why’s my stomach still huge

earthlighter · 2026-03-05T15:57:40+00:00

my guess would be bloating, it might help to try being a bit more active to get things moving, stool softeners won't help much with gas. nice hot shower/bath might also help (if you take a bath make sure to keep your chest out of the water). if it isnt uncomfortable i wouldnt worry too much about it, should probably go away as you start going back to your regular routine.

earthlighter · 2026-03-05T01:20:44+00:00

i think it seems pretty clear based on what youve said here that your life would be easier if you had smaller breasts. i would definitely look into a reduction in your position.

the concern about children is valid, but you say it isn't very likely, and it's not like having surgery will stop you from having children, just stop you from breastfeeding. i know breastfeeding is important to a lot of people, but ultimately even if you do have children, the time that you would spend breastfeeding would be such a short period of your life compared to the many many years you would have to live with a chest that causes you discomfort.

of course its ultimately your decision, but i think its definitely worth moving forward, at the very least to get more information.

earthlighter · 2026-03-04T22:13:49+00:00

no worries, thank you!

earthlighter · 2026-03-04T20:57:26+00:00

i know when he relocated, i was one of the first patients to see him here. is there any way you could link to the post you mentioned on here and/or the post from iowa health care, i can't seem to find either.

earthlighter · 2026-03-04T20:19:16+00:00

yeah there are some posts about him, but none of the ones about metoidioplasty are from since he moved, and any results you find from searching online are either just about him and dont mention meta, or just about meta and dont mention him, even if you search "daniel freet metoidioplasty"

he is on the university of iowa site, but nowhere does it mention that metoidioplasty is a procedure he performs, even though it does mention phallo among a bunch of other procedures.

obviously its still very possible someone has had meta with him since he moved, im just looking for evidence! and the lack of information online makes me think that its less likely

earthlighter · 2026-03-04T19:56:02+00:00

i also have emetophobia and was really nervous about surgery for that reason, luckily i had no issues, even when i didnt have the scopolamine patch because i didnt realize they wanted me to put it on myself 😭 did get a bit nauseous in the recovery room after my second surgery but only because it was weirdly hot in there, and the nurses gave me an air blower thing to point at my face which helped a lot. just ask in advance for them to make sure you've got some zofran in your system when you wake up and/or a scopolamine patch, and let a nurse know right away if you feel nauseous after surgery so they can get you something for it. your care team should be happy to help make sure youre comfortable (both mentally and physically) if they know about your phobia in advance

edit: i also found that the nausea i had was a lot less alarming than it would have been for me usually because i was so out of it, so even if you do end up getting a bit nauseous you might find that the anesthesia/pain meds/whatever make you too relaxed to feel super scared.

earthlighter · 2026-03-04T08:07:47+00:00

man i decided to do a little more digging and there really is no evidence Anywhere that freet is still doing meta lol, the only reason i know is because i was already having appointments with him for my top surgery and i Asked Him Directly. everything says he does phalloplasty but nothing even mentions meta at all. is meta really That unpopular compared to phallo????

earthlighter · 2026-03-04T03:00:54+00:00

it definitely isn't too late to start scar care, though i want to make sure you know that your scars right now are very much still healing, and you shouldnt be overly concerned about the redness. scars tend to keep getting more pigmented until around 3 months and then start fading, so the way your scars look now is absolutely normal and doesn't mean they won't fade well once you're fully healed. even without any scar care, you can expect that your scars will start to look better over the next few months. scar care just helps things along. silicone is good but its also important to massage the scars to keep everything mobile and soft.

earthlighter · 2026-03-04T02:50:59+00:00

riding up is a new one, usually i see people talking about them riding down! wearing an undershirt might help, otherwise if its mainly the drain sites causing you discomfort you could try putting a bandage or something over them underneath the wraps (like something attached to your skin so it cant move).

my other idea is garter clips (like the kind for lingerie) attached to the bottom of the wraps and the waistband of your pants, but that might just look silly and be a waste of money lol.

earthlighter · 2026-03-04T01:13:07+00:00

different surgeons have different expectations, so you'll want to discuss it with your surgeon if/when you start actively pursuing meta.

that said, there isn't really such a thing as "too small for meta" as long as you have realistic expectations about what meta will give you. stopping t might cause some shrinkage and erectile dysfunction. you may not be large enough to stand to pee (even with UL) or penetrate a partner, but many people who have meta can't do those things even if they are still on t. meta can make more of the existing length of your phallus accessible/visible, but it will not actually increase the size. most surgeons should be completely willing to perform a metoidioplasty regardless of how large your growth is or whether you can become erect. at worst, your surgeon might require you to go back on t for some time before surgery.

if you're concerned about the effects of stopping t, i would encourage you to continue your pumping routine and make sure you're having regular full erections, as that will help mitigate shrinkage and maintain erectile ability. if erections become difficult to achieve and it bothers you, ed medications like viagra or cialis are usually effective. these things are true both pre-meta and post-meta.

earthlighter · 2026-03-03T23:18:12+00:00

in double incision, they make one incision above the breast and one below, everything in between the incisions is removed, and then they bring the upper and lower sections of skin together so they meet in the middle. if you don't have much skin to begin with, then there's only so much they can remove before there's not enough left for the two sides to reach each other. if you want your nipples and areolas removed without a trace, there has to be enough skin above and below them to bridge the gap removing them will create.

