Top surgery: Difference between revisions

One rare complication of breast surgery is that some or all of the areola or nipple skin can die during recovery. This leaves a blank, scarred, or pitted area of skin. This can happen to one or both nipples. A person can help prevent nipple loss by choosing a proficient surgeon, choosing a surgical method that keeps the nipple attached during the entire surgical process, and quitting smoking. Nipple loss is more common in mastectomy and masculine chest reconstruction, in which the nipple has been removed, divided, reshaped, and grafted back on during surgery. In masculine chest reconstruction, the nipple is also divided and reshaped, in order to make the nipples smaller and placed higher on the chest. Nipple loss can also happen to people who have had surgery to treat breast cancer, in which case it is not always possible to save the nipple.  

For people who have lost one or both nipples, some non-surgical options to restore them include [[nipple tattooing]], which recreates the color, but not the three-dimensional shape.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Arndt | first1 = Kenneth A. | last2 = Hsu | first2 = Jeffrey T. S. | title = Manual of Dermatologic Therapeutics | edition = illustrated | publisher = Lippincott Williams & Wilkins | year = 2007 | page = 116 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CP27h0r-FjwC&dq | isbn = 978-0781760584}}</ref> Although nipple tattooing is considered a medical tattoo, patients get aesthetically better and more realistic results by going to a professional tattoo artist than by having a doctor do the tattoo. Some artists offer nipple tattoos for free for breast cancer survivors.<ref>{{cite web |first=Caitlin |last= Kiernan |date=3 June 2014 |title=Tattoo Therapy After Breast Cancer |website=The New York Times |page=D6 |url=http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/02/a-tattoo-that-completes-a-new-breast/}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Nipple Artist (video) |author=Kassie Bracken |url=https://www.nytimes.com/video/health/100000002915699/the-nipple-artist.html |author2=Taige Jensen |date=2 June 2014 |website=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-38814066 |title=Breast tattoo service for cancer patients|website=BBC News |date=31 January 2017  |author= |accessdate= 31 January 2017}}</ref> Another non-surgical option is a [[nipple prosthesis]], a realistic fake nipple temporarily glued to the skin.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Janes|first=S|title=Custom-made nipple prosthesis: a long-term satisfaction survey|journal=J Cancer Res Ther|date=Apr–Jun 2005|volume=1|issue=2|pages=111–3|pmid=17998638|doi=10.4103/0973-1482.16712|doi-access=free}}</ref> Many prosthetic nipples are sold for women who survived breast cancer. There are also ones such as [https://gendercat.com/products/gendermender-prosthetic-nipples-for-men-and-women-in-over-100-skin-tones GenderMender prosthetic nipples for men, women, and nonbinary people], which are available in over 200 custom skin tones, and in smaller sizes that can look more appropriate on a masculine chest. [[Nipple reconstruction]] surgery recreates the three-dimensional shape of the nipple. Sometimes it uses a piece of skin from another part of the body to help create a raised shape.<ref name="Uscher">{{Cite web |title=Nipple Reconstruction Surgery and Nipple Tattoos |last=Uscher |first=Jen |work=Breastcancer.org |date=18 January 2021 |access-date=28 August 2021 |url= https://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/surgery/reconstruction/types/nipple}}</ref> Any of these treatments for nipple loss can help cover scars that might have come from breast surgery.