Ask for more than one opinion is my only advice. I have been told completely different things...you don't mention what you're hoping to get done, but I wanted a bilateral DIEP flap recon & going private due to possible long wait going public. First plastic surgeon said he wouldn't look at it for 6mths to wait for fibrosis to settle and I couldn't keep my nipples - that didn't gel with what I had read in the research. A completely different outcome with the second plastic surgeon who has booked me in for surgery 6wks after radiation has finished (in 2 wks time) keeping nipples using the inframammary fold - his practice's experience is that although there is some settling/fibrosis it doesn't affect the outcome significantly in the patients their practice has seen (500+ but don't know how many of those were done very early) but it can result in higher cost of the revision surgery that would be out of my pocket.