Breast Reduction After Weight Loss is an important procedure for women with large, pendulous breasts. Obesity is a common cause of large breasts, but it can also be present in women who are not overweight. It’s important to remember that weight gain alone does not necessarily increase breast size; if you gain inches around your waistline, chances are you will have larger breasts.
In this guide, we review the aspects of Breast Reduction After Weight Loss, common problems after breast reduction surgery, will i look fat after breast reduction, and breast reduction weight requirements for insurance.
Breast Reduction After Weight Loss
If you’ve lost a significant amount of weight, you may be dealing with an issue that can affect a lot of women—change in breast size. Whether your B-cups became C’s after losing 100 pounds or your DD’s shrank down to B’s at 150 pounds lighter, breast size changes are common when you lose weight and can be difficult. Your best bet is to talk with a board-certified plastic surgeon about how best to proceed after losing weight so that you’re as comfortable as possible during recovery and beyond.
#Breast Reduction After Weight Loss
Breast reduction can be a great option for women who are looking to improve the appearance of their breasts. While weight loss alone does not cause breast size changes, it may help you decide whether or not this is the right procedure for you. In some cases, women with smaller breasts before surgery will see an increase in size due to scarring from surgical removal of excess fat and skin during their recovery period.
Pros:
- You’ll have more confidence when you look in the mirror
- You’ll feel sexier wearing clothes that show off your new body shape and size
Carefully measure your chest.
Measure your chest carefully. Don’t just guess. You can use a tape measure, or even a cloth measuring tape that you tie around your chest at the fullest point. Then, measure around the widest part of your chest (i.e., not where you tie it).
Consider a sentence reduction instead of a breast reduction.
- Consider a sentence reduction instead of a breast reduction.
- Think about getting a breast lift instead of or in addition to a breast reduction.
- Consider augmenting your breasts at the same time as you are reducing them.
Spend time deciding what you want.
It’s important to spend time deciding what you want, so make sure to talk with your surgeon about your options. Once you have decided that breast reduction is the right procedure for you, it’s still a good idea to take the time to make sure that everything is set up properly and there are no surprises along the way.
Talk with your plastic surgeon about having the procedure after weight loss.
- Talk with your plastic surgeon about having the procedure after weight loss. As you will read below, there are some specific things that you should do before and during your weight-loss journey, but don’t rush into having a breast reduction until you’ve made it through that phase. After all, you want to be happy and confident in your body before deciding on this major change.
- Wait until you are at a healthy weight. In general (though this varies from person to person), doctors recommend waiting until an adult woman reaches her healthy weight range before considering breast reduction surgery. The same goes for men who have gynecomastia—the excess fat around their chest can lead to sagging breasts, but only when doctors are certain there isn’t any excess tissue present under those folds of fat!
- Wait until postmenopausal women reach their stable weights before moving forward with the procedure; older women may still need some time to adjust their lifestyles as they age physically and mentally too (and especially if they suffer from memory loss). Women who have had children may need even longer than others because pregnancy has left its mark on them physically; nothing will be more frustrating than paying thousands of dollars only to find out later that it wasn’t worth it because one’s expectations were unrealistic!
Don’t get too overwhelmed by breast size changes when you lose weight
Weight loss can cause breast tissue to shrink, so you may find that your breasts don’t fit the same way they did before. That’s why it’s important to be realistic about what you can expect when you lose weight. For example, if you’re a woman who wears D-cup bras and weighs 200 pounds, then losing 100 pounds might not make your breasts any smaller. Similarly, if you’re a woman who wears A-cup bras and weighs 150 pounds, then losing 50 pounds probably won’t make your breasts any bigger.
This is where breast reduction surgery comes into play: If losing weight doesn’t alleviate the problem on its own or if it causes other issues (like back pain), then this procedure could help improve how well your clothes fit by reducing their size dramatically without making them too small for comfort. However, just because this type of operation exists doesn’t mean everyone should get one right away—you still need to weigh all options carefully before making such an irreversible decision!
common problems after breast reduction surgery
With 17-year-old “Modern Family” star Ariel Winter about to walk the Emmy red carpet for her first major public appearance since reducing her breast size in June, the media are abuzz with stories about such surgery: celebrities who’ve done it, teens who are doing it and the number of women “coming out” to say how the operation changed their lives.
Indeed, many plastic surgeons refer to breast reduction as a “happy surgery.” Studies rank the operation as having one of the highest patient satisfaction rates among plastic surgery procedures. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, more than 114,000 women underwent the procedure in 2014 — a 183% increase since 1997. Women report alleviation of neck and back pain, relief from constant skin irritation, improved ability to exercise and enhanced body image.
