Breast Reduction
What is Breast Reduction?
Types of Breast Reduction
Why Breast Reduction?
What Conditions Are a Breast Reduction a Solution to?
Steps to getting your procedure
Frequently Asked Questions
Cost of Procedure
Why Yes Doctor for This Procedure
Procedure

Breast Reduction

A breast reduction surgery, also called reduction mammaplasty, reduces the breast size by removing excess fat, glandular tissues, and skin to achieve a breast size proportionate to the rest of the body and relieve discomfort caused by overly heavy breasts. Generally, patients undergo breast reduction surgery for medical concerns (macromastia — abnormal enlargement of breast tissues). However, patients who don't suffer from macromastia can also consider pursuing breast reduction for aesthetic reasons. Women who get a breast reduction for aesthetic concerns cite several reasons like social stigma, negative self-image, or difficulty fitting into clothes.

What is Breast Reduction?

Breast reduction, also called reduction mammaplasty, is a surgical procedure to remove excess fat, skin, or glandular tissues from excessively enlarged breasts to give them a firm, perky, and proportionate appearance. 

Mostly, breast reduction surgery is a medical necessity. Disproportionately heavy breasts cause pain in the head, shoulders, and neck muscles due to the constant tugging of muscles. This pain makes carrying out physical activities very challenging for a few people and impairs their ability to lead an active life. Besides physical challenges posed by macromastia, many people suffer from emotional distress caused by their enlarged breasts. Also, women undergo breast reduction for cosmetic reasons. They choose breast reduction due to the social stigma associated with awkwardly heavy breasts, or it makes donning specific clothes difficult.   

You may be a candidate for this electric surgical procedure if you are an assigned female at birth and suffer from macromastia or an assigned male at birth and suffer from gynecomastia (disproportionately enlarged breasts in men). A few other factors that govern your candidacy for breast reduction surgery are: 

  • You are in good physical and mental health. 

  • You are ready to bear scars. 

  • You don't plan to have a baby. 

  • You have a negative self-image. 

  • You have chronic rashes and irritation under breast folds due to their size. 

  • Your breast size impairs your physical activity. 

  • Your bra straps make indentations in your shoulders due to the heaviness of your breasts.  

  • Your heavy breasts cause shoulder, neck, or back pain or kyphosis (abnormal hunching of the spine) due to heavy breasts. 

Procedure Details 

What to expect before the procedure? 

Reduction mammaplasty needs a multi-step approach to achieve aesthetically pleasing results. The first step to preparing for breast reduction surgery is a pre-operative consultation. During the consultation, your surgeon will discuss the risks and benefits of the procedure. They will also ask if you have had any surgeries, mammograms, lumps removed, or any medical condition affecting the breasts. They will also ask you about your detailed medical history, any specific medications you are taking, your smoking record, any previous or anticipated pregnancies, and your family history of breast cancer. What matters the most in the pre-operative consultation is your honesty in telling the surgeon your details. The more you keep things transparent, the lesser the chances of post-operative complications. Any emotional distress you have dealt with due to volumized breasts is also documented.  

After assessing your overall health, your surgeon may take photos of your breasts, discuss how much tissue should be removed to get the desired outcomes or perform a mammogram before starting the procedure. Pre-operative consultation gives you an insight into what happens during the surgery and how to prepare for recovery. 

It's important to choose a well-balanced diet plan and quit the intake of tobacco products well before surgery to ensure proper healing.

What to expect during the procedure?

Generally, breast reduction surgery is performed in an outpatient unit and may take about three to five hours. In a breast reduction surgery, you will be given anesthesia. Your surgeon will make an incision on your breast. The type of incision depends on your individual condition, your desired outcomes, and how much glandular tissues need to be removed from the breast.

A breast reduction surgery follows the following steps: 

Anesthesia 

The surgery starts with giving intravenous sedation or general anesthesia to comfort you during the surgery. 

Incisions 

Your surgeon can make any of the three types of incisions depending on your specific needs:  

  • A circular incision around the areola 

  • A racquet-shaped incision around the areola running vertically down to the breast crease 

  • An inverted T or anchor-shaped incision pattern  

Breast Reduction 

Once the incision is made, the nipple is repositioned while remaining tethered to its original blood and nerve supply. If necessary, areolar size is reduced by removing skin at the perimeter.  

