Gynecomastia Patient Story
Most of our real patient stories tend to come from women, as the men who undergo surgery tend to be a little more cautious about sharing their experiences like Luke’s gynecomastia patient story. Luke was brave enough to answer some questions and show us his amazing results from his mastectomy and tummy tuck. We think Luke looks great!
What made you decide to go ahead and start with surgery (was there an aha moment? Or was it just – I had enough I am going to do this)
I’ve been through a couple of bouts now. The first was to get some post-weight loss sag taken care of in the form of a mastectomy and tummy tuck. There was an aha moment of sorts, as I had not heard the word gynecomastia until at my wits end with dieting and exercise, I called up a plastic surgeon out of desperation. I can’t remember his name (he was based in Nedlands) but he took one look and said that liposuction wasn’t the answer and that there wasn’t much he could do, and mentioned gynecomastia as a condition that I probably had. A quick round of googling and I realised that no amount of diet/exercise was going to help, and hence continued my search for professional help. The tummy tuck was kind of “thrown in” at the same time to take up some obvious saggy skin that probably wasn’t going to budge either.
The second surgery was about 5 years later and involved a round of liposuction to my flanks to bring them back into proportion with my torso and hips. This was fuelled by frustrations in diet and exercise to an extent, but I approached this one with significantly less desperation and in a more pragmatic way to achieve something that my body was perhaps not going to do on its own.
How did you find Dr Briggs/did your research/did you get other opinions?
I found Dr Patrick Briggs through my initial frantic google search regarding gynaecomastia, as he came up quite high in the search rankings. I called to book a consult, and the rest is history. I didn’t seek any other opinions as I was quite desperate to get underway. That being said, I had complete confidence in Dr Briggs from the initial consultation so it certainly wasn’t a rash decision to go ahead. The second time round he was an obvious choice as an excellent track record was in place.
Why did you decide to opt for Dr Briggs to do the surgery?
I couldn’t really put it down to any one thing; I felt comfortable booking an initial consult as the internet seemed to give glowing reviews and I couldn’t find any horror stories! I remember immediately feeling very comfortable with Dr Briggs in the initial consult; he knew exactly what needed to be done to remedy my ailments and I never at any point doubted him or his abilities.
Once the surgery was done – what did you have to do as the patient?
Very little. I had no major issue with the compression garments and was back to my basic daily activities within a day or two. I had no major issues with pain and even managed to give back the prescribed pain killers after the first surgery. The second surgery was a little rougher pain wise but very manageable, and I didn’t need to resort to the stronger painkillers there either. The hardest thing was the exercise/training downtime 🙂
And finally now when you look back? How has it changed/improve your life. (is there things you do now that you did not do before?) do you feel more confident, has it changed your outlook or even how you are perceived by others?
It is night and day, especially with my chest. I used to wear baggier t-shirts and would hunch my shoulders to try and hide what was going on. I didn’t feel normal and it was certainly rough. After some time as my mind got used to the fact that I had changed I think family and friends would say I came out of my shell and certainly grew into a lot more confidence. I’m now at the point where I honestly don’t remember too much of how I used to look which is a nice feeling.
The other thing I found with the surgeries is they seemed to have an effect of removing any artificial roadblocks I may have put in place in my diet/training goals, as I find it is fairly easy to hang excuses on the most obvious flaws rather than simply persevering. Obviously under certain circumstances there is only so much diet and training will get you but I find myself much clearer in my goals now that it really is just down to me.
Further Information about Gynecomastia and Male Breast Reduction
More Blogs by Dr Patrick Briggs Melbourne Plastic Surgeon
- Gynecomastia Causes and Options by Dr Briggs
- How Liposuction works by Dr Briggs
- Plastic Surgery for those in Rural Areas with Dr Briggs
To Contact Dr Patrick Briggs
If you’d like more information about male breast reduction or any procedures, you can contact Dr Patrick Briggs at his clinic or check out the blogs
To make an enquiry with Dr Briggs please call 1300 264811 or email [email protected]