Breast Reduction Surgery

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Okay, I'm 18 and I have 36 DDD boobs. I've had huge boobs forever, but I figured as I lost weight they'd get smaller, which they have, but not by much. Because of yo-yoing with my weight they are saggy. They are disproportionately big, make it hard to work out, buy clothes and even lay on my back. Last time I went to the doctor he and my mom began to discuss a possible reduction survey after I lose another 10 lbs or so...
I don't know how I feel about it. Part of me would LOVE to have small, perky boobs and I know they would make my life easier.
But I'm also scared about scaring and them looking unnatural. Or, if I gain weight, again, (say pregnancy-way down the road) will they get weird?
If anyone has had the surgery and is comfortable sharing their story it would be much appreciated! :smile:

Replies

  • kylielouttit
    kylielouttit Posts: 512 Member
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    Hey there!
    Do the surgery, you wont regret it! I had one D and one DD and I was only 5"4. They were huge on me and not so perkey. I had the surgery in October of 2005 and I am so glad that I did. Two kids later, they still look great! I did have porn-star boobs right after the surgery, they were crazy perky but after about 6 months they fell into a more natural position and stayed there. As for scaring, you would never know I had it done, it's barely visible. I was wearing a La Senza bra after a week since the surgical bra was rubbing the stitches. As for pain, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and the bruising wasn't as gory as I expected eiher.

    If you have any questions, add me and I will be happy to answer them for you!
  • sbarham
    sbarham Posts: 44 Member
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    Mine have always been really big also, right now a 40 DDD. When I'm closer to my goal weight, they're around a 36 DD. While I haven't thought about a reduction surgery, mine too are TERRIBLE because of the weight loss and gain throughout the years. I'm actually saving for a mastopexy, which is just a breast lift where they remove the extra skin (it has to make them a little smaller, right?) and totally reshape the breast. It's my reward for hitting my goal weight. Some women get a reduction done if it's causing major back problems. Whatever you do, make sure you thoroughly research a surgeon first and learn all you can about high quality standards within the plactic surgery field. Good luck to you!!!!
  • MikeRay
    MikeRay Posts: 47
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    My wife was pretty much in the same boat as you are. She had the surgery about three years ago, and still has no feeling in one nipple. The scars are noticable, but not to bad. The look like a anchor. After she got pregancy we thought that they would go back down, but stayed the same as they were before the surgery. She is now a 38DD.

    She also said that she would do it all over again just because the strain it was putting on her back. I hope this helps
  • tn2010
    tn2010 Posts: 228 Member
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    Breast Reduction Surgery is my reward for reaching my goal weight. I went to a plastic surgeon when I was your age and was mortified! I have one breast that is over a cup size larger than the other and all I wanted to do was make them the same size through reduction. By the end of the consult I had sharpie all over my breasts and he wanted to cut into both of them. No thanks. I also opted to wait until after I had children as the ability to breast feed can be hindered by reduction surgery. I've had 2 kids, I'll be 35 next year, and I'm now ready to do it. But, this time, I'm finding a surgeon that will listen to what I want.
  • nahhan12
    nahhan12 Posts: 79
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    I used to hate my breasts and always wanted a reduction. As a teenager I was about a 36DDD and only 160 pounds. Prom was a nightmare, bra shopping made me cry every time. The only thing holding me back from seriously considering a reduction was that I feel very strongly about breast feeding when I have kids and didn't want that to be affected.

    I'm 24 now and I've actually come to like my breasts for how they are and wouldn't consider a reduction at this point. I'm 20 pounds lighter and have since gone down to a 32DD (bra shopping is still a nightmare), so perhaps that's made a difference. However, I think it really just takes time to become comfortable and secure with our bodies.

    If you have any reserves about getting the surgery, it won't hurt to wait a few years and see how you feel when you're a little older. My suggestion would be to reach your ultimate goal weight first so there won't be anymore changes in your breasts and you'll have a better idea of just how much skin/tissue should be taken out.
  • BethPitorak
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    I wish my doctor would have reduced my breasts. When I was 19 and about 190 pounds - the plastic surgeon I saw would not reduce them - my boobs "did not qualify" haha. For my insurance to cover it - both had to be at least 500 grams or more - one boob qualified- and the other didn't - just shy by about 5 grams. So basically my insurance would cover 1 boob and I had to pay for the second boob out of pocket! Weird huh? Anyway - I would definetely recommend the surgery. Since gaining weight - my cup size has continued to increase. I'm hoping that once I lose some weight - I am going to try again. I know how it feels to lug them around. Mine are insanely big!
  • Laceylala
    Laceylala Posts: 3,094 Member
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    I had BR surgery when I was 22 or 23. I am 33 now. I used to tense up my shoulders trying to hold my boobs up. After the surgery I had to consciously teach myself to relax my shoulders so my back wouldn't hurt any more. They were like a 36 DD or E depending on the bra, didn't matter if weighed around 180 or 140. I had super droopy breasts, they looked like grandma boobs, and had huge areolas.

