If you want
HA I would say go to Heller as I would not go to Mirza at all. Someplace on here under a Heller thread I posted his prices for all his services - it is under user hunkydory. There are not a whole lot of options in NYC which is crazy as 8,000,000+ people live here. But I would not do permanent locally as no one here has a track record yet. If you want permanent I would bite the bullet and go to MX as it is too important to hope for the best with an unkown Dr. JMO.
Here is the post - I forgot that he really pushes
FFT - which is almost universally accepted as a bad procedure, which makes me not trust him much, but what do I know, I only had a consult. (I would not let him talk you into that at all though. They all say they have fixed the technique - but no one has. It is the cheapest for them so the most profit.)
fyi I had
HA and took it all out, I didn\'t like it but that\'s also just me.
Posted 02/17 ' Edited #88 So I had my consultation today. He is not the warmest of guys which made things a little awkward at first. I didn\'t feel he was into being asked questions either, but perhaps he was just not in the mood, it was at the end of the day. Once we discussed where I work, which he knew of well, he seemed to brighten up and become much friendlier but this was at the end of the visit so it didn\'t translate into getting my questions answered. However, it did feel like if we started that way, it would have been a different visit.
He suggested I do
FFT and said that he does not have the lumping issue other doctors have and that it lasts longer than
HA. He said he does more
Phalloplasty procedures than any other doctor in the US and has perfected the technique. I told him my concerns about the lumps anyways and switched the topic to the fillers.
When he said that he does not have the lumpiness issues with
FFT, I lost a little confidence in the visit as I haven\'t heard anyone who has perfected the technique, but maybe he has - don\'t know. This was the first thing we discussed.
Everything I say is just what he told me, not meant as any kind of fact, everyone can decide for themselves the veracity of what I am writing. Bedside manner aside, he offers a lot of different procedures:
FFT - $4,500
Juviderm - 10cc $2,600, 20cc $4,900
Macrolane - 10cc $1,000, 20cc $1,800
He said that the difference between Macrolane which is
HA and Juviderm (
HA) is that the Macrolane is off-label in the US but is basically the same product as Juviderm.
Bellafil/Juviderm mix - 10cc $2,950
Bellafil/Macrolane mix - 10cc $1,950
Dermal Fat Grafts - $6,500
.
1.Why does he mix Belafill and
HA?
2.How much for Belafill only? (Does he do
HA only? - Yes)
He does not do Bellafil alone as he said it leads to a higher risk of lumps and nodules, but doesn\'t have this issue when mixing it as it evens out the distribution. Although he added that none of this stuff is perfect. He said the best results in terms of smoothness and aesthetics are DFG\'s. Which I kind of agree with, based on my experience. He said he never heard of them dying so far after the procedure. I asked if Nicorette could be the cause and he said no. He was surprised that anyone offered them 20 years ago but knew Dr. Reed.
3.How often do you need to wait between visits?
He does the 10cc\'s at once and said there was no real point to doing it in smaller increments. If you did 20cc\'s he would do that in one visit too, and it takes a few days to a week to set and get the best aesthetic result. We were specifically talking about the
HA\'s at this point. When I asked about getting smaller amounts, he asked why would I do that - he said it is cheaper this way and makes no difference in outcome.
4.Who decides how much as you get in a visit / and in total?
You do in total, but he seems to start at 10cc\'s.
4.How much cc\'s are in a syringe? Cannula or needle?
Forgot to ask cannula or needle (sorry) - but he sells by the cc, not the syringe. I will get back on the syringe or cannula - but if I had to guess, syringe.
5.What happens when the
HA absorbs? Is the collagen created by the Bellafil even or lumpy as the
HA reduces?
He said no it does not become lumpy - it stays smooth. The Bellafil is 20%
PMMA but I did not ask what the ratio is to
HA, 50%/50% etc.
6.What kinds of gains for 30cc? Either mixed with
HA, and just BF.
10cc = about 20% increase in
Girth. Rule of thumb, BF/
HA or just
HA is similar in
Girth increase per cc. but the Juviderm or Macrolane alone absorb much more quickly.
7.What is the shelf life of the
HA assuming it is slowly absorbing. Is this something that needs to be done every year?
He said the shelf life of
HA before it reabsorbs is anywhere from 6months to a year or more, depending on the individual and how they metabolize it.
8.What is the feel of BF/
HA vs BF only.
He didn\'t really answer this clearly and I didn\'t press - he said it felt natural, and he does not offer BF only so it didn\'t matter. Mischiefmaker probably has the most accurate info on the feel of
HA.
9.Does it move round as a graft, or feel like you can always mold it?
I need to email him with this one and get back to the board. I really want to know this one and can\'t believe I forgot - damn!
10.What happens if you have stretched or loose skin, is it just going to run towards the glans? What is keeping it in place?
He said he fact that my skin was stretched would not make a difference in outcome, but thought that I might need up to 20cc to fill it out. He said the dermal fillers hold them self in place, something Mischiefmaker mentioned to me as well. He examined my skin and said it was pretty stretched, something I knew. He did ask me if I had my ligs cut when he was examining my
Dick, and I said yes. He asked if I gained anything from it and I said 1.25\"; but after a year and a half of
Hanging and he said that\'s about what he gets from his procedure. Maybe he does, but I always thought that I was in the minority of gainers and it wasn\'t from the surgery IMO.
11. Has he preformed
Girth procedure on patients w/ Dr. Loria\'s platinum silicone
Girth procedure
Yes, you can get either of the soft tissue fillers if you have already had silicone, and he added that he just did one of these procedures this afternoon.
Last thoughts. He said he didn\'t do
Bellafill alone as he was not sure of the outcome in terms of the lumpiness 15 - 20 years down the road, but
Bellafill/
HA combo would still set you up for that, wouldn\'t it? Not to freak anyone out - he didn\'t say it would, just that he didn\'t know.
The thing I really like about Dr. Reed is that he will tell you what he thinks, if a procedure sucks, a product is inferior, bad idea etc. He will talk you out of stuff too. This visit was more about selling me something - which is why I was there - but everything seemed to have equal weight, which as a reader of this board I would have to disagree with. I don\'t think some of these doctors know how much info some patients come in with based on this site.
I don\'t feel like I know enough to draw a conclusion but felt less comfortable after the visit as some of the info, such as the
FFT, didn\'t sit well. He is a trained plastic surgeon however.
I will probably sit tight and think about this - I didn\'t walk away with a game plan.
