14 days (2 weeks!) post op today, so decided to take some properly photos now for milestones. My left nipple looks considerably different to my right one, just curious to see if people think it still looks okay. 3rd photo is the left nipple (ps: day 5 of doing wet healing with aquaphor)

Day one let's go gang :7

So I had top surgery 4 years ago (I was 18 at the time) Since then I started working through a fuck tonne of trauma that occurred during my childhood through to my teenage years.

About 2 years ago, I started to come to some realisations and wondered if I made the right decision. I started to think maybe it wasn't dysphoria and simply unresolved trauma (I won't get into the details of the trauma). I started questioning my gender identity again (I was non-binary at the time). I now identify differently and I don't mind either they or she pronouns, but especially in the past few months, I have been grieving.

I regret the top surgery, and I'm distraught. I feel as though I'm missing a part of me, and I feel severely distressed. I hate looking at myself in the mirror.

I realise now a reduction would have suited me better, but I didn't even know that was an option!

I've done some research, and i think that a fat transplant would do me well. I dont need absolute knockers, just a small pair that makes me feel more comfortable in my skin.

What I'm wondering :

1) I got top surgery on the NHS. Is the transplant possible to do on the NHS?

2) How will my nipple placement affect a fat transplant. They are uneven and quite high up.

3) Has anyone personally experienced this?

5 weeks PO DI was on a cycling trip with my family and changed my silicone tape only to see this. No pain, just weird…

I contacted Gustavo around late july 2026. I found an email address online. He was pretty quick to respond, we arranged a FaceTime within a week to discuss my desired outcomes etc. his English is very good. We booked in a date for October 22nd. Make sure you bring a list of questions as that is the only time you speak to him until the surgery. He’s happy for you to WhatsApp any questions though.

Between now and then, I’ve spoken with his team over email to confirm the date and time to come in, pre operative tests etc. they also asked for a copy of my gender dysphoria diagnosis. also I had to pay a €350 deposit a month before the surgery. There are other costs - €50 for a companion to stay, and €140 for your post op binder and vest.

Wednesday 21st - went into the hospital a day before to get my bloods and ECG taken. This was at an extra cost to the surgery, around €50 total. There is a slight language barrier with the staff but they were all lovely and we made it work through translator on phones and some of them spoke a good enough level of English. They took my IDs and processed this on the system while I got my blood test. My partner was allowed in the room with me.

Thursday 22nd - I arrived at 12:30, we sat at reception and paid for everything - remainder of surgery costs, companion stay, blood tests and post op binder. Total costs were €3440.
We were quickly taken to our room, which was so nice, amazing views of Porto and very private, had my own shower, toilet etc. there was a sofa bed for my partner.
I had to scrub down in the shower using a surgical soap, and put on scrubs after. The nurses came in the put a cannnula in my hand, take blood pressure and oxygen levels, and ask me some questions about my weight and height.

Gustavo came to the room about 1:30pm, he took pre op photos and marked up my chest. By 2;30 I was wheeled off to the surgical room. There were a group of staff around me preparing me for surgery, asking me general questions about my day and then they put the mask over me, I took about 5 deep breaths and then all I remember is waking up in a different room, no boobs, in the binder and vest (which is horribly tight). I cried out of happiness when I woke up. It was a beautiful moment, I felt peaceful and just happy it was over with.

About 6:30pm I was wheeled back into the room with my partner. For the rest of the night the nurses would come and check on us every half an hour to an hour. Bringing tea and biscuits. I could also ring a bell if I needed anything, such as more pain killers. The staff were so helpful and Im incredibly grateful to them and Gustavo.

Friday 23rd - last night sleeping was hard in the tight vest and binder. But they gave me lots of medication to help. I woke up to tea and biscuits again, nurses would come in and out to attach my cannula to a new pain medication. I was half asleep a lot of the time and didn’t realise.
Gustavo came in to check on me around 12pm, he loosened the vest a tiny bit as I expressed discomfort. He told me off as I kept using my arms to push myself up on the bed - probably not the best idea. He said the surgery went very well and he was happy with the results.
By 4pm my drains were taken out and I was detached from any equipment, we left the hospital around 5pm.

Today I am 6 days post op. The surgery was the easy part, recovery has been a mental battle. The binder and vest is the worst part, pain is managed well with the medication, so it’s mainly dealing with the discomfort around sleeping in the compression vest & binder.

Days 1-3 were the worst I couldn’t do much on my own and was in pain, by day 5 I messaged Gustavo as my back was in agony, he said I could loosen the compression vest a little bit which has helped. The pain has massively reduced and I keep forgetting to take pain medication as it’s quite mild at this point. I wouldn’t be able to cope or manage well without having my partner here to cook clean & help me do basic things. She’s also helped wash my hair/face as you get so greasy sitting around. I’ve been on a few walks outside, went out for lunch day 5 but at a push, and starting to sleep better now.

The range of motion in my arms is good. I’m not putting my arms above my head but have been practicing mobility and moving them out to the front and sides. I keep feeling tingles / goosebumps all over my chest which is a good sign for your nerves trying to reconnect.

Overall I’m super happy with how things have gone. Just bring lots of things to entertain you while you’re recovering, make sure you have a passion project to get on with, access to Netflix and a comfortable sofa with lots of pillows ( I recommend those neck pillows you get on an airplane ).

Tomorrow I get to see my results finally. I’ll post photos at some point as I found peoples reviews and progress pics extremely helpful. Ask any questions you like!

I've been searching all over this forum but so far haven't explicitly been able to find any top surgeons in Washington state who offer reinnervation or neurotization techniques! Would really love to get consults with docs in my state before considering out of state. Do you know of any??

