"It Was an Intensity I Could Bear"

Pain is frightening because there is no way to confirm beforehand how much it will hurt. Pain you have not experienced keeps growing in the imagination. And so the decision gets postponed.

The answer they left after surgery was also one line: "It was an intensity I could bear."

But pain is felt differently by different people. The amount and firmness of tissue, the extent of surgery, and the speed of recovery all differ, so I cannot say this person's experience applies to everyone as it stands. What we can do is not to promise to remove pain, but to explain the expected range in advance and manage it accordingly.

Of the atmosphere at the clinic, they wrote, "It was good that there were only male doctors."

It is something we hear repeatedly from people who come to our Incheon clinic. Gynecomastia is a condition that cannot be assessed without showing the body, and for most it is a concern they have never raised with anyone. For some, simply not having to think about who is looking is what opens the conversation.

Asked what they most wanted to do after surgery, they answered: "I'm going to live with my chest out."

It is not a grand plan. It means they had been rounding their shoulders without thinking about it, and that now they no longer have to. What gynecomastia surgery changes is generally this kind of daily life.

Asked for a word to others facing the same concern, this person wrote that there is no need to agonize. I take it as carrying the relief of someone who hesitated a long time. But it is their own experience, and whether surgery is needed is something to decide after confirming your condition through an examination. Checking and deciding are two different things.

The answers were brief, but the distance between what they feared and what they actually experienced came through clearly. Narrowing that distance is, I believe, the work of the consultation.