Underlying breast tissues are lifted, removed, and reshaped. Sometimes, if the breasts are excessively pendulous, nipples are removed and transplanted at an elevated position on the breast.  

Closing the incisions 

After removing the desired amount of breast tissues, incisions are closed with sutures, skin adhesives, and/or surgical glue or tape. The scars are permanent but fade away with time.  

What to expect after the procedure? 

The patient can be admitted to the hospital if the pain is not manageable. However, laboratory surgeries are usually not required after the surgery. The results of the breast reduction surgery are almost immediately visible. Dressings can be removed on the first day after the operation and replaced with a clean gauze and surgical bra. The swelling subsides within a few days. The patient is allowed to bathe on the first day if there are no drains. Otherwise should wait for them to be removed. If you strictly follow the post-procedural guidelines, your recovery will be smooth and free of complications. The scars are permanent and visible. However, they get whitish with time. 

Types of Breast Reduction

  • Which Breast Reduction is Right for You?

    Once the patient is declared suitable for breast reduction surgery, the surgeon will choose one of the several methods depending on your breast anatomy, desired outcomes, and extent of the enlargement. The chosen method must result in the lowest chance of serious complications such as wound dehiscence, overelevation of the nipple, flap necrosis, and ischemic loss of the nipple. Patients frequently inquire about how their surgery will be tailored to their needs. Let's start by explaining that:

  • Liposuction

    In this type, breasts are reduced by liposuction alone. Liposuction works by suctioning the fats from the breasts through small incisions using negative pressure. Liposuction is a minimally invasive procedure. The duration of this procedure is short and involves smaller incisions. It is ideal for candidates who want a moderate reduction and have skin elastic enough to snap back to its original position after the surgery.

  • Vertical (Lollipop)

    Patients with moderate enlargement are the ideal candidates for the Lollipop incision method. In this method, your surgeon removes excess tissues by making one incision around the circumference of your areola, and another incision running down from the areola to your inframammary fold. The surgeon removes the excess mass, reshapes the breast, and lifts it. Avoiding scars may not always be possible but they fade with time. 

  • Inverted T (Anchor)

    This type is breast reduction is best for patients with overly huge breasts as it involves a maximum degree of tissue removal and more incisions. The incision shape for this method looks like an anchor or an inverted T. In this type, your surgeon makes an incision around the areola. From the areola, the cut runs down to the inframammary fold and then along the fold.

    Scars left are similar to the lollipop incision, with one additional scar along the breast crease. However, with proper care, they fade significantly over time.

Breast Reduction

Why Breast Reduction?

Breast reduction, also called the reduction mammaplasty, is a surgical procedure to reduce the overall breast volume for many physical and psychological concerns. Patients frequently complain of chronic back pain, deep bra-strap indentations, headaches, or rashes beneath breasts. Chronic breast pain, upper extremity neuropathy, intertrigo (skin-to-skin friction), maceration, and other dermatological manifestations are commonly complained of. Huge breasts also affect daily activities and impact many forms of exercise and the ability to find properly fitting clothes. Additionally, hypermastia (excessively volumized breasts) has a significant psychological impact. Patients feel self-conscious about their breast size. Breast reduction can decrease these problems in many instances. Often, breast reduction is undergone to correct asymmetry resulting from unilateral hyperplasia or unilateral breast reconstruction. 

The most common outcome of breast reduction is the relief of discomfort or pain resulting from pendulous breasts. 

  • Reduces pain
  • Reduces skin irritation
  • Helps with shoulder grooves
  • Reduces nerve pain
  • Trouble fitting in bras/clothes

What Conditions Are a Breast Reduction a Solution to?

