Hey, and welcome to another episode of the Trans 101 today. We are going to be talking about top surgery now
There are two main types of top surgery. I will be talking about one of them in this video and in the next video
We'll be talking about another one in this video. We're going to be talking about double incision
so "top surgery" is actually a nickname that almost everyone the community uses it's so much easier than just saying double incision or
double mastectomy or
surgery on your breast
So top surgery has become the kind of go-to
slang or
Nickname that everybody kind of uses in community the most basic definition that I can give you is the removal of the breast to
masculinize the chest
So in this specific type of surgery that I'm talking about double incision is also known as double
Mastectomy so that you are literally removing the two breasts and there will be two incisions across your chest over here
And they usually do a nipple grafting I know this is complicated, so let's break it down.
So this surgery is for people who have larger breasts, okay? Usually it's like people who are b and up.
And then people who are on the smaller spectrum would get the other surgery that I'm going to be talking about in the next video
ummm
Can't tell you which surgery your chest and your person will have you need to talk to a surgeon because some surgeons only perform one
To one specific type of surgery on all patients and all of that
So I can't be the one but I can tell you exactly what double incision is so basically what happens if you have breasts
They're going to make an incision on top over here
And then they're going to make an incision
Underneath then they kind of just remove that breast tissue and they sew the two pieces together. I know that sounds super super simple, but
Alright, what happened they also contour the chest you have Pec muscles
And they make sure a lot of surgeons make sure that the scars are going to be under the pecs if you ever develop pecs
Or you have developed Pec muscle the scar will be underneath
This is different for a lot of surgeons some surgeons don't do
that some surgeon scars are lower some are higher some are up here everyone has a different method of doing it
But the most common way of doing it
Is that people will have scars here that don't usually touch they touch
For some people and then go across the chest over here, and then what happens to the skin that's up here
well You get nipple grafts. So with the nipple graft is they take your original nipple that you had and they cut part of it
So that it can look like a smaller nipple and nipple of a Cis male, and they will
Install it on your chest. Now the biggest question that everyone always has I feel with top surgery is will I lose
Sensation in my nipple? And in my chest so with this type of surgery they are cutting the nerves away from the nipple
And they're not connected to the nipple anymore so that means that you will lose sensation not everyone loses
Sensation a lot of people still regain sensation or the type of sensation that they have wasn't the same as they hadn't originally?
But you can regain sensation. I have had this type of surgery
I was very scared to lose nipple sensation if I touch my nipples now I can literally feel them it feels great
and I am four years post-Op surgery now and
It has taken a long time, but when I touch it, I actually can feel my nipple
And it feels really great the sensation is completely different than it was before I had surgery
but at least I know that I can have some sensation, but you kind of learn to
Adapt with your body. I have a lot more sensation under my nipple. Which is very strange for me, so
especially if you want to talk about erotic
Sensation under my nipple is more than my nipple for some reason so our bodies are weird nerves reconnect everywhere
But that's basically what happens with the sensation some people have numbness on their chest that can usually come back within a year
There are just some areas on my chest that they're a little bit numb
But almost everyone that I know that that it had top surgery
Can feel almost all over their chest now there is no type of surgery very similar to this one that you can retain
Your nipple sensation. It's called the t anchor
Now with this surgery as they do the same thing you have the scars on the side
And then you have two scars that are under the nipple that connects the nipple and then down to the scar.
That's where it looks like a T the T anchor and then an anchor I guess
So with this is they actually keep the nerves connected to the nipple now
There is some issues that come along with that. Some people have said that because if they
Very large-breasted for top surgery that means that the nerve connected to your body and to the nipple is very long
so when you have surgery
They're not cutting the nipple in the nipple the the they're not cutting the nerves
so that means that when you have surgery
And you have a flat chest
some people have said that they can still feel the nerve because now it's kind of like all kind of squished up and
It-It-It
Kind of Feels like a fluid pocket
Some people have said that that's not for everyone if you have smaller breasts when you have surgery then you probably won't won't feel that
But just try to imagine it
There's a long string and then you're kind of cutting everything down where does that long string have to go it has to go somewhere
they're not cutting it and
reconnecting it right so it's always going to be that long so especially if you have bigger breasts your the connections always it's going to
Be longer so that the surgery isn't very, very popular
but it is another type of surgery that you can have so how old can you be to have this type of surgery well the
Youngest person ever that I know personally in my life is 16. yet I have heard some people who are younger,
Who have had top surgery now there are not not all surgeons will perform surgery on minors okay for example. There's one doctor Dr.
