What Male To Female Body Contouring Procedures Would Be of Benefit?

Q: Dr. Eppley, Hello 🙂 I’m a transgender woman considering MTF body contouring to finish off her transition. I generally have a very fortunate, feminine body, but I transitioned late, so I still have the widened shoulders, small hips, and wide/tall ribcage. HRT is almost miraculous, but it can’t change the post-pubertal male skeleton. 

My shoulders are manageable, and I understand you can’t reduce the entire ribcage volume without damaging the lungs or other organs underneath, but I would still like a more fluted chest with a narrower waist, and some kind of hip widening to compensate for my ossified pelvis. I think those are things you offer? I’m still in the exploratory phase now (seeing how my second year on HRT goes, and planning higher-priority surgeries like ffs/voice/srs), but in 4-5 years I’d definitely like to do some work, just to reclaim some features from puberty and look less uncanny.

A:Thank you for your inquiry and sending your pictures. When it comes to MTF body contouring there are five procedures that can be done which you undoubtably know… shoulder narrowing, breast augmentation, waistline narrowing and buttock and/or hip augmentation. The question always is which of these will produce the greatest perceptible change that the patient feels is important. Based on\ your won description I will eliminate shoulder as a major concern and will eliminate breast augmentation from this discussion as that speaks for itself. That leaves the mid- to lower torso procedures as options to which I have done some imaging to show those potential changes.

Dr Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana