I Had Surgery to Remove My ‘Man Boobs’ and My Life Has Never Been Better

Bigger breasts are universally en vogue—unless you’re a man. For many men, the condition medically known as gynecomastia can be a source of shame and embarrassment. Ironically, while breast augmentation remains one of the most popular surgeries for women, gynecomastia surgery—the removal of breast tissue in men—is growing in popularity.

Jon Michael, 32, a restaurant server in California, struggled with gynecomastia for years before even discovering his condition had a name. He underwent surgical removal in 2025 and shared his journey on TikTok, garnering tens of thousands of views per video. Jon spoke to the Daily Beast to share his experience researching, undergoing, and recovering from the surgery, what he wishes he had known beforehand, and what he hopes other men considering the surgery can take from his journey.

I grew up pretty overweight and obese, and I didn’t start dropping weight until high school. When I finally lost all the weight, though, I noticed there was still extra fat on my chest. No matter how much effort I put in or how skinny I got, there would always be man-boobs there.

I’d always avoid thin materials like rayon and any flowy shirts that would show my nipples. Sometimes I’d wear two short shirts on top of each other. Towards the end, right before I got the surgery, I started to wear athletic tape over my nipples to press them down under my clothes, almost like wearing a pastie. I’d do that under a tank top or under whatever shirt I was wearing, which was a good temporary solution. My appearance didn’t stop me from going to the beach or taking my shirt off, but I would definitely always be super self-conscious about it when I was out.

I would always look up what to do about my puffy nipples and see what would come up, and it led me to this video of a guy talking about gynecomastia.

At the time, I had no idea what it was, but it started off like, “If you’ve been trying to fix your chest but don’t know why,” and I realized that was me. I realized that this is something I could not fix through working out. It’s something I’ll actually need to undergo surgery to have removed.

From there, I went back and forth on it because of the surgery’s cost. I spent probably a year on Reddit researching surgeons and people who have been through it. Surprisingly, I didn’t find that much information. I think a lot of men are kind of scared to say that they’ve done plastic surgery, so I couldn’t really see an in-depth, step-by-step guide from someone who was going through the process.

I think it’s a toxic masculinity thing, where men don’t want to be like, “I got my tits done” or something, but there are a lot of men who have this insecurity.

After a year of research, there was nothing left to do but schedule a consultation. I wasn’t planning on getting the surgery done so quickly, but I called out of curiosity and asked how soon I’d be able to get it. When they told me they had a spot open in two weeks, I just pulled the trigger.

At the consultation, they’ll decide which “grade” you are in, which helps determine your treatment plan. I only had grade two since my body fat was pretty low, so because of that, I didn’t need to do any liposuction with my surgery. The procedure was to literally remove the gland.

The surgery cost me $7,500—and the doctor was actually the cheapest doctor I could find on the West Coast. Many ranged from $10,000 to $15,000. I even found one doctor in Beverly Hills who was really well known, but he was charging $18,000 to $20,000.

The doctor makes a small incision at the bottom of the nipple, goes in, and essentially removes the gland and pulls it out from there. The surgery itself was about two hours. It was under local anesthesia, so I was awake for it. It was definitely pretty quick. You do feel a bit of tugging, but there’s no pain. They put a curtain up to your head so you can’t see what’s going on—it’s similar to when they do C-sections.

I couldn’t drive home afterwards because I was on sedatives, so I had my sister, who’s a nurse, drive me. I had her drive up for the weekend, and we had a little staycation while I recovered. I was pretty bedridden the first day for sure because I was so tired, but the next day I was able to walk, even though I was definitely walking a bit slower.

After the surgery, I had to wear this compression vest for about eight weeks. The vest helps your skin reattach to the muscle because now that the gland is out, there’s all this space between the muscle and the skin where fluid can get in and get infected.

My right side healed up pretty fast, but on my left side, I had a hematoma, which is a fancy word for a bruise. It’s just something that can happen to some people. You also have drainage tubes post-surgery to help drain the fluid that collects after surgery. Normally, you wear the drains for only a day or two if all goes well. I had my drain on the right side taken out the next day, but because I had the hematoma on the left side, that one stayed in a bit longer.

You empty the drains out every couple of hours, and they use gravity and suction to empty. I’d do it over the toilet. They didn’t hurt at all. I work as a restaurant server, so I wasn’t able to work and have the drains on me while trying to serve food. However, if you work from home or in an office where your job isn’t physical, you might still be able to work while wearing the vest and attached drains.

There wasn’t really any pain; it was just soreness. I didn’t have a full range of motion, which meant that I couldn’t do any overhead movements with my arms. I also had to sleep on my back because of the drains, which was probably the most uncomfortable because I’m a side sleeper. But there was nothing where I was like, ‘Ow, ouch, this is painful.’

I’m a pretty active guy, and I was back to my normal self with full activity around three months. By the eight-week mark, you can start working out your lower legs and doing light arm workouts. In my experience, though, as soon as I got the drains out at four weeks, I was pretty much done.

I wanted to be extra cautious, so I waited three months before I worked out my chest—better safe than sorry, after all. I told my friends, “I waited my whole life for this surgery, I can wait two more months before getting back to normal.”

You’re still able to build pectoral muscle after surgery. I actually find that my pecs look more defined now because my surgeon was able to remove the gland, so the skin just sits on top of the muscle. I have a little light scarring, but the incision site was right where my nipple meets my skin, so it blends in nicely.

When I first posted a video saying I was going to get this surgery, the video got lots of views, but within it were a lot of comments of men essentially judging me for getting it done. It was surprising. When you put a video on social media out there, there comes a tipping point where it reaches past your audience, towards the other side of the argument, for lack of a better word.

At first, the comments were supportive. People were happy I was doing the surgery, but then it reached that other point where people were saying I was so lazy and should merely work out.

To be honest, it really did make me second-guess myself. Not in a way where I was going to cancel my surgery or anything, but I am human, and I did have those thoughts of, “Wait, am I doing the wrong thing?” But in those moments, I have to remember to stay grounded. I think it’s easy to forget that I have a good head on my shoulders when there were so many comments like, “Oh, you shouldn’t get this.”

I would absolutely recommend the surgery. My biggest fear going into it was that I’d get botched, but honestly, my biggest regret was not doing it sooner. It literally and figuratively feels like a weight has been lifted off my chest.

After the surgery, I went shopping. I saw this shirt and instinctively thought that it wasn’t an option for me. But then I had this moment—a realization: “Wait a minute, actually I can wear this now.”