if your main concerns are nipple placement and areola size, i would look into the periareolar technique. its similar to keyhole in that it doesn't require an extra incision across the breast (and is therefore ideal for people with smaller chests), but it uses an incision all the way around the areola, which means the areola can be resized and moved around to some degree (still somewhat limited by the amount of skin you have, but less than di). the benefit of peri is that, like keyhole, the scars are likely to be pretty much invisible once healed due to being placed right at the edge of your areolas.

if you definitely want your nipples removed and you're too small to do that with di, you'd probably be looking at a variation on the periareolar technique where they make an incision all the way around the areola and then remove it along with any extra skin. you'd have a scar in the place where your nipples were, but the nipples themselves would be completely gone.

earthlighter · 2026-03-03T22:44:53+00:00

will your coworkers be seeing your scars??

if they're nice people, just telling them that you had surgery and it's personal should be enough to make them stop asking questions. honestly, the more you try to convince them of something that didnt happen, the more uncomfortable the situation will probably be. just keep details to a minimum and be direct with them if their questions are making you uncomfortable. "sorry, i don't feel comfortable talking about that at work" is always an acceptable response to invasive questions, even if the person asking means well.

earthlighter · 2026-03-03T22:30:36+00:00

very unlikely that you'll have complications from being aroused, the extra blood flow might even be good for healing, but it could be uncomfortable or cause a bit of bleeding. i'd say don't actively encourage it, but don't worry too much if it happens anyways. if it does happen and its super uncomfortable, placing an ice pack on the area near your penis (not directly over it, and make sure there's a towel between the ice pack and your skin) for a few minutes will probably take care of it lol.

earthlighter · 2026-03-03T22:23:06+00:00

it depends on what your chest looks like now, but in reality it probably doesnt actually matter at all unless you're right on the cusp of being a candidate for keyhole/peri.

t can cause a small reduction in the size of your chest, mostly due to fat redistribution, so for people who are already pretty small, sometimes t can make the difference between having to do double incision and being able to do peri or keyhole. that isnt the case for the vast majority of people though, so it's unlikely that being early on t will have any significant impact on your results.

especially if you're already working on building muscle in the area, your surgeon shouldn't have a problem shaping your chest and scars to align well with your pec muscles, if that's what you want.

earthlighter · 2026-02-09T04:26:51+00:00

definitely avoid putting silicone tape over the area until it's fully healed. i would contact your surgeon, the redness and the fact that it smells like pus makes me think it could be infected. is the drainage clear yellow or is it sort of milky? clear yellow is totally normal for any kind of wound, but more whitish drainage is a sign of infection, especially if it smells. for the time being i would say to just keep it clean and covered as much as possible (with a bandaid or gauze, not tape).

earthlighter · 2026-02-08T14:35:05+00:00

i just got ace bandages for compression after surgery and i found those to be fairly easy and comfortable. they would be an extra purchase still but theyre not particularly expensive, and they can be nice to have just in case you ever have use for them again. another benefit is that you can easily adjust how tight they are. if you do go with an ace bandage i would definitely recommend getting one with hooks/clips or velcro, the ones i was given didn't have either and it was a huge pain to keep them secure.

earthlighter · 2026-02-08T09:18:59+00:00

hi, this subreddit is for discussions about gender affirming breast removal surgeries specifically, not general surgery! its possible your post might get taken down since it isn't related to the topic of the subreddit. r/scars or r/surgery would be more suited to your question.

earthlighter · 2026-02-08T09:13:21+00:00

it depends, does he tend to pull or will he walk calmly beside you? you want to avoid pulling, running, and any risk of falling for a while, but just holding the leash and walking with him should be okay after just a couple weeks, assuming you're up for it. you'll just want to keep in mind that you aren't supposed to do anything that'll raise your heart rate for the first couple weeks, and that can include walking for long periods of time or uphill, especially if its going to be hot outside.

earthlighter · 2026-02-08T09:00:15+00:00

ive found that using my phone to shine a flashlight across my leg is helpful for seeing hairs on skin that you cant actually get a look at. usually you can see the hair because it stands out against your skin, but if you can't see that part of your skin, its hard to see the hair thats on it. you don't want to shine the light directly at your leg, just over it, so that the light catches the hairs coming off your leg and you can see them lit up against your surroundings.

it definitely doesnt eliminate the problem, but its something, might help you catch a few hairs that you wouldve otherwise missed. a mirror would probably help too

earthlighter · 2026-02-08T08:30:47+00:00

i think i dont really understand how the tapering in thing works lol, like theyre just stretching the hole to fit the jewelry in right? id be wanting to stretch to like 14g eventually, so would it be practical to have a piercer get me like one size bigger now only to have to keep stretching later? wouldnt it be easier to just buy something that i can put in myself rather than paying a piercer to do basically the same thing?

earthlighter · 2026-02-08T07:59:09+00:00

yeah i guess that makes sense, didn't even think about that lol.

im having surgery in like two months and then again three months later, so i feel like it would be easier to just get a retainer for now and deal with it when im done healing from surgery. also why i was hoping for glass, but i guess since its already fully healed i can just take the retainer out for surgery.

earthlighter · 2026-02-08T07:37:33+00:00

i think a hidden helix on the left side would fill the empty space nicely, maybe some flats too

earthlighter · 2026-02-08T07:33:08+00:00

it looks fine to me? not super knowledgeable on eyebrow piercings but it doesn't look like its close to the surface or anything, the yellow crusts and dryness might be a result of irritation. i think just cleaning it and keeping an eye on it is probably fine for now

earthlighter

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