u/angyroomie

Hi! I'm hoping for some advice from others regarding timing of PDMX.

I'm currently 26 and found out about my BRCA1+ last year. I'm in a situation now where I have all of the necessary established care/access to the doctors (i.e. breast surgeon, plastic surgeon) that I would need to get my PDMX; after all of this initial rush though I suddenly find myself very lost in the question of when should I actually do all of this?

Right after diagnosis I just fell into a whirlwind of getting everything in order; I froze my eggs, got my tubes removed, have gotten all of the MRI's/US/blood tests set up and done, etc etc. It felt good to give myself some control back and then I felt really full steam ahead in just getting the PDMX over with, but now I feel less certain

On one hand I'm pretty scared of getting BC because I waited too long - my mom had BC at 40 and I definitely don't think I want to wait till then. I'm not super interested in having kids and even if I did end up having kids, I've never been keen on breastfeeding so that doesn't really factor either. I guess I'm just...not sure what criteria I should be using to decide when I should do this lol.

(side note, i have so many friends who keep referring to this as getting a boob job and it's so frustrating...:p)

Hi y'all! This community was super helpful for me when I was prepping for my bisalp - thought I would write how my full experience was in case this is helpful for people in the future! For reference, I'm 26, pretty good health, workout regularly etc. I live in the Bay Area and did my surgery at UCSF (great experience).

I'm in a slightly diff boat where I (maybe?) want to have kids in the future (BIG maybe) - but I opted to get this surgery because I'm BRCA1+ and have a pretty elevated chance of getting ovarian cancer. My mom just got diagnosed a few months ago so I was really wanting to just do something ASAP to lower my risk. Removing your tubes offers around 80% (!!) in risk reduction, and I knew for sure that I would not want to have kids naturally as to not risk passing down my mutation.

I was able to get an appointment with a gyn-oncologist about 3 weeks after my initial referral to her (December 2025). She told me that she had availability to perform it pretty much every month, could even get me in for in 4 weeks, but I declined as I was planning on freezing my eggs first.

Froze my eggs in early Feb 2026 - and my surgery was originally scheduled for late March, but my surgery had to be postponed a month to April because my ovaries were still too swollen 6 weeks post retrieval and they wanted things to calm down a bit before surgery. Ended up doing it in late April instead. They had me get some bloodwork a week prior just to make sure all my blood cell counts were good.

In terms of prep, I did try and work out a bit harder, eat a bit more cleanly, and prep my apartment prior. I pre-made a lot of chicken congee (highly recommend congee specifically, perfect post surgery meal), high fiber foods, stocked my fridge with coconut water/cold drinks. Did all my laundry before and just tried to clean everything up so I wouldn't need to worry. The night before I showered with the special soap and my calltime was at 5:30AM (!!!) They had me wake up at 3:30AM (!!) to drink a clear carb drink to help with recovery and shower again.

Got there at 5:30 and was pretty promptly escorted back to pre-op. They had me wipe my body down fully with these wipes (?), change, and get my IV. I'm not gonna lie the most painful part of the entire process was probably getting my IV because they do it deep into your hand instead of your arm and it took them a few times to get it in (but that speaks to how the rest of the surgery process wasn't toooo painful!) All of my doctors, including all of the residents came to speak with me prior, which was super nice of them. One person is also allowed back with you. They had me take 2 tylenol and a gabapentin for nerve pain orally during this time too.

Around 7:25AM they started wheeling me to the OR - they gave me something right before that that made me delightfully sleepy and very talkative/woozy. Once I got to the OR they put me on the table, put a mask over my face, next thing I know a nurse is calling my name and I'm waking up in the post op unit.

When I woke up it was around 10:30AM - according to my sister the surgery didn't end up starting till around 8:15AM, finished at around 9:15AM, took me about an hour to wake up. I was honestly fairly lucid upon waking up - in terms of pain, it felt like I had fairly bad period cramps but no worse than that. They gave me some IV ibuprofen and that helped a lot. When I tried to get up though I did start feeling pretty nauseous - had nothing in my stomach though so I couldn't yak. I was feeling so nauseous at some points that they did give me some more IV nausea medicine which helped a lot. After about an hour in recovery, they wheeled me down to the waiting room where my parents drove me home. All in all, I was able to get home around 12:30PM!

Once I got home I immediately passed out for 5 hours and when I woke up I wasn't nauseous at all anymore, the anesthesia fog had largely passed. Was able to eat, took 1 ibuprofen for the pain (still very much so like period cramps), pretty much went back to sleep right after that.

Here's my day by day recovery progression after that:

The day after (Sat) - energy was definitely low, I was taking a ton of small naps throughout the day. Did not need to take pain medicine after the day of my surgery - the only pain I had was when trying to get up after lying down, that took some maneuvering. Incisions were definitely tender and I felt a bit sore in general, but had no issues going for about a 0.8 mile away. (very slowly)

Day 2 (Sun) - energy was a bit better - only took 1 nap in the afternoon. Had my first bowel movement today post surgery, yippee! Definitely still a little pain when using my core to get up from bed, but definitely some improvement. I did notice that my appetite was just smaller in general and I overate a bit, which caused some tummy troubles lol. Took a mile walk with no issues.

Day 3 (Monday) - weirdly enough energy was QUITE low, had to take another large nap. However, by this day my incisions had crusted over enough that they weren't really causing me much pain anymore, but they DID start itching like crazy. Generally by Monday night my energy levels were feeling pretty good. Walked about 2mi today no issues.

Day 4 (Tuesday) - I woke up feeling super normal, energy pretty much back to normal. Was able to walk nearly 3 miles and go grocery shopping without any issues. Incisions felt good, no more pain when getting up from bed/couch, still pretty itchy but definitely healing. I work from home and probably could've gone back to work on this day (I took the whole week off).

Day 5 (Wednesday) - honestly feeling ... pretty normal?? Did normal things, went to a cafe, walked around, felt like my energy was normal and no pain when walking. I will say, sitting in a certain position for too long put too much pressure on my lower incision which caused a smidge of pain, but otherwise, feeling super good!

Brings me to today - I feel basically back to normal - obvi incisions are still healing but energy wise I'm able to walk around at a normal pace, feels like my stamina and energy levels are back. Definitely could've gone back to work but I'm enjoying my PTO lol.

Some random notes

- Okay weirdly enough, I did not get bloated from this surgery. If anything, for whatever reason, I have been..less bloated? (Prev I would eat one small thing and immediately look distended lol, but not this week!) My surgeon did say I did have some excess fluid from the egg retrieval that was drained, so that's probably why, but I basically have not experienced any bloating from the surgery.

- Also experienced no gas/shoulder pain, which was unexpected

- I had my boyfriend to help out for the first few days post surgery which was really helpful. By Tuesday though I was able to make my own breakfast/lunch/generally be pretty independent.

Hope this helps someone out there!!

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