One of the easiest and most important improvements many of us can make to our appearance is high quality breast prosthesis (at least those of us that donít grow our own! ;-) My research showed that silicone is the preferred material but after that there are many choices. I also discovered that they can be quite expensive. As luck had it, around the time I decided to buy my breasts, I happened to get my one and only tax return.

So ÖAfter many hours of searching the internet, I was no closer to understanding what brand, shape, or even size to choose. I decided the best thing for me was a professional fitting. I had also learned that I will only deal with people that are comfortable with me. So, armed with the phone book, I started calling (from work, no less!). The first two places were not really interested and I started to lose hope. The third boutique, Chez Madalaine, went a lot better. An elderly woman answered the phone:

"Hello, Chez Madalaine"

"Hello, I was hoping I could get fitted for breast forms"

"(pause) Have you had a mastectomy?"

"No, I had nothing to begin with"

At this point, she put her boss on the phone. After a few questions ("Do you realize how much this will cost?"), we quickly set up an appointment for the following Monday after the store closed and she took down my name and work phone number! There was no backing out now. As an aside, I would remind people that women who have had mastectomies often are very fragile, and a "guy" coming in could make them uncomfortable and thus hurt business. So, if anyone else follows my footsteps, please also be considerate.

I left work a little early on Monday and drove to Chez Madalaine (dressed as a guy, of course ;-). The proprietor, Evelyn, took me to a back room and shooed the other employees out. We quickly got down to business. I explained to her that I really wanted my breasts to fit my body (ie, what a GG with my body would have). This surprised Evelyn because she assumed I wanted really big breasts.

The first thing Evelyn did was measure me for a bra. I was very surprised to find that I was a 34 since I had always thought I was a 36. We tried a 34 B and deciding it was a little too small, I then tried a 34 C. This seemed about right, but we went ahead and tried a 36 B for comparison. The breast form size is not the same as the cup size, so that a 34 C and a 36 B use the breast form. By this time, I was very happy with my decision to do this in person with a professional. There are so many manufacturers, several shapes, and just being able to try different breast forms was worth it to me.

During my fitting I commented about how "normal" she was treating this situation. When I asked her if she had fitted other people like me she told me no, but she had a friend who owns a similar shop in Tampa and had fitted a lot of TG people. When I asked Evelyn if I could recommend her to others, she replied, "of course!"

I chose the "Active" brand, symmetrical triangle, size 5. Evelyn surprised me by asking if I wanted to "wear them home." After thinking about it, I said, "Sure!" She rang me up ($502!) and sent me on my way.

As soon as I came in the door, my wife, Brenda, came right up to me and "checked me out." I mean she just grabbed my new breasts! She surprised me by her observation, "they feel like foam rubber." This worried me a little and even hurt my feelings a bit. I said, "really?" She walked into the bedroom and felt our expensive, Brookstone pillow and amended her thoughts by "ok, really good quality foam rubber." I asked her if I could check her out and compared the feel of her breasts to mine. "I think they feel pretty real!" Having just spent a lot of money, I didnít like the thought that these felt totally fake.

I was very surprised the next night after work when Brenda told me, "I was checking myself out today, and I guess they do feel pretty real." Of course, I felt a lot better.

Now, a final note on breast prosthesis. I have found that people that know that I have "fake" breasts sometimes assume that they are free to touch them to see how they feel. I am very offended by that! My breasts are part of me every bit as much as if I had grown them myself! If a fellow sister is curious, I will often make a joke and let her feel them by saying something like, "One time only you can touch them, but you have to promise not to enjoy it!"

Looking back at it, I spent a lot of money. There were and are cheaper ways to go, however, I liked getting a professional opinion about the size and shape that was right for me. In fact, I recommend it for anybody in the market for breast forms. If this is not possible, or if you know exactly what you are looking for, good silicone breast forms can be had for considerably less money. I was buying a service, and to me, such services are worth some extra cash.