Fortunately, when men are willing to share their experiences on websites like this, they can help others avoid being taken by “cures” that can only shrink the wallet. One gynecomastia.org member recommends that others refrain from trying a so-called easy fix and save for male breast reduction surgery instead.

Is it realistic to save for plastic surgery? How do people go about it?

We’ve heard some great ideas on the subject from our New York gynecomastia patients, as well as from men and women planning a face lift, tummy tucks and other procedures. Here are some tips we can pass along.

One of our favorite strategies patients use to save for plastic surgery is to jump start the campaign with a tax return, a bonus or even a travel reimbursement check. It can be very encouraging to move your effort forward with a few hundred dollars or more when you’re just getting started.

You can use your bank as a tool to help you save. One way is to create a separate account for the sole purpose of paying for your procedure, then make sure money flows in and not out. One woman set $20 aside for cosmetic surgery every time she went to the ATM.

Some patients commit to modifying their routines for a while to save money every week. Brewing your own coffee at home and making lunch to take to work can save a surprising amount if you’re consistent. For patients who have already tightened their belts in this economy, a second job for a short period of time may be the answer. Some get busy selling things they no longer need on auction websites.

One way to make the process of saving more rewarding is to download a “savings ticker” from a site like tickerfactory.com and use it to chart your progress.

Another option many patients use is to finance plastic surgery through a company that specializes in this type of loan. We partner with two different surgical loan companies to give our New York gynecomastia patients a variety of options.

We don’t want to give the impression that we encourage patients to have gynecomastia surgery, or any other procedure for that matter. We are always very careful to supply complete, objective information and we support our patients to make the decisions that are right for them.

But we know the anguish and embarrassment man boobs can cause—we hear about it from our patients weekly. If you know that frustration firsthand, don’t compound the situation by wasting money on pills or potions. Saving or a combination of saving and financing plastic surgery may be a better choice.

Photo by Ken Teegardin, available under a Creative Commons attribution license.

In our last post we discussed torsoplasty, or liposuction of the abdomen, a cosmetic procedure our New York gynecomastia patients frequently have at the same time as male breast reduction. If you’ve been thinking about cosmetic surgery—whether it’s gynecomastia surgery, liposuction or something else—don’t feel shy about consulting a board certified plastic surgeon to discuss your choices. We see increasing numbers of men considering fine tuning their looks for a wide variety of reasons.

In fact, our Manhattan patients mirror trends reported by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, an organization that has tracked statistics for many years. According to the ASAPS, the top cosmetic procedure for men is liposuction. Nowadays, more than 35,000 men opt to have liposuction each year, often to banish love handles and other stray bulges in the abdominal area. As we discussed last week, many of our New York gynecomastia patients feel it’s a natural choice to add torsoplasty to male breast reduction surgery.

The second most popular form of plastic surgery for men is rhinoplasty, says the ASAPS. This isn’t surprising when you consider that nose jobs have been performed for decades, and the procedure is chosen to improve function as well as form.

The third most highly ranked procedure for men may surprise you—it’s eyelid lift, or eyelid tuck, known medically as blepharoplasty. Men as well as women have realized that the eyes tend to show signs of aging before most other parts of the body. Blepharoplasty is a relatively simple procedure that can remove sagging skin and puffiness around upper and lower lids and restore a youthful look.

Gynecomastia surgery takes fourth place in the top five cosmetic procedures for men. Interest in the procedure continues to grow, as men learn that surgery is the only option for banishing man boobs and that the procedure is safe and straightforward when performed by a male breast reduction specialist. More than 18,000 men had male breast reduction last year, according to the ASAPS.

Rounding out the top five cosmetic surgery procedures for men is otoplasty, or surgery to pin back protruding ears and/or reduce their size. This surgery can be performed on adults and on children as young as four years old. It’s safe and involves an easy recovery, and it can put an end to painful teasing.

The days when plastic surgery was thought to be for women only are long over. In fact, cosmetic surgery for men continues to show steady growth over the years as men feel more and more comfortable seeking assistance in looking and feeling their best.

For men, nipple reduction can be performed in conjunction with gynecomastia surgery or as a standalone procedure. When performed on its own, treatment is pretty straightforward, usually requiring less than an hour and just local anesthesia. We can reduce the diameter of the nipple, the projection from the chest wall or both. Small, dissolving sutures are placed to close the tiny incisions, and that’s about it.

Recovery involves a bit of soreness for a few days. Patients can usually resume most activities immediately, but we advise them to avoid strenuous exercise for at least two weeks after surgery. Scars should be nearly invisible after nipple reduction and complications are rare. Occasionally a patient will report reduced sensation in one or both nipples after healing.

One thing to be clear about is that nipple surgery does not change the look of the areola, the pigmented circle of skin surrounding the nipple. We find in most cases enlarged areolas result from excess breast tissue, or gynecomastia. Our New York patients with this condition most often need male breast reduction surgery rather than a procedure to reduce the size of their areolas. Once the excess tissues have been removed, the chest skin and the areola itself will shrink in diameter – right on the operating table. It is like letting air out of a balloon. (We’ll discuss areolar reduction in a future post.)

Whatever your concern about your chest may be, talk to your plastic surgeon candidly. He or she will evaluate your entire chest and make a recommendation about the best way to achieve the change you’re hoping for.

If you’d like to consult us about gynecomastia, large nipples or any other aesthetic issue, just contact us online or give us a call at (212) 570-6080 and we’ll arrange an appointment. We often work with out of town patients, as well as men seeking treatment for gynecomastia from New Jersey, Long Island, Westchester, Connecticut and surrounding states.

