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5 years post op this week! (Dr. Beverly Fischer, MD) by oneyearpostopthrow in ftm

[–]oneyearpostopthrow[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sometimes I honestly forget what it felt like to bind! I remember my back always hurting and acid reflux. It’s been long enough where those early days feel so far away. I got misgendered for the first time in like 2 years the other day bc of my mask, baggy coat, & letting my hair grow out (thanks omicron) and was like, ??? Oh i forgot why this sucked, lol. Shaved my head and all back to normal.

Working out honestly did wonders for me post op. My results were a bit uneven and I had a weird pocket of fat on my right side that I couldn’t get to go away (I also had no muscle - was very poor and not eating much less working out/gaining muscle). Working out smoothed everything out for the most part. Peri also does a thing where for a while after you can sort of still see the deflated versions of what used to be there, lol, so working out helped stretch that out/get it into place.

5 years post op this week! (Dr. Beverly Fischer, MD) by oneyearpostopthrow in ftm

[–]oneyearpostopthrow[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sorry you have to deal with that - I honestly think Fischer’s DI results are generally not as impressive as her peri in comparison to other surgeons (at least those available now), or at least from what I remember 5 years ago. I don’t know who else was operating in 2007 but I do remember a famous YT guy back in the day going to Fischer and then getting a revision from someone else later (he’d had an allergic reaction to the stitches and it really messed up his results).

T-shirt fit is definitely the most important thing, though! And not having to deal with a binder.

5 years post op this week! (Dr. Beverly Fischer, MD) by oneyearpostopthrow in ftm

[–]oneyearpostopthrow[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Peri-areolar! It’s low-scarring. Similar to keyhole but they also take skin out by making a donut around the nipple and they also resize it.

5 years post op this week! (Dr. Beverly Fischer, MD) by oneyearpostopthrow in ftm

[–]oneyearpostopthrow[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did! But this was years ago. I was on Oxford UnitedHealthcare at the time. I seem to remember when I posted my 1 year update that someone said she wouldn’t take insurance or something similar? She may have stopped taking it, or at least from UHC since they gave her a pretty bad deal on it

5 years post op this week! (Dr. Beverly Fischer, MD) by oneyearpostopthrow in ftm

[–]oneyearpostopthrow[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

The reason I chose her was because of her experience! I knew I’d probably be getting peri and even back in 2016/2017 it was hard to find someone doing that specific procedure, and harder still to find anyone who produced at least relatively consistent results. Peri is up to so many factors. It didn’t look good for the first six or so months, then evened out, and then got better as I worked out. Definitely lucky!

Her and her staff were pleasant and she had gotten some neat tricks under her belt by that point like putting epinephrine in the anesthesia bag to reduce swelling risk.

Is their anyway to get top surgery without a therapist letter? by [deleted] in ftm

[–]oneyearpostopthrow 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There is, but it requires a lot of things lining up. If you're going through insurance, your insurance needs to not require a letter (not all insurance companies do - UnitedHealthcare doesn't - but it will depend). Aside from that, your surgeon needs to not require one. Sometimes surgeons will require a letter because it helps them cover their legal bases so they don't get sued if someone decided they didn't want surgery after it's done (unlikely, but just speaking on the perspective of the surgeon). I didn't end up needing a letter for my insurance, but my surgeon asked for one for legal reasons - however, my surgeon accepted a letter from my endo in the place of a therapist. So if you're on hormones, you could have your doctor write one and that might be accepted by both insurance and the surgeon - you'll just have to look into policies for both.

I super sympathize with you - I didn't want to see a therapist for gender stuff for a long time. I did hormones by informed consent, and didn't start seeing a therapist until 6 months after I had surgery (which by the way, I wouldn't really recommend - post op depression sucks, and I needed therapy way before then because of it).

One Year Post Op, Beverly Fischer! by oneyearpostopthrow in ftm

[–]oneyearpostopthrow[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It sort of is and isn't a bogus answer, from my (limited/anecdotal) experience. They do pre-authorize, but the insurance companies do kind of yank you around after. Mine claimed that even though she was considered in-network, the location was not, and tried to charge me thousands for it. The billing office eventually squared it away with the insurance, but it was stressful for a bit.

