FtM Top Surgery - Minneapolis, MN

I had a double-incision mastectomy with Dr. Tholen. I would highly recommend this clinic for anyone looking to get top surgery.

This is a small clinic in MN and is co-owned by Dr. Tholen and the other doctor, Dr. Gervais. You can watch videos of all the staff on their website and they are amazing.

The initial consultation is free (I’m not sure if they do phone consultations — I’m sure they would). The office is very easy to get in contact with and scheduling is easy.

Between the time of my consultation and the time of my surgery (about ten months) I had excellent contact with the office and my surgeon. The woman who is the patient coordinator, Sarah, is very friendly and her only job is to be in contact with patients and answer questions and keep them updated on things. I was even able to get in direct contact with my surgeon if I had questions and he answered within a day or two.

When I went in for my surgery I was greeted by about five people who were incredibly nice. One nurse brought me back for pre-op pictures and then to change into the dressing gown and we just talked about a lot of things. She was awesome. She explained that she would be in the OR with me and what her job was and explained what the day would be like for me.

After I met with her, my surgeon came in and drew on my chest and checked in with me to see if I had questions and then he left. After him came the anesthesiologist. He was super nice. He was telling me all about what he would be using and then he lead me into the OR (which was actually just a small room) and he laid me down on the operating table and told me that the anesthesia he would be using was 200x stronger than morphine so I shouldn’t worry about waking up during surgery or feeling anything. (The clinic only uses IV anesthesia, no inhalants, because it decreases the chance of nausea afterwards. They have a 98% no-nausea rate at their clinic). And then I went to sleep and didn’t wake up until the surgery was over and I was in the recovery room.

When I woke up I had my brother and girlfriend at my side and one of the other nurses also, who trained my two “caretakers” on how to clear my drains and on the medications I need to take.

The clinic then let me go with my surgeon’s home phone number and an appointment for a week later and told me they would call later that night to check up on me — which they did.

I am now three weeks post-op (you can see my 2 week vs. 3 week post-op pictures) and my scars are healing incredibly well. The skin grafts are also looking very good. I was not expecting the surgery to look this good. I am still speechless. Dr. Tholen and his staff really know what they are doing and will do everything in their power to make sure you come out looking amazing.

I would definitely recommend getting top surgery from Dr. Tholen at Minneapolis Plastic Surgery. The expenses also include the post-op visits and the compression vest (not all clinics give you one). If you have any questions about my experience, I would be more than happy to answer them.

Here is a picture at four weeks post-op.

Here is the front of my chest three months post-op. Things are looking pretty spectacular. I have a little puckering on the sides, but considering how the rest of it looks I think that is only a minor thing. You can see that there is a little more scarring near the ends of the scars (towards my armpits). Dr. Tholen said that that was just some genetic thing -- the body creates more scar tissue than it can break down, basically. I'm very happy with how the healing is coming.