    The plastic surgeon was kindof a douche and I was young enough to be intimidated so I didn't feel comfortable nor did I ask the questions I wanted to have answered. Big mistake. The surgery wasn't painful at all and neither was the recovery, although I did have a bad reaction to the antinausea pill in the recovery room and threw up (ha!). The scaring is pretty big though and I often wonder if I was butchered. By the time all was said and done, all the steri strips were off, etc. I had one uneven areola that has some pretty decent scaring on it because the incision got infected under the strips and it took a while to heal. Plus I swear the surgeon cut it crooked.

    Still after all of that I don't regret it one single bit. And now ten years later, one child with some weight gain, if I get down to where I want to be, I will have another reduction. I had a friend recently do the surgery and there have been improvements in the ten years by leaps and bounds with scaring, etc.

    Here is my advice to you about the surgery:
    1. If you don't feel comfortable asking the surgeon questions you need answered then you know right there you aren't ready.
    2. If you live in a small town with limited amounts of surgeons and you look through their books at before and after pics and don't like what you see, do NOT settle. Find a doctor in another town near by or in a city that you like the look of their work and feel comfortable with.
    3. Don't let your mom decide this for you. This is your body for the long haul and even though physically it might be better for you, if you aren't ready you could regret it. There is always time for this.


    I hope what I wrote doesn't frighten you from considering the surgery. Like I said I would do it again tomorrow. Good luck!
  • Laceylala
    Laceylala Posts: 3,094 Member
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    Oh and I weighed like 170 when I had the surgery. I weighed 197 when I got prego with my daughter 8 years later and weighed 221 when I started losing weight in January. My boobs have never looked unnatural, just scared. So don't worry about that. There shouldn't be any puckering or anything like you sometimes see with breast enlargement.
  • candican
    candican Posts: 96
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    Unless they are causing you a lot of pain, I would recommend against it until you've reached your goal weight. Also, you are young. What is the rush? At my lowest weight, on a petite skinny frame, mine were DDs. They didn't bother me. I just knew I couldn't wear certain things....Now they're like JJ or bigger. I stopped checking. I hate them now. They are out of control. However, for me, it makes no sense to get a breast reduction or shaping until I've slimmed down considerably. I don't have any pain from them however, so that's the perspective I'm coming from. I also learned something very interesting. Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. I've always envied women with perky breasts. I've never had them. I had to wear a bra at the age of 10. So I've been to those plastic surgery sites which shows the before and afters. I picked out a whole bunch of pictures of women with a similar body frame to mine and showed my husband. "What do you think? I can't wait to get that surgery at some point!" He was not impressed at all. In almost all the pictures, he liked the before pictures (basically, the ones that looked like mine!). I was like, how could you possibly like that? His answer was that that's how it's supposed to look! If you have bigger breasts, they're not going to be are perky unless you have a surgery, which to him looks less natural. If after getting to my goal weight, and after having kids, my breasts are totally deflated and hanging, I will consider it. I recommend to give it time.
  • Cytherea
    Cytherea Posts: 515 Member
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    One of my neighbors had a breast reduction because her breasts were causing her back problems. After her surgery, she lost a lot of weight... including weight from her breasts. Once she got down to her goal weight, she barely had anything left. Talk about awkward! She went from having huge breasts all her life to next to nothing!

    Eventually, if you keep losing weight, you WILL lose from your breasts. If you are trying to lose weight, wait until you are at your goal and have maintained it to reconsider the surgery. Maybe you'll be fine and won't need it! Doing it now and then losing more weight and ended up with no breasts is not going to be what you want, either. And you are still pretty young, so you should consider that you have plenty of time to make that decision, and lose weight, and you should consider how it might affect your future (as some people mentioned, breastfeeding), and the scars that will be with you the rest of your life.

    I know how hard it is to do the things you mentioned; I have problems with all of that too. It isn't fun and it isn't pleasant, but as others have said, if it isn't causing you immediate physical harm/pain/danger... wait it out!
  • candican
    candican Posts: 96
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    And you are still pretty young, so you should consider that you have plenty of time to make that decision, and lose weight, and you should consider how it might affect your future (as some people mentioned, breastfeeding), and the scars that will be with you the rest of your life.

