Long-term Results of Breast Reduction in Female-to-Male Transsexuals

Abstract

Transsexualism is considered to be an extreme end in a large group of gender identity disorders. Two main types of transsexualism are identified: male-to-female (MtF) and female-to-male (FtM). Transsexual persons have a feeling of being incarcerated in a foreign body and therefore they wish to change their sex by hormone therapy and surgical treatment. Breast reduction usually is the first procedure in the process of surgical reassignment in FtM transsexual persons. THE AIM OF THIS STUDY was to evaluate the long-term results of breast reduction in FtM transsexual persons, taking into account breast size and surgical technique. The doctors' and patients' opinions about the results were also compared. The study was carried out in a group of 98 FtM transsexual persons treated at the Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery. Evaluation of the long-term results of breast reduction was performed based on clinical examination done by the doctors and a questionnaire filled in by the patients and the surgeons. Good results of breast reduction were achieved in more than 60% of the examined patients operated on mainly by Webster technique. Clinical examination of the long-term results of breast reduction in FtM transsexual persons revealed good aesthetic effects. The doctors' and the patients' opinions were similar.