Out-of-proportion breasts may adversely affect your musculoskeletal system. Patients commonly complain of thoracic-lumbar pain, shoulder-arm pain, neck pain or arthritis, postural imperfections (kyphosis), and deep grooves over the shoulders from brassiere straps from endeavoring to hide large breasts. Moreover, a significant number of psychological problems related to body image arise due to volumized breasts. A successful procedure should fulfill the reconstructive goals of weight loss, attractive-appearing breasts, and minimal scarring. Finally, the procedure needs to reduce the breast successfully, so there is minimal risk of revision:

  • Macromastia

    Macromastia is a difficult health issue caused by an overgrowth of chest size. Treatment for this involves eliminating the excessive fat and glandular material from the breasts. But, there is disagreement in the published research about how much weight should be taken away from each breast, with numbers ranging from 0.8 to 2 kilograms.

  • Polycystic mastitis

    Polycystic mastitis is a condition in which the tissues in the breasts become inflamed due to the presence of multiple cysts. Depending on the location of the cysts, they can cause various symptoms, such as the asymmetry of the breasts or an increase in their volume. On examination, the cysts can be felt as well-circumscribed, soft, and tender masses. Generally, no separate treatment is required, and the cysts usually go away on their own. Nevertheless, breast reduction surgery may be considered as a last resort if the cyst is particularly painful or if it contains bloody fluid or any other worrisome signs.

  • Chronic nerve pain

    Many female patients opt for reduction mammaplasty due to neuropathic pain, which is caused by the compression of nerve fibers located in their breast tissue. Furthermore, overly large and pendulous breasts can lead to numbness in the arms and hands because they pull the torso and have an influence on the positioning of the spine. This slumped posture of the spine can cause compressed nerve pathways in the arms. Reduction mammoplasty may be beneficial in relieving both pain and numbness.

Steps to getting your procedure

Step 1

Research

Step 2

Matching with a doctor

Step 3

Getting financing

Step 4

Booking a consultation

Frequently Asked Questions

A. Since your breasts are partly made of fat tissues, besides giving symptomatic relief, reduction mammaplasty may result in enhanced functional status and weight loss due to the removal of fat tissues. However, there is little evidence for long-term patient satisfaction following breast reduction and the longevity of quality of life because weight gain may result again in enlarged breasts.

A. Complications are common after breast reduction surgery but are minor and don't require revisional surgeries. Common complications seen in the early post-procedural period are seroma (accumulation of fluid under the skin), hematoma (a pool of clotted blood in the body space caused by broken blood vessels during injury or surgery), cellulitis (a type of bacterial infection), delayed wound healing, infections, or minor wound dehiscence. Major complications are rare and may require surgical intervention. Major complications may involve nipple-areolar necrosis, flap necrosis, or major wound dehiscence. Downsides related to cosmetic appearance may include breast asymmetry, scarring, lack of proper shape, over-resection, under-resection, dog ears, or unsightly scars.

A. Many patients want breast size reduction but are unwilling to tolerate the invasiveness of traditional methods. Liposuction alone as a treatment of macromastia has been mentioned in the literature as the least invasive method to reduce breast size. The popularity of liposuction for breast reduction stems from its efficacy and utility. The technique involved in breast liposuction is the same as the standard liposuction. Liposuction complications are rare. It offers rapid recovery and the least invasive alternative to traditional breast reduction surgeries.

A. How many sizes your breasts mark down depends on factors like your breast anatomy, the volume of tissues removed, or the adopted incision method. After discussing the breast profile and desired outcomes in the pre-operative consultation, the surgeon educates the patients about the extent of size reduction and what they should expect realistically. Generally, you can expect to lose one or two cup sizes after a successful breast reduction surgery.

Cost of Procedure

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the average cost of the reduction mammaplasty is $5913. However, this is just a part of the actual cost. The total price is subject to many factors like operating room charges, preoperative and post-operative medications, anesthesia provider's fees, and related expenses. The cost of the procedure also depends on the surgeon's experience in the field and their office's location. In your preoperative consultation, you will be informed about the procedure's exact cost.

Why Yes Doctor for This Procedure

Yes Doctor offers a balanced, convenient, and adaptable payment method that allows practitioners to conform to a patient-focused system while still sustaining financial stability.

Yes Doctor provides customers with monetary solutions to help institutes create a dependable bond between patient and provider. Yes Doctor is a technology-driven, readily available platform that assists in bringing back patients into the payment process without risking their financial state.

With Interest as low as 0%, it makes it effortless to get the care when it is necessary.