————For the RecordSept. 17, 2:50 p.m.: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Ariel Winter’s first post-surgery public appearance would be at the Emmys on Sunday.————
But something is missing from the glossy photos and glowing reviews, says one Los Angeles County resident. “I was shocked to read that Ariel Winter was up and running within five days, trying on dresses a week after her surgery,” says the woman, who also underwent breast reduction surgery in June, decreasing her bra size from a 36HH to a 36D. She asked that her name not be used to protect her privacy.
The experience she describes is different from the one Winter talks of in an interview with Glamour.com last month about her surgery and why she chose it. “Five days after my operation,” says the L.A. County woman, “I was heavily bandaged with drainage tubes. I have yet to go shopping for clothes and won’t until I’m completely healed. I’m still wearing the medical bra 24/7.”
Nearly three months post-surgery, her condition is not the norm — she contracted a bacterial infection, and, in her early 40s, she is decades older than the starlet. Even so, she says the media are doing the average woman a disservice by not painting a fuller picture of the recovery and possible complications.
“Yes, I’m glad I did it — and, yes, it has changed my appearance and is going to make my life better,” she says. “But what I wasn’t expecting was for my recovery to be so protracted and for it to be so painful. This wasn’t highlighted in the media.”
For those considering breast reduction, here is a glimpse into the process:
Dr. Michele Shermak, a surgeon at the Plastic Surgery Center of Maryland, compares breast reduction to fitting a pie into a smaller plate. “With breast reduction, we’re removing breast tissue, and we have to reshape the breast. It’s like shaping the pieces of a pie. We have to compress the pie down to a smaller area.”
Surgical techniques differ in where tissue is removed, where it is left behind and the incision pattern in the overlying skin. While it’s common to leave most of the tissue in the lower part of the breast, Dr. Kelly Killeen, a surgeon at Cassileth Plastic Surgery in Beverly Hills, says she tends to leave more in the middle to upper part of the breast, “because it gives ladies a more natural-looking cleavage and shape.”
The two main incision patterns are the “anchor shape” and the “lollipop.” The anchor pattern is the standard technique, where an incision is made around the areola, down the midline and across the bottom of the breast. With the lollipop pattern, an incision is made only around the areola and straight down the midline of the breast, without the third horizontal incision.
“For a very large breast reduction, over 500 or 600 grams, the [anchor shape] is best; a lollipop is best for a smaller breast reduction, between 300 and 500 grams,” says Dr. David Kulber, director of the Plastic Surgery Center of Excellence at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. “It’s definitely case by case. It depends on scarring versus shape.”
The cost of breast reduction varies widely depending on geographic location and complexity of the procedure. According to the plastic surgery society, the average physician fees for the procedure were $5,521 in 2014 — but this doesn’t include fees from medical facilities, anesthesiologists or laboratories. The total cost for a breast reduction through Cassileth Plastic Surgery in Beverly Hills can range from $9,500 to more than $20,000.
Depending on a patient’s insurance plan, breast reduction may be a covered benefit if a patient can document a medical need. “Patients have to demonstrate that their breasts are large in proportion to their frame and that they have needed medical care because of the size of their breasts — for neck or back pain, rashes under breasts, chronic headaches or difficulty with physical activity,” says Killeen.
With any surgery, there is inherent risk to going under anesthesia, though the risk is low. Risks of the actual procedure include decreased sensation or loss of sensation in the nipple, infection, poor wound healing, asymmetry and the death of fat tissue in the breast. A scary, but very rare, complication is death of the skin on the nipple, which results in subsequent removal of the nipple.
“Most complications that happen with breast reduction are minor things, not major complications that land you in a hospital,” says Killeen.
Studies looking at breast reduction complications report widely differing rates, ranging from 14% to 52%. “It’s hard to understand what the complication rate is because it’s so variable,” Kulber says. “There is a big difference between a 300-gram reduction versus a 1,300-gram reduction. With bigger reductions, the surgery is more involved. With a smaller reduction, between 300 and 500 grams, the complication rate is less than 5%.”
Kulber adds that many women with large breasts are overweight, so they will also have a higher rate of diabetes and heart disease, which increases the risk of complication.
Shermak was the lead author of a study that reported a trend of higher infection rate and poor wound healing for women who underwent the procedure in their 40s and 50s. Women over age 50 had a significantly higher rate of post-operative complications. While women on hormone replacement therapy fared better, those who’d had a hysterectomy fared worse, suggesting that declining estrogen levels might play a role in poorer healing.
For younger women, one of the main concerns is post-operative difficulty in breast-feeding, though experts disagree on how real the concern is. Some studies have indicated a lower rate of breast-feeding success after reduction surgery, while others have indicated that the success rate is similar to that of women in the general population.
Even with her rocky recovery, the L.A. County woman says she would do the surgery again — which is typical of most patients, says Killeen, adding that breast reduction surgery is one of her favorite operations to perform. “I get to do this procedure that makes people feel better. But the wonderful icing on the cake is that they end up with beautiful, perkier, more youthful-looking breasts in better proportion to their body.”