    I totally agree. You have a lot of time. Ideally, you should be at your ideal weight. At your ideal weight, they may not even be a problem at all. Some people need knee surgeries just because of the weight they are carrying around. If they lost all the weight, they wouldn't have the same problems. Pain is no joke though. If you don't have pain, please do wait! Your perspective may change as you get older.
  • ThaiKaren
    ThaiKaren Posts: 341 Member
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    My daughter had really big breasts and she had the reduction about 4 years ago, in a UK military hospital as she is in the Army, unfortunately eveything that could go wrong did. She ended up having a 3 month stay in hospital, extensive skin graphs and nearly dying.
    She is fine now but has a lot of scarring which has improved with time. She has just had a baby girl and of course at some point she will have implants because the skin grafts stretched during pregnancy.
    She was 25 when she had her op and had always hated her massive boobs and how uncomfortable they were, and men not looking at her, only them. The Dr's could come up with no reason why this all happened except for she had a unrinary tract infection when she was serving in Afghanistan and maybe she should have waited for the op. The surgeon said he had only seen something like it in txt books and they took lots of pictures for medical books.
    But then again my daughter in laws Mum had it done and everything went OK. I think you must really weigh up the pros and cons.
    By the way I've just spoken to my daughter on the telephone and she said that she never regrets having it done and thinks she was just unlucky, plus it gave her a new outlook on life.
    I hope I have'nt put you off, but just giving you my experience. If you do decide to go ahead with the op make sure that you are as fit and healthy as you can possibily be. All the best xx
  • kerrymh
    kerrymh Posts: 912 Member
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    I've always wanted a reduction..I was probably in the wrong size when I was @ my heaviest in a 48 DDD (probably should have been a 48HH). And one is about atleast a cup size larger than the other. I'm currently in a 38/40 DDD or H. Depending on the company after 127lbs lost. So they have gone down..but saggier and saggier. I still have about 100lbs to go...I can only imagine the end result. So Definitely a reducton or at minimum a lift will be in my future..I already have scars on the darned things haha..I atleast want them to look good in clothing, give my shoulders and back a break and beable to wear strapless styles.
  • mhannan13
    mhannan13 Posts: 53
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    Thanks everyone for your advice and stories. I'm down to 167 lbs and would ideally like to be 140 or 150. I will definitely wait until I am fully happy with the rest of my body. I plan on having a lift, at the least. I'm 18 and my breasts are saggy and deflated looking and the skin puckers and wrinkles because of my weight loss. Without some kind of treatment, I can only imagine how they'll look in 20 years!
    Breast feeding is a concern of mine, even if I'm young, I already know I would like to breast feed my potential children. HAHA I feel like a crazy person, but anyways.
    My mom had huge boobs before she had a double mastectomy (she had breast cancer twice) and I've inherited her large chest, only worse because she is more of a pear shape and I'm definitely an upside down triangle. They do cause me back pain and hurt when I run, which really sucks, because I'm an athletic person. I also think they make me look a lot heavier than I really am. I wear about a size 8 jeans, but a size XL top, that usually hangs off my shoulders, doesn't touch my stomach and pulls across my breasts. Also, with such a high risk of breast cancer in my family I feel like having smaller breasts would allow me to maintain healthier tissue and better notice any changes.
    Your stories have helped me so much! Thank you, thank you. I'm going to wait until I loose the rest of my weight, maintain it for a bit and then maybe get a year older or so. I've always found curvy bodies sexier and would hate to end up flat chested by my own doing! Thanks again for all your stories and for being so candid :bigsmile:
  • Cytherea
    Cytherea Posts: 515 Member
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    Thanks everyone for your advice and stories. I'm down to 167 lbs and would ideally like to be 140 or 150. I will definitely wait until I am fully happy with the rest of my body. I plan on having a lift, at the least. I'm 18 and my breasts are saggy and deflated looking and the skin puckers and wrinkles because of my weight loss. Without some kind of treatment, I can only imagine how they'll look in 20 years!
    Breast feeding is a concern of mine, even if I'm young, I already know I would like to breast feed my potential children. HAHA I feel like a crazy person, but anyways.
    My mom had huge boobs before she had a double mastectomy (she had breast cancer twice) and I've inherited her large chest, only worse because she is more of a pear shape and I'm definitely an upside down triangle. They do cause me back pain and hurt when I run, which really sucks, because I'm an athletic person. I also think they make me look a lot heavier than I really am. I wear about a size 8 jeans, but a size XL top, that usually hangs off my shoulders, doesn't touch my stomach and pulls across my breasts. Also, with such a high risk of breast cancer in my family I feel like having smaller breasts would allow me to maintain healthier tissue and better notice any changes.
    Your stories have helped me so much! Thank you, thank you. I'm going to wait until I loose the rest of my weight, maintain it for a bit and then maybe get a year older or so. I've always found curvy bodies sexier and would hate to end up flat chested by my own doing! Thanks again for all your stories and for being so candid :bigsmile:

    I think you've made the right decision. Good for you! You definitely do not want to be saggy and have pain, but you can make that decision once you get where you want to be- and you're well on your way. And we'll all just keep our fingers crossed for you that they go down enough on their own so you won't need the reduction after all! ;)
  • Mila_MM
    Mila_MM Posts: 6
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    I had one when I was 18 and it was one of the best choices i have ever made! That was about 10 years ago, and surgery has improved so much with technology since then. My surgery was 5 hours long, but I still started college less than a week later. My scars are almost invisible, but they were noticeable for a few years. I didn't lose sensitivity either.

    I agree with waiting to reach your goal weight, because if your weight is considered healthy there is a good chance that your insurance will cover a good part of the procedure! Just make sure the surgeon you choose is willing to submit a claim for you, because a lot of cosmetic surgeons could care less, and to me that says a lot about the after care you will receive.

    Also, reductions make it easier to detect breast cancer! And the relief for your shoulders and back is amazing... :wink:

    I've never once regretted the surgery, f you have any more questions feel free to ask!