In the box for a moment that stayed with them from the surgery, they wrote only, "I have no memory of it." It may look like a perfunctory answer, but it is an accurate one. We enter the operating room after anesthesia is complete and you wake once the surgery is over, so there is no stretch to remember.
What they worried about before surgery was post-operative pain, and afterward they wrote, "Having actually done it, there was nothing except the compression garment being uncomfortable." The compression garment is worn for the prescribed period to reduce swelling and to press so that the area from which tissue was removed does not lift. Because the incision in gynecomastia surgery is not large, it often passes as a few days of heaviness rather than pain. How those few days pass, though, differs from person to person. That is why we say not to hold out until it hurts before taking the medication prescribed, but to take it at the times given. Avoid raising your arms high overhead for the first few days; otherwise you can go about your usual routine.
For their impression of the first visit, they wrote that the staff were all kind and that it was a little easier because everyone was male. Quite a few people mention this. These are people who found even visiting a clinic about their chest a burden and put it off for years, so who is present when you undress for an examination matters more than you might think. Some hope it will go away on its own while they postpone, but for most people the period in which pubertal changes settle has already passed. The glandular tissue that remains after that does not shrink with time.
For what they most wanted to do once surgery was over, they chose "wearing a short-sleeved shirt comfortably." There must have been years of layering something underneath each summer, or choosing only loose-fitting clothes.
To others with the same concern, they wrote that they definitely recommend it and see no reason not to. That is what they said based on their own experience. Gynecomastia also varies in degree and type, and there are cases where surgery is not needed, so it is right to decide after confirming your own condition at an examination. If you organize three things before coming in, the first consultation becomes far more concrete: when it began to bother you, whether there is a lump or pain on palpation, and whether it decreased along with weight loss.
I hope you wear short sleeves comfortably this summer.
