Medically reviewed by Jennifer Richman on March 25, 2024.
Requesting a consultation with a board-certified surgeon is the first step in any surgical journey. We know that for many, a breast augmentation consultation can be both exciting and daunting.
For cisgender women looking to augment their breasts or trans and non-binary patients interested in surgical gender affirmation, breast implants, and on rare occasions, fat grafting may be used to help you achieve your goals. In the field of gender-affirming care, this procedure was formerly known as MTF top surgery and MTF breast implants.
In this article, we provide practical tips to make the most out of your breast augmentation surgical consultation. We also go over common key anatomical differences between cisgender and transgender patients that your provider should be aware of.
You can request a free, virtual, or in-person consultation with one of our board-certified surgeons for breast augmentation surgery today. Please note that at the Gender Confirmation Center (GCC), we only offer gender-affirming top surgery to trans, non-binary, and gender-variant patients. We do not offer cosmetic surgery for cisgender patients.
There is no such thing as a stupid question in a consultation: it is your time to get all of your doubts resolved and to get to know your surgeon. If you need a follow-up conversation, you can always communicate with your care team or request a second consultation with the same or a different provider. During your consultation, your board-certified surgeon will review the following three points:
Patients can choose between undergoing breast augmentation surgery through a fat grafting procedure, the insertion of breast implants, or a combined approach. Patients who are interested in implants can choose between silicone and saline fillings, different implant sizes, implant placement locations (above or below the muscle), different incision locations, and other factors.
No technique is necessarily superior to the other. Patients choose techniques that are more aligned with their unique goals and needs. Consider the following factors when making your decision:
Your surgeon should be board-certified, have hospital privileges, and have the proper training and experience with the specific breast augmentation surgical technique you wish to undergo. We recommend that trans and non-binary patients ask if their provider has worked extensively with transfeminine patients to know what techniques lead to long-term satisfaction given key anatomical differences.
Regardless of how you feel about your surgeon’s personality or bedside manner, we believe that it is important for you to feel listened to by your surgeon. Ask yourself: are the surgeon’s recommendations in line with what you want? If you do not feel comfortable with a specific surgeon, you can always request a free consultation with another provider.
In the US, a surgical consultation often costs between $100 and-250, although this number differs by provider. At the GCC, all surgical consultations are free of cost, regardless of whether you have insurance.
Generally speaking, patients who go through a full, testosterone-dominant first puberty often have a wider chest. Likewise, the nipple position tends to be further out in the chest, rather than in the center of each pectoral muscle or breast. That said, patients with higher BMIs or subcutaneous fat deposits in the chest tend to have nipples that are more centered.
As a result of these differences, surgeons will often order wider implants for the proportionally larger chest dimensions or perform a fat grafting revision surgery to accentuate side or medial cleavage. There may be other considerations your surgeon will need to take into account, given your anatomy that can be addressed in a free consultation.
After assessing your anatomy, your surgeon may offer you a range of implant volume (measured in CC) or an exact amount that they think would go best with your frame. At the GCC, we offer patients implant size ranges because it gives patients more options to choose what size is best for them and, as a result, tends to lead to more patient satisfaction.
At the GCC, we have our patients do the rice test at home, making DIY implant sizers, to get a sense of what implant size they would like most.
Breast augmentation recovery takes about six weeks, though most can return to work after one to two weeks. During the first week, patients will need to take sponge baths to avoid wetting the surgical site, will need help with household chores, and can expect to experience pain and swelling. For more recovery information, click here.
All virtual and in-person consultations with our board-certified surgeons are free. Once you fill out this form, our patient care team will reach out and guide you through every step to get to surgery.