When I First Saw My Chest After Surgery

Gynecomastia often begins around puberty, but the point at which people come to the clinic differs from person to person. The one I would like to introduce today came in their forties. However many decades a concern has been carried, there is no such thing as being late or early for treatment.

The worry was not the surgery, but what came after

What this patient worried about most was not the surgery itself, but what came after it.

It is a natural worry. The surgery is what we do, but recovery is the time the patient must pass through. That is why, in my case, I guide patients concretely and in advance about the post-surgery schedule — the duration of wearing the compression garment, when exercise becomes possible, the follow-up observation schedule. When you can picture how the time afterward will unfold, the worry is cut in half.

The first impression of a clinic that focuses on surgery

For the first impression, they left the answer that it seemed like a clinic focused on surgery.

When you handle the surgery of one field, repeatedly and over a long time, the workflow, equipment, and people suited to it fall into place. Patients, it seems, feel that first, even before hearing the explanation.

The moment of first looking in the mirror after surgery

As a moment that stayed with them, they wrote this.

"When I first saw my chest after surgery, I was satisfied."

The moment of first standing before the mirror after surgery is, for me too, the most nerve-racking moment. Confirming with one's own eyes that a long-troubling part has changed — more than any explanation, that confirmation speaks to the result.

Straightening the shoulders and wearing short sleeves

As what they most wanted to do after surgery, they chose straightening their shoulders and wearing short sleeves.

The posture in which gynecomastia patients shrink their bodies to hide the chest easily becomes a habit. To straighten the shoulders also means to break free of that habit.

To those facing the same concern, they left a single phrase: "Recommend without reservation." That said, this is this person's own experience, and whether the condition calls for surgery is something to confirm first through an examination.

There is no age too late for treating gynecomastia. Like this patient who came in their forties, the moment you resolve to act is itself the right time.