WARNING: the following may cause pain, costochondritis, cracked or fractured ribs, reduced lung capacity, lung or kidney damage from floating ribs etc. That's why it's called dangerous lol :) I'm no doctor. I'm just Darth from the internet who cooks drugs. Follow my advice at your own risks!

Intro: Darth dangerous experiments

I do not hide that I run various crazy experiments on myself. I just don't share results until I have a positive!

The last big one was the stop and go theory (cold stopping E2 to re-sensitize receptors) and it came after trying various crazy stuff, like domperidone (to increase PRL), dostinex (to reduce PRL), MK667 (for GH) etc. When I got a positive result, I shared it. Now after 2 other ppl have independently confirmed it worked for them, I can suggest it without reservations.

Now about ribs! Age is no guarantee of hip growth. I have had poor results. My dude is ftm and has had rib wrapping for binding. It's hard to describe, but when you run your fingers along his sexy ribs, you can feel like a change of level, like a dent all over.

It's often a problem for ftm bc binding can shrink the upper ribcage while they want to be buff, but for us mtf it's kinda interesting. So my goal was to try to "reproduce" the result, by doing everything that is said to be "binding dangerously", and see what works. After discussions with other people by PM, I started experimenting with a few things to improve my w/h ratio.

Extrapolating from ftm results

It is well known that even safe binding gradually deforms the ribs: the longer you bind, the more deformation can accrue.

Even then, lots of cis people say it's impossible to alter the shape of the ribcage: try to google shrinking the rib cage, and look at the dismissive answers from docs like on quora.

Personally, I'm ready to believe anything, but only with evidence - and I believe trans ppl more than cis ppl who pretend it's impossible, without evidence, and without personal experience.

Turns out the evidence is against the "fixed forever" theory of the rib cage shape: google for xray of corsetting, and you'll find the 1908 results of O'Followell https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-corset-x-rays-of-dr-ludovic-o-followell-1908 and more recently Cathy Jung http://cathiejung.com/waist-xrays.htm

There are many testimonies like https://lucycorsetry.com/before-after/ - too many to believe that the rib cage shape is fixed forever.

Personally, I think corsetting is stupid and dangerous bc there're a bunch of things in the belly (liver, spleen, kidneys, intestines...) but the ribcage is mostly lungs, and lungs are spongy, so why not try the same thing there?

It's supported by a lot of evidence from our ftm brothers: check the ftm sub using keywords like wrapped/deformed/distorted ribs, misshaped ribcage etc, you will find many testimonies explaining how their chest now looks "sunked in". It's hard to believe everyone is lying (and what would be the reason? to prevent ppl from binding???):

After reading all that, I based my whole idea on copying what caused the described results: binding without any break 24/7, including during sleep, with only short breaks for bath or shower, double binding if necessary, binding until it's painful, etc -- only we'll do that at a different place, bc we want to achieve a different shape.

This is akin to the corset diet, advertised by Kim K and others, which consists of wearing a corset all day even when sleeping so as to achieve an hour-glass figure - IDGAF about the waist part, but this is basically the principle: breaking every rule in the book about ftm safe binding to get the desired side effects!

BTW, from the "diet" part, expect some weight loss bc it will compress your stomach and make you feel super full even when barely eating anything, so try to eat caloric food if like me you don't want that. And be super careful if you've had an history of ED!

How does it work

The ribs are attached to the spine in the back and the sternum in the front. When you breathe, your chest cavity expand due to the ribs slightly going up, like the handle of a bucket: they raise in the (X,Z) aka sagittal plane

If you did read the links, you'll have noticed most people reported the lower ribs flared out (ex: https://np.reddit.com/r/ftm/comments/a9aikb/yup_my_ribs_are_mildly_deformed_this_is_great/ ), as binding applies an uneven force, with more strength applied to the upper ribs bc of the breast volume. This is because the ribcage is like a rectangle : if you compress the top, the bottom will flare out. So the idea is to do the exact opposite by compressing the bottom part!

Quite obv, I didn't my boobs lol. Well, I have to say I tried just to get a feeling of what it does, and damn that shit hurts!

Afterwards, I binded the lower ribs, below the boobs. It hurts very differently. The ribs go to a cartilage in the middle, that's flexible: this is how you can expand your chest if you take a deep breath. Binding the lower ribs is just trying the cartilage flexibility in the other direction! Then what if you did that hard enough and long enough to alter the natural shape, like lots of people have reported?

The ribcage grows with age as the cartilage ossify: lower rib binding could prevent or mitigate that, and also "seal" everything into place: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4111931/

Equipment required and proper use

You don't need no fancy binder: just go to amazon and look for a 20-30 inches rib binder with velcro. This XS size is because you'll want to apply a lot of strength there.

There're basically 2 version: the male (rectangle) and the female (tapered out for the boobs). Get both, but odds are you'll prefer the male version, as the tapering is done by sewing and the fold will go into your skin and itch.

Take your measurements before, expire all the air in your lungs, and apply the binder with the goal of removing at least 2 inches in diameter. Measure again: if you didn't achieve that, try again. If needed, do a double binding: apply the other binder on top.

After its done, congrats - you don't need to do nothing else. Just wait a few week lol. Try to sleep on your back, not on your side, to avoid uneven force causing a uneven rib cage (ex: more shrunk on the left that on the right if you sleep on your left side due to the body weight)

If it didn't, double binding is more painful but can help. Don't double bind at night, as you want to be aware in case a sudden major pain suggest you should go back to single binding.

Practical results

After a few week of binding 24/7, I have achieved about 2.5 inches of reduction at the underburst (29.5') , that seem to persist when the rib binder is removed: I've tried up to 1 hour taking a long bath, the max "return to before size" I've noticed is 1 inch (30.5') and more often 0.5 inches. Still, I'll try to do a full 6 month before taking a longer stop, as the results should be cumulative.

Even more interesting, the sub cut fat under the ribs seems to have moved down. I had no idea it was even possible! But it's now at the level of my navel. I'll try to push it down further for some booty and hips lol, by using the 2nd binder: I apply the other binder on top, just a bit lower to go slightly over the naked skin of the waist. This is done to cause a strength gradient that will push out fat lower.

Based on all my readings from the ftm sub and other sources, proper results will require binding like that between 6 months to 2 years top. However, the results are immediate, and tangible: you get a nice hourglass shape with no investment except $10 for a "bruised rib binder" off amazon. Hopefully, given enough time, these results will be definitive too.

Concusion

The results are especially especially cool considering there's no surgery on the market to do that: removing floating ribs doesn't change the ribcage diameter!

However, it may be dangerous. It may not work on you. I can't say how well it may work (or not) for old ppl who are totally ossified.

All I can say it works for me.

But I believe these preliminary results are worth sharing. Feel free to share this post wherever.