My Body, My Choice
“But that choice was taken from me. My surgeon thought I would “change my mind” about implants and instead of the agreed upon flat closure, I woke to extra skin he had left on purpose and against my consent. I was devastated.”
My Body, My Choice?
Kim was a young mother of two diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016. She chose to go flat – she simply wanted to be “one and done” and get back to her life. But the plastic surgeon she hired to make her flat acted against her clear directive and left excess tissue “in case you change your mind” (his words as Kim was lying on the operating table). Listen to Kim’s story as told by Cleveland19 News:
“I’ll just leave a little extra in case you change your mind.”
Her choice to be “one and done” now gone, Kim had to choose whether to live with a cosmetic result that she finds abhorrent, or to take on additional risk – and sacrifice energy, money, and precious time with her family – to “fix” it. All Kim asked for was an acknowledgment, from the surgeon and hospital, of the wrong that had been done, and a commitment to prevent this from happening to future patients. But her pleas fell deaf ears. So, Kim took matters into her own hands and, in July 2018, founded Not Putting on a Shirt (NPOAS) to advocate for optimal aesthetic flat closure (a new term adopted by the NCI in early 2020). Kim spoke about her experience on the Today Show with co-host Stephanie Gosk – also featuring women’s health journalist and author of “FLAT,” Catherine Guthrie:
Against Our Will: Flat Denial
What happened to Kim – intentional flat denial – happens to 1 in 20 women who choose to go flat. Another 2/3 in 20 receive egregiously poor aesthetic results as a result of lack of skill or care. These women go into surgery expecting a flat result, and wake up to something completely different. Some feel they have no choice but to have more surgery to get an acceptable appearance, which others may not be able to afford. Others still are not well enough for more surgery. They just have to live with the disfigurement that might have been prevented, if their surgeons hadn’t “left a little behind in case you change your mind.” Kim fought alone for over a year. Then she started Not Putting on a Shirt.
The sit-in that started it all
The sidewalk protests (Brut)
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What People Are Saying
“[Doctors] should respect a patient’s wishes and not think they can make a decision which impacts the way a person sees themselves.”
Nita Noons Shaw, Fabulously Flat (Unreconstructed Breast Cancer Survivors)
“After suffering an amputation or worse (sometimes double amputation, sometimes cancer), a woman should not be left purposefully maimed. “
Kimberly Pantel, NPOAS supporter
“Everyone deserves to feel comfortable and confident in there own body! [N]o one else has the right to make a choice of what you should want your body to look like! “
Anna Lee Lorenzen, NPOAS supporter
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This site contains copyrighted material. Not Putting on a Shirt’s educational materials and resources on this site are freely available for “fair use” (Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107) in accordance with our mission to advocate for optimal outcomes for those who choose to go flat after mastectomy. The copyrighted material on this site is distributed for educational purposes without profit – all donations to Not Putting on a Shirt directly fund our advocacy work. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes that go beyond “fair use”, you must first obtain explicit permission from the copyright owner. Please direct requests or questions to info@notputtingonashirt.org.