For transgender individuals, the internal and external struggles that come with your physical form mismatching your identity can be difficult to overcome without help. The constant mental labor to be comfortable with yourself and in your interactions can be exhausting.
That’s why top surgery is often one of the first steps trans people seek—it’s a visible change toward defining your true self. Longwood Plastic Surgery has the expertise and artistry to help you realize the physique that matches your identity.
How Does Top Surgery Work?
For those desiring chest masculinization and some non-binary patients, the goal is a masculine chest with defined musculature and proper sizing and placement of the areola and nipple. Your LPS surgeon will remove excess breast tissue and shape your chest for a flatter profile. There are several techniques to achieve this, and they will depend on your individual anatomy, breast size, and skin elasticity. Your LPS surgeon will explain these details during your consultation.
Other patients desiring chest feminization will focus on augmenting the chest to a more female expression, which typically includes breast implants. You’ll need to be on endocrinologist-prescribed hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for 1 year prior to your top surgery. This elevates the success rate by increasing breast tissue, which grows naturally for up to 18 months from the onset of estrogen therapy. The added skin and breast growth will help you choose the size of your implants and make for a more natural final result.
Am I a Good Candidate for Top Surgery?
If you find your sex characteristics don’t match your true self, or your current physique brings distress because your chest does not align with how you define your gender, you may be a candidate for top surgery.
There are questions LPS can help you answer during a comprehensive consultation, and we have the compassion, understanding, and experience to make the process as smooth as possible.
Benefits of Top Surgery
Relieve gender dysphoria. Transgender patients may experience significant distress when others’ expectations for their personality and behavior don’t match who they really are. Top surgery is a major hurdle in overcoming others’ perceptions of you, and there’s relief in not having to fight so hard to be accurately seen. People use the correct pronouns and think of you as the gender by which you define yourself. There’s also less chance of being “clocked” as transgender when your chest doesn’t contradict the changes HRT has made in your appearance.
Relief when your sex characteristics match your identity. Preoccupation with having the wrong primary and secondary sex characteristics, and the despair at not having the correct characteristics significantly diminishes with top surgery. The emotional toll this takes is alleviated, resulting in vastly improved mental and physical health.
For those seeking chest masculinization, there’s no longer a visible reminder that their body was out of alignment, and the freedom from that is life-changing. For male to female (MfF) patients, the opposite is true: what was missing no longer is, and their new curves help define the context in which these patients live their lives.
Clothing becomes comfortable and authentic to your personality and style. No more binding or bra stuffing. When you can fill out the shirts that match who you are, your confidence soars.
Social and professional relationships improve because you don’t expend mental energy wondering if you stand out in all the wrong ways. Activities like shopping, swimming, dancing, and more are no longer chores but ways to enjoy life and your relationships.
When you can outwardly express yourself without self-consciousness, that confidence shows in everything you do. Top surgery at Longwood Plastic Surgery can help you get there.
Take the Next Step
Interested in learning about top surgery? Schedule your consultation with Longwood Plastic Surgery today by calling our Brookline office at (617) 383-6250. We serve the Brookline and Greater Boston area with distinction.