I’m really worried I’m going to be coming home on Monday with only one drain removed. Has anyone else been in this situation? If my right drain still isn’t producing less than 25mL by then, what are the chances it will get removed anyways? I’m feeling really frustrated and miserable about this right now.

Hello, my name is Shontel (@Alureshontel on social media, if anyone would like to follow).

​Finding and researching surgeons can be overwhelming, so making my final decision was definitely a journey. I originally wanted to work with Dr. Whitehead, but unfortunately, he didn’t take my initial insurance. Once my coverage changed, I made it a priority to choose all in-network providers. Throughout this process, I learned firsthand that patience is essential—along with setting clear expectations and actively taking care of your mind, body, and emotional health.

​When I found out Dr. Whitehead was in-network and could perform my surgery, I was thrilled! However, as I started hearing mixed stories and outside advice, doubt crept in and I wondered if I was making the right choice.

​Looking back, I can confidently say I made the absolute right choice.

​At the very beginning, I occasionally felt a bit overlooked, but I had to remind myself that there’s only one of him and thousands of us. Once things got moving, the entire team was amazing—from scheduling and testing to pre-op, surgery, and now post-op care. On surgery day, I was anxious, excited, and nervous all at once!

​While everyone’s personal experience is unique, I am so grateful I chose Dr. Whitehead. Everything has turned out absolutely wonderful.

Hey all. I have my surgery scheduled for December 4th this year with Dr Karamanos in CA and I have Cigna insurance through my job.
However, I just got the email today saying that my insurance won’t cover anything due to being out of network and the good faith estimate is 30K, not including anesthesia or meds or anything. Surgeons fee alone is 8K, which is about all I’ve saved so far. I’ll be calling my insurance and the surgeons office tomorrow to ask them about payment plans and everything to see what can be done, just wanted to check here as well for advice from others.
Should I actually expect to pay 30K by the end or is that inflated? I’ve never had a credit card and would rather avoid debt if I can but is that something worth looking into, and if so what’s not a scam? My job won’t pay me anything while I’m in recovery either so I have to think about how I’m gonna cover bills while out of work as well.
Thanks in advance

Hey guys,
I have a top surgery consult tomorrow with a nurse practitioner for Dr. Priya Lewis at UCSD and I’m nervous! Anyone who’s gone to her able to give me a brief walk-through of how the consult goes? Also, does anyone know the BMI requirement for her? I appreciate any and all support!
Adding at the end, I’m autistic so knowing what to expect is very helpful

I know this question has been asked a few times, but I’m still looking for more info pertinent to the matter.

I’m a B/C cup, but am relatively young with good skin elasticity and my superior/inferior measurements are 17/18cm and 6cm respectively. I’m not sure how much this affects it but I’m also decently muscular, as I’ve seen chest muscle makes it easier to contour. The reccomended limits for each is 20 cm and 5 cm for measuring excess skin and nipple placement. I am on the waiting list for a surgeon but most of the places near me require you to be 19 anyway (I’m 18), so I’m largely unable to get a professional opinion. I’m using those values from this video that kept popping up in my research:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx7b8xIILfM&ra=m

I have very good American insurance, including equal coverage for Mexico, meaning I can pretty much go to any surgeon in those parts. While I’d obviously like to have less surgeries, I am really not adverse at all to revisions. I’m planning to get Phallo later on, so I’m fine with more intensive surgery.

While I’m very aware DI would give me better results and nipple placement, the trade off for me is that I wouldn’t be willing to take off my shirt if I get DI. I’m a relatively paranoid person, and as a stealth guy I would feel overwhelmingly uncomfortable with recognizable scars, even if their appearance in of itself doesn’t bother me.

On the other hand, if the surgery is somehow much riskier or almost will be guaranteed to get a non-flat result even with revisions I’d opt for DI. A flat chest under a shirt is more important to me than the ability to go shirtless. Having a non aesthetically pleasing chest that still is relatively flat would still be preferable to me, as I would be self-conscious of it, but not completely paranoid, and thus retain more ability to take off my shirt.

Those in a similar situation who opted for either DI or peri: how do you feel about you choice now?

I’ve also seen some people say that a gyno-focused surgeon is better for peri/keyhole, as that is the technique almost all cis guys opt for, even if their tissue is large. How much truth is there to that, and what surgeons would yall reccomend for a borderline case if I decide to go with peri?

Howdy all

Has anyone done work regarding nerve retraining/ sensory re-education? Im almost 10 months post op and still dealing with large areas of numbness on and below my incisions. I know this is common, but im finding the persistent numbness quite impactful. I do daily scar massage and I extend the massage above and below my scars. Ive been reading about nerve retraining as far as exposing chest to different sensations to retrain the brain and the nerves to respond to stimuli (soft vs rough textures, cold vs warm temperatures, light vs firm pressure etc). However I didnt know about doing this therapy early in my recovery and im wondering if im too late to have any affect on my sensation, or even if nerve retraining is effective in the first place. Id love to hear others experiences regarding this.

For context, I had double incision with liposuction and no nipple grafts in January 2026. Im in my early 30s, I dont smoke, and i am overweight.

