Gynecomastia Patient Experience
Your fulfilling journey to achieve your ideal chest look begins with discussing your goals and wishes and exploring all your options for gynecomastia correction surgery with Dr. Adrian Lo.
Gynecomastia is not an easy condition to live with. Sometimes you may feel that you are alone. It is important to have someone who can understand your concerns and goals. Dr. Lo and his team treats men of all ages with gynecomastia every day and understands concerns and goals for your surgery.
Request A Consultation Before & After
Gynecomastia Surgery For You
Your journey to feeling confident about the look of your chest begins with a consultation with Dr. Lo where you will discuss your goals. Dr. Lo will assess your current chest and body shape and determine the severity of your gynecomastia or man boobs. Dr. Lo will go over with you your treatment options for gynecomastia correction which may include advanced chest liposuction, subcutaneous mastectomy or gland removal and skin removal to give you a normal looking masculine chest.
- Consultations with Dr. Lo are scheduled usually within 2 weeks of contacting our office.
- Surgeries are scheduled 1 to 3 months after consultation with Dr. Lo.
The Consultation Appointment
Your appointment will be about 45 minutes to an hour. We understand that it may be uncomfortable to talk about your man boobs but Dr. Lo and his team see and help many men with gynecomastia concerns every day and understand your situation. This is “your” consultation hour and it’s our commitment to see that you are educated about your situation and options to achieve the best result possible.
We welcome your questions and encourage you to look at before and after pictures of previous gynecomastia patients of Dr. Lo. We are here to understand your goals so that we can meet your ideal chest look.
Meeting With Dr. Lo
Dr. Lo’s standard gynecomastia surgery will remove the excess breast gland tissue, correct puffy nipples, shrink the areolar size, and give you a flat and normal chest contour.
Most patients will require a combination of advanced liposuction with either gland removal or subcutaneous mastectomy at the same surgery. Some patients may require excess skin removal as part of their gynecomastia correction surgery.
During your consultation with Dr. Lo:
- Your goals and wishes will be discussed.
- Medical history will be reviewed, especially for possible causes for your gynecomastia.
- Prior bloodwork, hormone levels and mammogram will be reviewed. Usually, the results are normal and will confirm that you have gynecomastia with no specific cause.
- Chest examination will be performed to determine the amount and type of gynecomastia that you have and your skin quality. Gynecomastia ranges from having puffy, oversized nipples to having a D-cup breast size.
- Discuss the best surgical plan for you.
- Discuss possible result and realistic expectations.
- Answer your questions.
Meeting With Our Patient Care Coordinator
Our Patient Care Coordinator will review with you:
- Your consultation with Dr. Lo and discuss his recommendations for your gynecomastia surgery.
- Discuss the details of scheduling your surgery.
- Review the locations of the state-of-the-art facilities where Dr. Lo performs surgery.
- Review cost of your gynecomastia surgery, methods of payment and financing options.
- Discuss your post-surgery recovery plans and anticipated return to work or school, and timeline to start workouts.
- Answer any further questions.
Preoperative Visit
Prior to your scheduled surgery date, you will return to office for a preoperative appointment to:
- Meet Dr. Lo for a pre-surgery re-examination and to confirm your goals for gynecomastia surgery.
- Take the before pictures.
- Review preoperative blood work or medical clearance. Most patients do not require any preoperative blood work or clearance.
- Prescriptions will be electronically sent to your pharmacy for you to pick up before surgery, if necessary.
- Post-surgery instructions will be reviewed.
- Complete all necessary paperwork and payment.
For our out-of-town patients, if appropriate, the pre-op visit may be completed virtually.
Day of Surgery
On the day of surgery, you will:
- Arrive 1 hour prior to your scheduled surgery time and check-in with the registration staff.
- The nursing team will complete a health history and examination.
- Our physician assistant will meet you and confirm your readiness for surgery.
- The anesthesia doctor will examine you and discuss the anesthesia for the surgery.
- Dr. Lo will meet with you to review your goals and then draw the surgical plan on your chest.
