Chest is flat now but the skin looks loose and saggy after the gland came out, will it tighten up or am I stuck with it?

Right so I am 7 weeks out now and honestly the flatness is great, the firm gland lump that used to sit right behind the nipple is just GONE and I keep touching the spot to check it is really gone.

But here is the thing nobody warned me about. When I lean forward, or when I pinch the skin, it sort of folds. Like there is extra skin now that used to be filled out by the lump and the fat, and now that has been taken away the skin over the front looks a bit loose and crepey, worse on the left than the right. In a fitted shirt you cannot tell at all. Shirt off in the mirror it really bothers me.

Did anyone else get this at this stage, and does it actually TIGHTEN back up on its own, or am I stuck with a loose bit forever. For context I am 34, was maybe a stone over before, not massively overweight. Surgeon did liposuction plus cut the gland out. Just trying to work out if I panic now or wait it out.

Mate I had the exact same thing at almost exactly that point. Left side looser than the right and I had myself convinced it was ruined.

It is early though. The skin does not just snap flat the day the swelling drops, it keeps drawing itself in over months. Mine was still a bit loose at two months and by around month five it had settled right down and I stopped thinking about it. Do not judge it now.

Quick one on this because I am in the same boat. I read somewhere that keeping the compression vest on for longer actually shrinks the loose skin down, sort of trains it to tighten. So I have been wearing mine well past what they told me to, figuring more weeks equals tighter skin.

That is right isnt it? Or am I just sweating in a vest for no reason.

gym_ben_92 said:

keeping the compression vest on for longer actually shrinks the loose skin down

To answer the original question directly: in most men who carried a modest amount of tissue and are otherwise a reasonable weight, skin like this does redrape on its own over the following months without any further operation. What you are seeing at seven weeks is not the finished chest.

A few honest points on what it depends on, though, because it is not the same for every man.

Skin retraction is driven by the elasticity of your own skin, and that is set by things you cannot change on a forum: your age, how long the chest was stretched, how much volume came out, whether you smoke, and whether your weight stays steady. Younger skin that was stretched for a shorter time draws in best. As a rough guide the bulk of the tightening happens over the first 3 to 6 months, and it can carry on quietly improving out to a year.

On the vest: it earns its weeks for compression, comfort and helping the layers settle onto the chest wall, but it does not itself shrink or shorten skin. Wearing it longer than your surgeon set does not train the skin tighter, so there is nothing to gain by extending it on your own. The skin retracts because of its own elasticity, not because it is held down.

Where it is different is genuine skin excess. In higher grade cases, the grade 3 chests, men who have lost a large amount of weight, or where a big volume was removed, the skin has sometimes been stretched beyond what it can fully draw back, and it does not redrape completely however long you wait. In that situation a separate skin removal is sometimes planned as a second stage, usually 6 to 12 months on once everything has settled, and it leaves a longer scar than the line around the areola. The site pages on skin removal in gynaecomastia surgery and on the grades set out where that line tends to fall.

One thing that is not this: if one side suddenly swells tight, hard and painful rather than looking loose, that is a different problem and a same day call to your surgeon, not a skin question. Whether your own skin will fully draw in, and whether you sit near that skin excess threshold, is a judgement for the surgeon who can examine you and follow you up, not something a reader here can settle for your chest.

For what it is worth, not every case tightens all the way, and I think that is worth someone saying plainly.

I am 51, carried mine for twelve years, and I had lost a good bit of weight before the operation. My surgeon told me straight, before we started, that the skin had been stretched too long to draw all the way back and I would probably need skin taken out as a second stage. Had that done about eight months after the first op. The scar is longer than just round the nipple, it runs a bit out toward the side, and it took its own time to fade.

Would I take that over the loose fold I had before? Every day. But it really does come down to your own skin and how long you carried it, which is why the age and the weight history keep coming up in here.

Update for anyone who finds this later worrying about the same thing.

I am now about four months out. The looseness has pulled in a LOT, to the point where I genuinely stopped noticing it in the mirror. The left is still a shade softer than the right but it is nothing, you would never see it. Really glad I did not push for more surgery at seven weeks like I was half talking myself into. If your case is like mine, modest, not a big weight loss, wait it out before you do anything.