Garmone, who is the surgeon that I went to he will not perform surgery on Minors other surgeons like Dr. Fisher and
Dr. Crane Will perform on minors.
Obviously with parental consent. Of course another very, very, very popular question is how much of top surgery well?
The cheapest top surgeons that have ever seen was probably around $3,000 American dollars that we're talking right now
And then they can go all the way up to like
$11,000 the surgery that I have now caught at this moment in 2017
$6,500 with the surgeon that I went with. Now is it covered by insurance if you are America, all right
And you have insurance some insurance plans will cover top surgery but not all surgeons accept insurance
So you really need to shop around for the type of surgery that you want the type of surgeon and type of insurance that you?
Have just to make sure that all those align
I am not American so I cannot give you specifics on insurance
So if you ask me specific questions about I'm sorry
I will not be able to answer those but I just want to give you kind of an overview that yes
Can be covered by insurance in America now, so I live in Canada, so I know that you can get it covered here
There are different ways that you have to do it through different provinces, so I'm not going to go through all of those
But that's something that you could look up
And I'll put as many, as many information links that I can in the description just so that you can kind of understand how
One would pay for surgery. So what is recovery like for double incision surgery well so many surgeons use drains so the drains
Basically come out of the incision that you have here they come out here some surgeons
have drains, some surgeons don't have drains basically what the drains do is they
Drain out the excess fluid that you have
From surgery so that there's no buildup now some surgeons. Don't use drains because they found a way to
Encompass, I believe the muscles so that the fluid kind of just regenerates into the skin and into the muscle and into your body
So you don't need to drain it out
So how long do people usually have drains for will usually have drains for about five days. I've even seen up to ten days
I had personally had drains for five days when they removed it
I didn't feel anything literally it did not feel like anything other people have said that when it has been removed
It was extremely painful that was one of the things that I was the most scared about top surgery when I was
15 16 (years old) realizing that I'm trans
So when the moment came where they took out the drains it was literally nothing for me and I felt
such relief
And if it does hurt it only hurts for half a second and honestly it's worth it to drain out what you need to drain
And usually people will have bandages
So you need to change your nipple dressings, and you'll have a type of binder that you need to put on sometimes
It's a binder that has a Velcro, sometimes it's a vest
And other times I've seen it's an ace bandage over here
so they put an ace bandage around you and you just need to put that now the reason why we would have a
Type of vest on you is really more to protect
yourself. Some people think that it's so that your your chest will remain flat they already
took everything that wouldn't make you flat so you don't have to worry about that
But really it is a good idea to keep it so that you are protecting yourself from infection and from other people. Example:
I wore it to a wedding three weeks post-Op. I don't recommend going to a wedding three weeks post-op
Don't do that. My best friend was getting married. I was part of the wedding party
But so I had to put my bandage on and it was a little uncomfortable
But I would much rather have that safety
Then no somebody could bump into me.And recovery is usually about six weeks some people
It's less other people can go back to work after three weeks other people can exercise after four weeks
But usually the surgeons are telling you you can go back to work. You can resume normal activities after six weeks
What is the quality of life after top surgery well? I cannot speak for other people
but I will put myself into this Trans 101 right now and tell you that my
Life has improved so much since having top surgery
I had a lot of top dysphoria where I felt so disconnected from my body and
I bind it for years and years and years (Whispers) more on binding in a different episode that you can go take a look at and
After having top surgery, I just finally felt like I was me
I was the person that I was meant to be my whole life
I look in the mirror
And I finally see who I am
it's not
100% going to solve all the problems in the world that you have but for me it made me feel so much more comfortable in
My person and in my body anyway, so that's it for this video on double incision method of top surgery the next video
We'll talk about Keyhole
Or the Peri Areolar method of top surgery.
If you would like more information on any of these things please look at the description below and um
I'll see you soon