When I was first diagnosed with Breast Cancer I was terrified so my first thought was “ok, what am I dealing with?”. I decided to read all I could find on the internet and one of the things I read was about a skin saving mastectomy. When I saw my surgeon and we talked about the surgery he talked about where the scar would be so I asked him if I would lose my nipple and he said yes, so I asked him about the skin saving mastectomy, he was surprised and explained that removing the nipple was a standard operating procedure but he added that (in my case) there was no reason that I couldn’t have the skin saving mastectomy and keep the nipple…I am so glad I did, having a mastectomy is awful enough but to still have a breast complete with nipple is amazing. I have to say that my case and the type of cancer, severity, and stage etc will be different for each person,so it may not be possible for some patients. But worth it to ask.
I had a mx two weeks ago and my nipple was also spared. My doctor and my plastic surgeon did not promises me that before hand tough. What they dais was that the would look the nipple during the surgery and see if they could try to save it which they did. But be aware that after the surgery there is still a questio of vascularization. So in my first consult after the surgery my plastic surgeon was a bit concern about the color of my nipple which was a bit dark and only yesterday and the nipple started to slightly peel of that she was able to confirm that there is vascularization. It is important that you have all the information before hand so as to avoid surprises. Of course you might be having a simpler procedure than what I had but I though it was worth to tell you my experience. The funny thing is that I did not ask to keep my nipple but once I saw the result of the surgery with the nipple it made me quite sad to have to consider the possibility that maybe I was not going to be able to keep it.
I think the wierd thing is the nipple still doesnt work - but at least it looks normal size!