Danny Cahill, Before & After Losing 239 Pounds

Many gynecomastia patients are interested in general weight loss, so we thought you might like to know the untold side of the popular T.V. show, “Biggest Loser.”

After the weight loss competition, some contestants have a plastic surgery procedure known alternately as body shaping, body lifting and body contouring.

After a loss of 100 or 150 pounds, the procedure becomes desirable. When people experience massive weight loss (MWL), their skin has been stretched far beyond its ability to rebound. Then, surgery is necessary to remove the excess skin and trim up the body.

So far, those who have gone public with their plastic surgery include:

• 2009 season winner Danny Cahill lost 239 pounds

• Amy Cremen from 2008 in “Biggest Loser: Families” dropped 104 pounds

• Erik Chopin from season 2006’s “Biggest Loser” took off 214 pounds

Loose, hanging skin usually drapes from the arms, torso, abdomen and legs,  getting in the way of good hygiene, other health concerns and even fastening one’s pants. All that surplus skin also flaps around painfully during exercise.

Some MWL patients even complain that sitting is a pain in the keister — literally! Loose skin drooping from your bottom amounts to sitting on a slippery surface. Clothes don’t fit well either.

In Amy’s case, it was a new misery: “I was more uncomfortable in my new skinny body than in my heavy body….”

Erik Chopin, then 37, another “Biggest Loser”, dropped a whopping 124 pounds on the program and another 90 at home. Overall, Chopin shrank from 402 to a trim 193 pounds. Moreover, he scored a $250,000 prize for his efforts. (But he showed up on Oprah in 2009, miserable because he had regained 120 pounds.)

MWL patients must be willing to trade long scars on their bodies for losing the excess skin via the plastic surgeon’s knife. On arms, for instance, surgeons make a long incision on the arm’s underside from the armpit to elbow, trim away the loose skin and close the two edges.

Women often receive a breast lift as well. Other MWL patients loose the huge apron of stomach skin—medically known as a pannicus — that can droop to their knees through a belt lipectomy or circumferential abdominoplasty

The surgeon makes an incision all the way around the waist, trims away excess skin and suture the two sides.

Scars to tend fade and lighten over about a year.

A comparison of breast operations done in a hospital and the same procedure done in private operating rooms show that smaller can be quicker and just as good.

Writing in the July, 2010, issue of The American Journal of Surgery, five surgeons found the ambulatory (“ambulatory” means the patient leaves after surgery) surgical center they use was closing.  So they would  perform surgery in a nearby hospital instead. (Read more about the breast operations study.)

Choosing to make lemonade from what seemed like lemons, the surgeons duly booked their patients into the hospital operating room and then decided to compare the hospital’s experience to an ambulatory surgical center.

The doctor-authors pulled the records of 92 breast operation patients who had surgery in the ambulatory center between January 2004 and December 2005

Next, they studied the records of another 92 patients who had breast surgery in the hospital operating room, and also went home the same day. Moreover, the ages of the patients were similar.

The authors compared many aspects of surgery, including:

• Type and techniques of anesthesia
• Surgical procedures
• Recovery room events and activities
• The elapsed time from patient admission to the hospital to discharge

Results: There were very few surgical problems and a small number of infections in both the private clinic and the hospital.

Plus, recovery times were about the same for both groups.

The big difference? Time! The hospital took an average of 69 minutes longer.

Reasons why a hospital takes longer include:

• Nurses prep many patients, including outpatient and critically ill patients
• A private clinic has small and similar types of cases. But hospitals have more varied and complex cases.
• The preoperational area in a private clinic is closer to the operating room. Hospitals have endlessly long hallways.

Concluded the authors: “The..efficiency advantage of  a private operating room over a hospital has implications for patient and staff satisfaction, facility expense and surgeon productivity.”

If you would like to learn more about a top-rated, extremely sterile private operating room, read about the certified operating room in my office suite where I perform plastic surgery procedures of the breast, including:

• Breast reductions for men and women
• Breast augmentation for women
• Breast lift

Searching

Some time ago, I promised to pass on some insider tips on finding an excellent plastic surgeon, one who is most likely to give you a good outcome.

At least, given what I now know – after 25 years on Park Avenue – it’s what I would do if I wanted plastic surgery!

Many good surgeons are found online.

Just type into a search engine the kind of surgery you want and your location like this: “Breast Augmentation L.A.” or “Face lift San Diego.”

Check for training and background. To be called a plastic surgeon, a physician must have anywhere from five to eight or more years training after getting the M.D. degree.

That doctor should also be board certified in plastic surgery or otolaryngology – the only two specialties fully qualified to perform plastic surgery.

Check by going to The American Board of Medical Specialties, registering and typing in your surgeon’s name. Certification, if any, will show up.

Next, check for the surgeon’s hospital privileges. Hospitals take no chances and have fully investigated surgeons’ backgrounds and training.

If the website gives you an email address, ask the surgeon:

• How many times monthly he performs the rejuvenation you want
• If you can speak to former patients about their outcomes
• If the surgery center is certified

Look for a surgeon who performs the procedure you want at least weekly.

Look at the surgeon’s before and after plastic surgery pictures. There should be pages and pages – literally — of patients.

Look at the quality as well as the outcomes. All the before and afters should be standard with the same background, lighting, distance from the camera and other features.

When you go to the initial consultation, ask: what was your last procedure that went wrong and what did you do about it?

Even in the very best of hands things occasionally go wrong – an infection crops up or a patient is not satisfied with the outcome.

If the surgeon told me nothing ever went wrong, I would leave. I would be looking for the extra steps a fully trained and certified surgeon can take.

In the final analysis, patients are walking advertisements — he wants you to look good.

In fact, one happy patient will bring in five more through word of mouth alone.