I've been coming around to the realization that I do in fact want some kind of surgery. I've avoided thinking about it because there was no way to afford it, but I can't keep dodging the idea. The thing is, I have very sensitive nipples and I actually really like that. That fact turns me off of getting top surgery because I know that based on sag, size, and skin quality of my chest, I know I'll need nipple grafts. It's pretty much a guarantee with nipple grafts that I will, for some extended period of time, lose sensation in my chest. I'm not sure that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. But I also know I want meta. Erotic sensation, reasonable resemblance to some cis males, the ability to get an erection without assistance...it hits everything I want. How weird would it be if I got meta without top surgery, given that I identify as binary male? This isn't a desire to have a body that is both/neither male or female. It's just that if I can't have male nipples with erotic sensation, I don't want them, but I still want a penis that does have erotic sensation. I also have a concern that doctors won't perform bottom surgery if I don't have/want top surgery - is that true?
I'd say for top surgery that is a valid concern...As far as I know you always need nipple grafts unless you get keyhole which is only for people with a very small cup size. And from what I've heard, sensation is never really the same in pretty much 100% of cases. Correct me if I'm wrong. I also worry about loss of sensation, but I don't really like being touched there too much anyway these days. Sure, it's erotic, but it also causes me dysphoria and lately dysohoria tends to win. I really don't think you're going to have a hard time getting bottom surgery without top surgery though as long as you have been on hormones for a while. It might be a little unusual though.
I'm by no means an expert but I think I heard about a method of top surgery where they make the incisions in the shape of an anchor, with one going down from the nipple and one horizontal. That way they keep the nipples intact. I don't know much about it or whether that would be an option, but I saw a YouTuber mention it.
yeah, it's called t-anchor/inverted-t. they re-size the nipples and re-position them but the nerve and all that stays intact. just google 't-anchor top surgery' and you can see how the incisions look like. of course there's additional scarring but it seems like it will be worth it for you.
I will research that, thanks. I hadn't heard of it. I knew of keyhole and peri for maintaining the nipple stalk, but you need to be a LOT smaller in the chest than me for it to work. I didn't know there were top surgery options for larger chests to retain sensation.
Not liking the results of certain surgeries doesn't change your gender. If you're a binary trans guy who has top dysphoria but doesn't want surgery because the results aren't good enough to meet your needs, that doesn't make you less trans, less dysphoric, or less binary.