The Top of my New Belly Button Has Begun to Turn Brown Three and a Half Weeks Post FTT?

Pigmentation is common with the trauma of surgery and will go away over time.  Inflammation is the cause of this color change and you may ask your Board Certified Plastic Surgeon if you can add a bleach cream to this area to decrease the color change.  First you need to have your Board Certified Plastic Surgeon determine it is pigmentation from melanin, and not some other cause.

Dear Melissa02 in VA:

The skin in the belly button is often a little darker than the skin of the abdomen. At two weeks out from surgery you also have increased blood vessels in the skin and congestion of blood in the belly button. This usually peaks 3-6 weeks out from surgery and then begins to resolve. It may take a full year for the color to return to base line.

If the area continues to tan, adding a bleaching agent may be helpful. You do not want to start this until the area is fully healed, so check with your plastic surgeon if they think it will help, and if you are ready for a trial. Bleaching agents take months to work, so either way, letting it heal and the passage of time are on your side.

It is normal to have some change in pigmentation of your new belly button.  However, if there is increasing redness and tenderness along with this pigment change that could signal and infection.  You should follow up with your plastic surgeon to determine if an infection has set in.  The pigmentation change alone is not abnormal.