Transgender Body Reshaping

Q: Dr. Eppley, I was interested in information about body shaping and fat grafting. I am transitioning and noticed you do facial feminization so wondered if you did body for transgender as well. One procedure I was most interested is is fat grafting breast augmentation. It seems this is not a extremely uncommon procedure at this point so wanted to check if this is something you could do. Thank you.

A: One of the most common transgender body reshaping surgeries for make to female is breast augmentation. I do breast augmentation by fat grafting (fat injection breast augmentation – FIBA)  as well as the complete face and other body procedures for transgender body reshaping plastic surgery. The main reason that FIBA is not commonly done is not because it is technically difficult but that patient selection for it is very limited. One has to have enough fat to harvest to do the procedure and also be willing to accept the unpredictability of the outcome (how much fat will survive) as well as a more modest  breast augmentation result. (1/2 cups size in most cases) Breast implants offer an immediate, sustained and more predictable result which is why FIBA is not commonly performed.

Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana