Breast Reduction
Age 60: Breast Reduction
This is a 60 year old woman, 5’3” and 140 pounds who presented to me for a bilateral breast reduction. She seen here in the postoperative photographs after a bilateral inferior pedicle breast reduction with the removal of 412 grams of tissue on the right and 501 grams on the left. The scars are shaped like an anchor (around the areola, vertical line down to the breast crease, and a scar along the breast crease).
Lessons to learn:
- If you look at the horizontal line on the same mole in her before and after pictures, you can clearly see that her breasts have been “lifted”. What this means is that they don’t hang as low as they did before. So it’s interesting to note that they are not HIGHER than they were before, they are actually not a LOW as they were before. There is no increase in superior fullness.
- Less breast weight means less back and neck pain. You don’t feel like you are lugging around weights on your chest. The experience is liberating.
- These pictures are at six months (she is from out of town so I wanted to get photos while she was visiting Austin). Her scars are still red, but healing quite well. The indentions in her skin is from the bra that she is wearing.
- She was instructed to wear a form fitting/molding bra to shape her breasts during the first six months after surgery. There is NO DOUBT that this has helped the incredible shape that she enjoys. If you check around the web for post breast reduction results, you will clearly see that these look like implanted breasts ONLY because she wore a great molding bra. If you are considering a breast reduction, I would highly recommend that you invest time and money into a molding bra to start wearing two or three weeks after surgery 24/7 so that you too will get the best shape possible. Support your breasts!
- She wants me to do some liposuction under her arms because she feels there is fat there. This is not an uncommon request because after a breast reduction the amount of fat under your arms suddenly appears larger! We will do this on her next visit to Austin after about 12 months of total healing.
- Breast reduction procedures may be covered by health insurance. Check with your carrier. At Westlake Plastic Surgery, we don’t accept any form of insurance and payment would need to come from you if you would like me to perform your reduction.
Age: 29 Breast Reduction
This is 27 year old young lady who is 5’2” and 192 pounds who was interested in a breast reduction and some liposuction. I told her that I felt it was better to first reduce her breasts, and if she were to lose twenty or so pounds I would entertain performing some liposuction.
She is seen here about seven months after a standard inferior pedicle breast reduction with the removal of about 700 grams of tissue from each breast. The scars are “anchor” shaped. She lost about twenty pounds and now she is interested in liposuction. She is planning on getting married in about six months so she is really excited about finishing off her second stage liposuction.
Interestingly enough, she also wanted to know if I would put in a breast implant at the time of her liposuction! Her breasts look beautiful and they are nicely shaped. I told her that with the liposuction about her trunk and extremities, her breasts will look a lot larger than they are now. She is really interested in superior breast fullness. I told her not to worry about her breasts and that it would probably be better to wait until after she has had children to revise her breasts. She was also wearing an unsupportive bra that doesn’t work to preserve the shape of her breasts. I immediately sent her up to a specialty bra store in the Austin area to be properly fitted. I need her to wear the ideal bra so the result of MY work is preserved!
Age: 45 Breast Reduction
This is a 45 year old woman, no children, 5’8″ and 130 pounds who came to my office interested in a bilateral breast reduction. She told me that she had “neck pain, back pain, bra grooving, and rashes beneath her breasts and they feel really heavy.”
Everything aside, she had attractive breasts, most likely because she wore a good bra and had no children (or she was simply genetically lucky).
She is seen here six months after a bilateral breast reduction, with the resultant scars shaped in an “anchor” pattern. I reduced 269 grams of tissue on the right, and 316 grams on the left. She is very pleased with her outcome.
Lessons to learn from this case:
1. Breast reduction surgery is “happy surgery.” They are not fun; they are a burden and you want the burden removed.
2. Note the “lift” that comes along with a reduction. The top of the breast is no different before and after, but the nipples are higher and the bottom of the breast is MUCH higher so they look perkier and sexy.
3. Her scars have healed very well at six months. It usually takes over two years for them to look considerably better. She did wear her silicone scar strips for six months as instructed–this helped considerably.
4. The shape of her breast is impressive for a reduction. This is in part related to me, but I dare say a good part comes from the fact that she “molded” her breasts after surgery by wearing a supportive, shaping bra afterwards. As she was healing on the inside, her breast tissue conformed to the shape of her bra which makes her breasts appear almost as if they were augmented. Long term support with a good bra (as shown) will allow her to enjoy her perky shape for many years down the road.
5. She had nice breasts to begin with. Now, she has nice breasts at the end of surgery, only smaller.
Age: 19 Breast Reduction
This is a 19 year old who is 4’11” and 160 pounds who requested a breast reduction and correction of asymmetry. Her breasts have stopped growing and her weight is stable.
She is seen here after a bilateral breast reduction with the removal of 612 grams of tissue on the right and 114 grams on the left. Photo 1a is pre operative. In photo 2a she is seen six months after surgery, and in photo 3a she is seen two years after surgery. Her weight has remained stable. There has been some settling of the breasts over the two years (they are not as tight, there is less superior breast fullness, and they have “dropped” a bit).
On the right in photos 1b, 2b, and 3b, you can see the improvement in the appearance of the scars over this time period. There is also a very nice improvement in the symmetry of the breasts.
Age: 36 Breast Reduction
This patient is 5’6″ and 190 pounds and wanted her excessively large breasts to be reduced. She is seen here five months after her breast reduction of about 700 grams of tissue each breast (about 1.5 pounds each breast). When excessive breast size becomes burdensome, exercise is difficult, clothing doesn’t fit, back pain is present, and you look older and heavier than you are you might want to consider a breast reduction. It is “happy surgery” because patients are typically thrilled with the results. Most patients lose weight after the procedure because they are liberated to do all the activities that “normal” people do and you have a new appreciation for your body.
Age: 39 Breast Reduction
This weight loss patient desired a breast reduction. She is seen here at two years after her procedure. I removed 203 grams on the right and 253 grams on the left. She has healed very well with a beautiful shape. She has a small amount of fullness in the lateral breast area (dog ear) that we will treat with liposuction. She has supported her breasts with an excellent bra since surgery which I believe helps maintain her youthful shape.
Age: 65 Breast Reduction
This woman who is 5’3″ and 172 pounds suffered from symptomatic macromastia (very large breasts that cause back and neck pain and interfere with daily life). She had a two stage procedure, the first being an amputative (free nipple graft) breast reduction of about 1200 grams of tissue from each breast (a bit less than three pounds per breast).
She also had axillary breast tissue that was removed about seven weeks after her breast reduction. The arrow points to the axillary breast tissue that was removed at her second procedure. Without removal of this tissue she would continue to have fullness up under her arms which would compromise the appearance of her result. Needless to say, her breast reduction has changed her life and she only wished she had the procedure done when she was younger.
Age: 38 Breast Reduction
This woman desired a breast reduction. Her breasts were very large and pendulous. We discussed the different options for her reduction and convinced her that an amputative breast reduction would serve her best. An amputative breast reduction involves using the nipple and areola as a free graft on a newly created breast mound using the upper part of the breast alone. A pedicle of tissue is not used in this case to “carry” the nipple and areola. She was told that there would be no sensation to the nipple when complete, but in her case (surprisingly) some erectile properties remained. An amputative reduction is a wonderful procedure on larger, more pendulous breasts because it offers the best result in terms of breast shape and durability of results.
*Note the degree of “lift” provided by the procedure by comparing the level of the nipple to the mole on her breast.
