Can Men Manage the Pain from a Breast Reduction with Advil?

Pain after gynecomastia surgery lasts a few days.  It is a surface operation.  We are not near any vital organs or nerves, and we stay above the muscle.  Routine oral narcotics is more than enough to combat any pain. 

Most of my patients don't feel too much pain following their procedure, and if they do it is well managed with non-aspirin or non-ibuprofen medications.

Pain is a highly variable and depends on patient to patient.

Many of my patients transition to ibuprofen or Tylenol after 1-2 days of pain medication.  This gives the body time to form stable clots so you would be less likely to bleed.

Typically, my patients do not need a lot of pain medication.  During the procedure, I do use a long-acting numbing agent (local anesthetic) so that the pain for the first day is not so bad.

You may also ask your doctor about pain catheters, little tubes that go in the surgical area and slowly drip numbing medicine into the area to avoid the need for heavy duty pain medicine. Many of my patients opt for this and like the convenience and lack of significant discomfort.

I certainly don't think pain catheters are mandatory. It's simply nice to offer them to patients who I think are going to have a low tolerance for the discomfort of surgery.

I hope this helps.