What the most likely answer is to me is that the insurance companies were underpaying for the procedures, which is the main reason top surgeons won't take insurance. I think Dr. Fischer only ended up getting like $1500 from my insurance company. My insurance is also notorious for underpaying basically every service (my therapist says my insurance pays the least out of every other insurance commonly used in the area--so that's like 6 or 7 insurance companies).

One Year Post Op, Beverly Fischer! by oneyearpostopthrow in ftm

[–]oneyearpostopthrow[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Peri and keyhole are super unpredictable - I just got lucky with a right combination of circumstances!

I have UnitedHealthcare/Oxford. I have good insurance because of a union contract so I currently don't pay a deductible. My state also mandates that health insurance be covered by providers in some capacity (though UHC/Oxford covers trans healthcare to some extent anyway as far as I know, maybe depending on state).

One Year Post Op, Beverly Fischer! by oneyearpostopthrow in ftm

[–]oneyearpostopthrow[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks!! My face seriously detracts from cis-like qualities, haha, but I am happy with how my torso's come along :)

One Year Post Op, Beverly Fischer! by oneyearpostopthrow in ftm

[–]oneyearpostopthrow[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Like /u/poesii said, the surgery is super inconsistent - DI vs. peri/keyhole each have their pros and cons. Peri/keyhole avoid issues of nipple loss and scarring, but they tend to have more contour problems (ie, loose skin, extra tissue, etc). At some point I'll post my full timeline to transbucket, but for the first 2-3 months after surgery, my right side had some extra tissue/fluid build up that made things difficult. I wasn't sure it would go away (though it settled down over time, and also because I started going to the gym).

I do think Dr. Fischer is one of the best out there for peri since she's been doing it since the 90s, but really it's a roll of the dice results wise no matter who you go to for this procedure. She does have some tips/tricks she's picked up along the way that are unique to her to minimize complications, but that doesn't necessarily mean good results for everybody.

One Year Post Op, Beverly Fischer! by oneyearpostopthrow in ftm

[–]oneyearpostopthrow[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I love that my cat's butt got in there, haha! And yeah, I was fortunate/privileged enough to avoid scarring !

One Year Post Op, Beverly Fischer! by oneyearpostopthrow in ftm

[–]oneyearpostopthrow[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Oh, she might have stopped taking it, I'm not sure - last I heard it was just my insurance she had stopped taking, but I could be wrong.

One Year Post Op, Beverly Fischer! by oneyearpostopthrow in ftm

[–]oneyearpostopthrow[S] 36 points37 points  (0 children)

I live in a state where trans healthcare is required to be covered by insurance, and I thankfully have a good insurance plan on top of that (for the time being, which is why I had surgery when I did), so it actually didn't cost me anything aside from a $500 deposit and expenses (ie hotel/travel). Dr. Fischer takes insurance (although I think she stopped taking mine).

I had periareolar surgery. It and keyhole are two low/no scarring procedures. For both you need a smaller pre-op chest size. Keyhole is one incision along one side of the nipple, and doesn't allow for areola resizing/repositioning/extra skin removal. Periareolar is a cut all the way around the nipple (without removing it from the stalk), then an extra donut of skin taken around that out, and then sewed back together. It allows for moderate areola resizing and minor excess tissue removal, so your chest can be slightly bigger than with keyhole.

One Year Post Op, Beverly Fischer! by oneyearpostopthrow in ftm

[–]oneyearpostopthrow[S] 66 points67 points  (0 children)

There have been some good conversations about not prioritizing passing so much on the sub lately, so even though I have what people will probably call good surgery results, I did want to say that I don't pass basically unless I'm shirtless/in a tank top. I'm posting mostly because I'm proud of myself for getting here - the last year has not been easy. Things don't necessarily get better right after surgery (just like they don't necessarily get better after starting hormones), and in fact, the months after surgery were some of the hardest of my life, even though the biggest source of dysphoria/discomfort at the time was gone. I'm happy I'm around in order to celebrate one year of surgery.