- Your surgery will normally take about 1 hour for chest liposuction with subcutaneous mastectomy and 1 ½ -2 hours if you require a male breast reduction.
- After surgery, you will be in the recovery room for 1-2 hours before you are discharged home.
- Your total time at the surgery center/hospital will be about 3-4 hours.
- You may go home with drains depending on your surgery.
- With subcutaneous mastectomy or cutting out the glands, Dr. Lo will place a thin drainage tube under the skin to prevent any fluid accumulation. Drains will be removed two to three days following the procedure.
- Gynecomastia treated with liposuction alone will not have drainage tubes.
- The chest will have a light gauze dressing, compression chest garment/vest and an ACE chest wrap. The drains and the compression garment hide very easily underneath your clothing and will not be seen.
After Surgery – Recovery From Gynecomastia Surgery
- You will be up, about and moving immediately after surgery.
- Dr. Lo will call you the night of your surgery to review your recovery.
- Day After Surgery:
- Our physician assistant will check in with you the next day to review post-operative care and answer any questions you may have.
- Dr. Lo uses a special ‘no pain’ protocol to minimize pain. However, you can expect to have some discomfort/pain for 1-3 days and the intensity varies from patient to patient but is well controlled with over-the-counter Tylenol.
- You are allowed to take off the ACE compression wrap and the initial chest compression vest and shower if you wish. This is the first time that you will see your new chest! It will be flat. There may be minor swelling and bruising. You will then put the chest compression vest back on. The chest compression vest is usually worn for about 4 weeks.
- If you have drains, you will return to the office in 2-3 days for a checkup and to have your drains removed.
- You can drive in 2-3 days if you feel up to it. You may drive to your drain appointment if you feel able to.
- No heavy lifting over 10 lbs for 2 weeks and no repetitive chest or arm movements.
- Most patients take 2-7 days off work or school.
Patient Experience FAQs
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There are up to 5 visits after surgery:
- Post Op 2-3 days – This will be the visit to remove the drains and check the overall appearance of your new chest. All stitches/sutures dissolve themselves and do not need to be removed. You will be happy because you should see the results of the surgery immediately and have a flat chest.
- Postop 7 days or 1 week- This will be your second visit if you had drains removed previously. This will be your 1st visit if you did not have drains and only had advanced liposuction performed. This will be an overall check to ensure normal healing.
- Additional visits at 1, 3 and 6 months after surgery.
- Virtual follow-up visits may be arranged.
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It is recommended that you wear a chest compression vest for about 4 weeks to minimize postoperative swelling and help with the overall healing. Dr. Lo’ s office will provide a 1st and 2nd stage compression vest for you to wear. You may also obtain your own vests to wear during the month as long as Dr. Lo approves it. The compression vest is worn for 20 out of 24 hours and easily hides underneath your normal clothing. The compression vest is similar to the breathable self-wicking athletic vests that athletes wear when working out.
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As long as your chest is healing normally, Dr. Lo advises that chest exercises be started early at 2 weeks after surgery to begin to shape the chest and tighten the skin. One should start with light weights and ramp up slowly. Push-ups, bench press (incline) and pectoral flys are recommended. There is no restriction for abdominal exercises or lower body exercises and those exercises may be started immediately.
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You will begin to see the immediate results of the surgery right away when you first take the compression vest off after surgery. As the swelling goes down and your chest heals, the final look of your chest can take anywhere from 6 months to 1 year. You can further enhance your surgical results by performing chest strength-building exercises as recommended by Dr. Lo.
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Once your chest is healed, you can normally go swimming or to the beach between 2 to 4 weeks after surgery.
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Drains are used to optimize your result and avoid any fluid buildup after your surgery. The drains stay in for about 2-3 days are easy to manage.
Contact Us
Schedule A ConsultationLocations
Philadelphia Cosmetic Surgery
301 South 8th Street, Suite 3H,
Philadelphia PA 19106
New Jersey Cosmetic Surgery
990 Route 73 North
Marlton, NJ 08053
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