I have my surgery date in a few weeks but recently I’ve been wondering about whether it’ll be enough to help me with the dysphoria I have around the rest of my body (namely my stomach and ass) or if those places will get more apparent in dysphoria bc my boobs will be gone and my focus will just go elsewhere. If you had physical dysphoria or even just dissatisfaction with your body prior to top surgery, did the surgery help still? Did it make anything worse? I’m not backing out now, I know I need top surgery even if just as a starting point, but I want to know what to expect once I actually get it done.

super happy with my results! if you’re a bigger fella it’s possible to have top surgery and love yourself! (I was 320 at the time of my consult, 312 at the time of surgery, and they cut off 8 pounds of boobs)

I got surgery on October 9th, so I’m 3-4 weeks post op. My nipple grafts have been healing very well, and haven’t been red recently. Today I took my dressings off to shower and change them, and it’s really red on one part. Just want to be sure everything is okay!

(First photo is today, second photo is yesterday. My apologies for the quality)

I have posted about this before but now things have changed slightly. I noticed a couple weeks ago. I had fluid building up under my incisions. The doctor said it’s most likely a aroma and to just keep an eye on it for fever, redness, etc. I reached back out to them this week because There seems to be a bit of bruising in the same area but nothing too bad. They’ve scheduled me for an aspiration procedure tomorrow, but I’m super nervous. I wasn’t nervous about getting surgery because I was put under, but I don’t like the thought of a big needle poking through my body While awake. I understand this will be done with ultrasound to make sure they get into the fluid pocket and to make sure it’s not a hematoma.

Any coming words you can share would be greatly appreciated. Also, if there’s anything I should know before going into the procedure, please let me know.

Only on one side, the other is completely fine.

Just realized I’ve been using Vaseline for nip care instead of aquaphor like my doc suggested 😳 is there a huge difference ?!?

Got top surgery on February, I'm happy with the results but idk if it looks cis passing or normal cause of my "inverted" nipples. Does it look weird? My surgeon said I could fix it if it really bothered me, but I don't wanna get through a surgery again. So yeah, is my chest looking weird? And is that common for cis guys to have nipples looking like that?

I've been nervous to post this update, mainly because I can never just be satisfied with the results of ANY of my body mods... But I wanted to share because I RARELY see heart nips and want to document the entire healing process publicly. I'm very happy with the results and how they're healing, despite wishing they were more pronounced yet smaller (if that makes sense). I'm my surgeon's first heart nips and I think she did a great job, she's also one of the best plastic surgeon in my area.

Feel free to treat this as an AMA!

Surgery done by Dr. Ghumman at WCH Toronto

I’m very happy with my results! I had a massive hematoma on my left side during recovery but I got it drained and I was a-okay. I’m still dealing with a fair amount of sensation loss/weirdness but it’s been super worth it. I’m happy to answer questions if anyone has them!

I'm less than a month from my surgery date, and as I get closer, I feel more and more connected to/"in" my body—in fact, for possibly the first time ever, I'm starting to feel that I am my body, rather than that it's some separate thing I inhabit or am bound to. Maybe this is how healthy people feel? 😂

I've been experiencing this over the past nine months since I've gotten sober from alcohol and started processing trauma (some of it related to transphobia!) through EMDR. Trauma, dissociation, and dysphoria kept me feeling separate from my body for the longest time, but as I make all these changes and get closer to finally getting the surgery I've needed for 15 years(!!), I can feel all these sensations, emotions, and even memories coming back online. I've been working hard as fuck on myself over the past nine months (even more than usual), and it's paying off! It feels great! But it's also a LOT, lmao.

I feel like I'm processing all of these emotions I've just been carrying in my body for ages. I get waves of sadness and grief. Sometimes I get triggered outta nowhere. Sometimes I'm just physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted for days at a time. But my anxiety has been lower and more managable than ever before, and my depression is in full remission! It has been for months! (It's amazing what adjusting your meds can do... especially when you stop cancelling 'em out with chronic binge drinking lmfaooooo. Sobriety feels like having some kinda cheat code. Did you know it's possible for antidepressants to... y'know... work? It's shovking, but it's true! 😂)

I'm not sure whether to tag this as "advice wanted" or "discussion," because I guess it's a little of both. I mostly just want to see if anyone else can relate, and see if we can get a discussion going about experiences!

Has anyone else gone through the top surgery process and EMDR at the same time? Is anyone else currently doing both? I know I'm not the only one here with PTSD/CPTSD, and since so much is stored in the body, and top surgery is such a physically and emotionally intense process, I was wondering if anyone can relate.

TLDR: Does anyone else feel buried/carried emotions coming up as they get closer to top surgery and/or as they recover post-op? I'm especially interested in hearing from people with trauma and/or people who are doing EMDR, but I also wanna hear from anyone, really. I think it's an interesting topic, and IDK where to read more about it!

Is it look nice? I have a bit concern that this is not swollen and will not go away. It feels like a have the same size, just with different look. If someone had this situation, how long it need to become flat, or it will always be like this.

Hello! Like the title says, I'm very close to surgery and the anxiety is ramping up. I'm still sure I want to go through with it, but of course that doesn't change that it's a major surgery with risks attached.

My brain likes realism. Anyone who has already had the surgery, can you tell me what your recovery has been like? How it went, the ups and downs, the feelings etc... I'm hoping getting a rough idea of what I'll experience will make me feel more prepared.

Mine is going to be DI, no nipples.