They Asked Whether It Was All Right to Have Surgery in Summer

After gynecomastia surgery you wear a compression garment for a period and resume exercise in stages. When those two overlap with summer, of course sweat and stuffiness are on your mind — all the more if you sweat easily.

So for people having surgery in summer, we also explain how to manage the garment, how to wash and rotate it, and the range of activity. Because the time recovery takes differs with the amount of tissue removed and recovery speed, it is more accurate to confirm the schedule at a visit, against your own condition.

Asked how it actually went, they answered briefly: "Time went by quickly, so it was fine." The weeks worried about in advance did not, in the event, feel that long. How long it feels, though, differs from person to person.

"The doctors were kind, which was good." The sentence written as their memory of the first visit was that one line.

People who come in for gynecomastia generally say little. They arrive never having raised this concern with anyone. What we attend to first in the consulting room is less the surgical explanation than conveying that this is an ordinary visit, nothing special.

For what they most wanted to do after surgery, they wrote, "I want to exercise again soon." The worry was exercise and the plan was exercise.

There is a part of gynecomastia that exercise does not solve. If it arises from developed glandular tissue, losing weight and training the chest will not readily reduce that part — and as the surroundings tighten, it can even stand out more. Addressing what exercise could not, and then returning to exercise, seems to have been the right order for this person.

Asked what they would leave for others with the same concern, they answered to the effect that having it done is far better. That is their own experience, and whether surgery is needed is something to decide after confirming your condition through an examination.

I hope you plan this summer's training within reasonable limits.