I had about 45-50 ml in each drain when I got out of the hospital, stripped and drained the bulbs and now about 5-6hours later there's significantly less and the color is lighter than when I first emptied them.

Is too little fluid something to worry about or is that a good sign? I haven't seen my chest yet so I can't say if there's a lot of swelling but when I change the gauze tomorrow if anything looks extremely off I'll call the hospital to ask.

I have some light brown discoloration which I figure is normal but what gets me is there's a lot of firm lumps in my left side and none in my other. Does this sound like a hematoma?

I’ll be over 5 weeks post op joint DI when I plan on doing this. I’m going out for the day and really don’t want to wear the post op binder because it sucks. I’ll be free from it on the 5 of November but am currently only able to take it off for sleeping and showers. Would an underworks binder have enough compression to wear instead?

All my incisions are closed and my nipples are no longer scabbing. Been ooze free for a bit now.

I got top surgery 4 days ago and I need to take my shot tonight I was stupid and didn’t email my surgeon and ask if I’m good to take my shot tonight did anyone else take there’s a few days after?

Anyone had minor dog ear revision by a plastic surgeon who doesn’t specialise in gender affirming surgery? I have small but noticeable dog ears in the centre of my chest from excess skin and under my arm pits that I’d like to get a revision for but would have to travel interstate to see a top surgeon. I’m thinking it’d likely just be a quick local anaesthetic procedure and hopefully they can neaten up a wonkey scar in the process.
Anyone with similar experiences or did everyone go back to their original surgeon for revision? It’s not an option for me to see my og surgeon.

What brands of scar tape and silicone gel are we using and from where? I’m not sure if they’re all just as effective or if specific ones are recommended/have better results. If you can post results of what you’ve used and for how long too that would be amazing <3

Hi everyone - I see a lot of nervous fellows around here and I just want to let you all know it will be A okay. Here’s a run down of how my surgery went: I quit smoking nicotine for the time being (used a non nicotine vape, just because I am not looking to quit just yet - and then let it die out slowly) Got mine done in portland and the teams there are amazing.

Recovery was quite easy, you lay around for however long it takes for the drains to be removed, yes they are annoying and will be the longest week of your life but the relief when you get them out is beyond satisfying. (feels a little funky though, shoutout to my bros those and goes with sensory issues, think of the relief and let it overwhelm you instead of the feeling) After that it was literally smooth sailing, made sure to clean and do as my care team said to do. Now here is where it gets scary, if you have nipple grafts they will literally look so scary but everything is most likely fine, I had partial nipple graft failure and everything still looks bomb. I also slept on my side when I wasn’t supposed to & ended up okay but make sure it’s actually comfortable and I slept kind of at a slant so I wasn’t fully on my side (helped so much having a big plushy that wouldn’t hurt for my side sleepers out there) I did have a problem with the binder, it was digging into my side and ended up splitting open a part of my incision, but all went well and it recovered nicely. Good luck, I don’t regret it, I feel even better as a person now and doing things like working out, running, camping, working feels less embarrassing and more enjoyable!

I have top surgery scheduled in a few weeks, and I was wondering if anyone has experienced their chest getting smaller after losing weight.
My surgeon doesn’t want to make my chest completely flat because he thinks it would look more natural at my current weight. However, I need to lose weight for health reasons because of diabetes, and my surgeon said that losing weight could make my chest smaller, which is something I’d actually like.
I tried Googling it, but most of what I found said that significant changes to your chest after top surgery are uncommon. So I wanted to hear from people who have actually experienced it

Im just not sure if he is correct or not. Im probably overthinking. Im just really nervous, Ive never had surgery before.

Happy!!

I’m almost 4 weeks post op, and I’ve been massaging and moisturising my incisions twice a day everyday for about 2 weeks now. All my scabs have fallen off so I was wondering if I could start applying bio oil and possibly silicon gel?

Hi all. About to come up on 6 months on T. My endo and a couple of doctors online (which I know is not the best source of information) said most people should wait to be at least a year on T to get top surgery. Asking you guys' opinions on here, appreciate it:)

I’m two weeks post op, everything is healing great, the nipples are both attached and healed down at all the edges except right here, it looks like a stitch let loose or something and the fat is bulging out, it’s not infected or anything, I’ve been doing wet healing so my nipples haven’t gotten hard scabs or peeled they’re always soft, I left them dry out during my daily dressing change, my question is should I add more compression to push it down? Or will that just dry up and fall off? I’m not sure how that’s gonna heal exactly or if I can do anything additional to help it close properly, thank you 🙏

3 weeks post op, on 2nd week post op had all the tape and stitches out and dr said i had slight lift at the bottom

my gf just helped me clean the wounds and everything else so i just wanted to show yall im 3 days post op :) lmk what you think in terms of everything. is it too swollen? im not in pain and im just taking tylenol and an anti biotic everything as prescribed

just got my top surgery prior auth from insurance today!!

recently i had wisdom tooth surgery, and it hurt way too much to laugh after... does it hurt to laugh after top surgery? obviously top surgery isn't in your mouth but I feel like my chest moves a lot when I laugh... those who have had top surgery, could you fill me in?

as i'm typing this i'm realizing just how stupid this sounds but i'm a very giggly person and if I have to not laugh after top surgery I'm going to be so sad

Just got out of the hospital and don't know if they forgot to take them off or if I'm supposed to leave them on for some reason?

Edit: I kinda knew the answer before I posted but haven't ever had a surgeon forget to take them off, so I wanted to double triple check before calling the hospital and making a fool of myself lmao