Going from Silicone implants to flat

Hello, lola11, welcome. I'm sorry you are having such a hard time.

I don't have personal experience with removing implants, as I chose to forgo recon. Also, I had a unilateral Mx. Having said that, I am SO happy with my decision. I'm 47 and fairly active, with two kids and an active job, and I just didn't want to be down with multiple surgeries, and I didn't want the extra risks. I'm acclimating to my body quite well. I still feel strong and sexy, and 7 weeks out from Mx my range is nearly normal, and I'm fully functional. I feel proud of my scar. When I return to work, and when I wear certain clothes, I will wear the prosthesis I just received which is very comfortable and I don't even notice it. Other times I don't, just wear camouflaging clothes.

I know there are women here who have had implants removed, hopefully some will chime in with their experiences. There is also a FB page called flat and fabulous for those who have chosen no recon, or are trying to decide.

Good luck with your decision, and I hope you feel better very soon!

I don't have any experience with implant removal but I don't regret my decision to go without reconstruction. At first I felt a little off balance but soon adapted to having no weight out front.

I wear prosthetics sometimes when I'm going out and don't even really notice them. Most days though I just choose to go flat and no one even seems to notice (and not having to wear a bra isn't terrible!).

Good luck with your decision!

At the time of implant removal, the plastic surgeon normally would remove any excess skin and make sure the surgery site is as cosmetically pleasing as possible. The main issue for women who have had implants removed is that the chest may be a little bit concave afterward, because sometimes the implants press against the ribcage compress the ribs a little. For most women who choose removal, this is a small price to pay for the relief they experience.

lola, glad you're on the other side of surgery. I'm sorry the concavity is pretty pronounced. I hope it will fill in somewhat. But great that your chest is feeling better!

Lola...good for you!!! I hated my first set of implants....I had to have a couple fixes so at the time of the second fix, I had the PS take out the original implants and put in smaller ones....I have 200 cc mid profile silicone (original were 300cc high profile - way too perky). I have these since July 2008. Lately, I've been thinking about deconstructing and going flat...I haven't decided yet when to do this....My first thought is to wait till the implants need to be replaced...time will tell. I will just go flat, wear a cami. I have no desire for prosthetics (sp) or bras!!! In clothes, my implants are fine, I just look like a flat chested woman, but naked, well that is another story!! I h ad 8 surgeries in 2 1/2 years, and even though that was a few years ago, I don't cherish the thought of surgery. I don't want to take the time out of my life!!! I work and in the summers, I want to be able to travel.....but I know , one day I'll wake up and say do it!!! I haven't seen my PS in 6 1/2 years, so when the time comes, not sure if I'll go back to him or find someone else. He was supportive of me when I wanted to go smaller, but maybe that's because he heard me complain so much!!

Thanks for letting me ramble....I'll probably check back from time to time.

lola11, I haven't got a concave look as the PS I had did a small amount of reconstruction with fatty, non-breast tissue already in my chest to give me what will be a flat look once all the swelling goes down (6-8 months to completely resolve, right now, with the swelling, it looks like I have itty bitty pecs!), but I DO have a small dogear on one side.

My PS doesn't want to touch it until the swelling is completely resolved as trying to fix it while there's still swelling may result in it taking multiple tries to actually get the dogear flat because the swelling may give an unclear picture as to how much needs to be done, but we're planning to talk about it again in October and make a determination as to when I want to have the dogear cut back open, emptied of the extra fatty tissue that's in there, and restitched.

She said it's done basically in the office under local anesthetic, stitched up with dissolvable sutures, and is usually healed up initially within 1-2 weeks, so it doesn't sound too bad.

If using insurance to pay for your revisions isn't something you need, it may be worth checking out plastic surgeons who specialize in FtM top surgery; their entire practices and specialties tend to revolve around giving people who once had breasts flat chests, and they typically include 'conturing' to make the chest look how the patient wants as part of their surgery price. While some patients have their chest contoured to look more masculine, a lot of people elect just to do enough so their chest looks flat and smooth.
Most tend to run from $4,000 to $12,000 depending on the doctor and what all needs to be done.
Some don't take insurance at all, but you can submit it for reimbursement with your insurance company; you'd want to check with your insurance company about their policies on that to see if it's covered first, however. Others do work with insurance companies, it just depends on the doctor.

Results from those surgeons can be found pretty easily using Google; there's also a site called transbucket where people upload their surgery results and you can filter by doctor, state, and type of surgery. Susans.org has a forum specifically for 'after' pics as well (you can look without registering; I spent a lot of time there looking to see what I could expect from the healing process of nipple grafts, as the majority of FtM people who have top surgery have nipple grafts done), and most people who post do list which surgeon they saw for their surgery, so that may also be a good way to get an idea of what a particular plastic surgeon in that field has for results.

For patients who aren't transgender or who have already had a mastectomy done, they don't require a letter from a therapist to have surgery/revisions done (I mention this as, if you go to most of these surgeons' sites, they mention they require 1-2 letters from a gender therapist as the majority of their patients are transgender).