What is the right age for breast reduction surgery?
In looking at potential complications, one might think there is an ideal window of opportunity — after childbearing, to eliminate worries about breast-feeding complications, but before the hormonal decline of menopause. Yet experts say it doesn’t happen that way.
“Women truly get it done at all ages; you don’t have to choose a time,” says Dr. Michele Shermak, a plastic surgeon in Maryland. A 2011 study she led indicated that women in their 40s and 50s had a higher rate of infection and poor wound healing after the procedure, but she emphasizes that higher complication rates in middle-age women reflect mere nuisances, rather than health-threatening emergencies.
Beverly Hills surgeon Dr. Kelly Killeen agrees, saying there is not a cut-off age. Instead, women should ask themselves whether they are healthy candidates. “If a 60-year-old woman is healthy as a horse, her heart looks beautiful on her annual exams and her labs are perfect — why not? Why would you deny her the benefits of breast reduction if she is a good candidate for surgery?” Killeen says.
On the other end of the spectrum are young women like “Modern Family” star Ariel Winter, large-breasted teens who experience medical symptoms and low self-confidence . Though there have been recent claims that an increasing number of teens are undergoing the surgery, data show otherwise. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, fewer teens had the surgery in 2014 than in 2005 and, over the last decade, the percentage of breast reduction patients 18 and under has remained steady.
Beyond potential breast-feeding difficulties, surgeons have additional concerns for teenagers considering the procedure. Shermak has operated on 16-year-olds, though she says it’s important to determine whether they are emotionally mature enough to make informed medical decisions.
“Not every teenage girl is ready for it,” she says. “They have to be educated; it’s not like a magic wand. They are going to have scars, they are going to have a recovery. This is not magic — it’s a process, and there are some long-term changes.”
will i look fat after breast reduction
Do you love your body, but wish you had smaller, more proportionate breasts? Breast reductions are very popular among our plastic surgery patients, providing a go-to solution for minimizing discomfort caused by large breasts. Let’s take a look at what a breast reduction can (and can’t) accomplish, plus surgical and nonsurgical procedures to help you get rid of that stubborn belly fat for full body contouring.
Can a Breast Reduction Help You Lose Weight?
A breast reduction can boost your confidence and enhance the way you look, offering numerous benefits such as:
In addition to these benefits, many of our breast reduction patients find that it’s much easier to exercise. That alone promotes weight loss after a breast reduction procedure. Any woman with large breasts can tell you how prohibitive they can be when you try to work out, which is why it’s easy to understand how a breast reduction could make a difference. Along with easier exercise, you might also notice your breasts are lighter and more symmetrical, allowing for improved posture and reduced discomfort.
4 Procedures For Body Contouring After Breast Reduction
While a breast reduction can improve your overall shape, a body contouring procedure may also be beneficial and help enhance your aesthetic results. It’s important to remember that body contouring procedures are not weight loss treatments, but they can help support your efforts by making exercise even more comfortable and addressing concerns such as excess, sagging skin and separated muscles due to pregnancy.
Both surgical and nonsurgical procedures can target unwanted belly fat after a breast reduction, or even at the same time, such as:
A tummy tuck, or abdominoplasty, is a highly coveted procedure for those seeking a smoother, more toned abdomen. Tummy tuck patients typically pursue the procedure to address loose, sagging skin and muscle weakness resulting from weight changes, pregnancy, or the natural effects of aging. Just like no two patients have the same body type, there are different tummy tuck techniques to address different areas of concern.
For example, the “fleur-de-lis” technique is most effective for those seeking body contouring after massive weight loss, whereas a conventional tummy tuck is most beneficial for Mommy Makeover patients. If you’re interested in having a tummy tuck along with your breast reduction, one of our board-certified plastic surgeons can recommend the best technique for you during your consultation.
Liposuction
Liponique, our signature approach to liposuction, allows you to customize your procedure to target specific areas with unwanted fat that don’t seem to respond to diet and exercise. During a Liponique procedure, our breast and body specialists combine different liposuction and body sculpting technologies, such as the latest laser devices, to achieve the optimal results for your body.
A tummy tuck is ideal for patients looking to remove excess fat and excess skin from the midsection. It’s also the go-to option for patients who need their muscles tightened after they’ve become stretched or separated during pregnancy or weight changes. On the other hand, liposuction is great for targeting small fat deposits in different areas such as the stomach, hips, and thighs. Some of our patients even combine a tummy tuck with Liponique to address multiple areas at once for full body contouring.
CoolSculpting ELITE
CoolSculpting ELITE is the new and improved version of CoolSculpting, a noninvasive treatment designed to get rid of pockets of stubborn, unwanted fat on several areas of the face and body, without the need for surgery or downtime. Once CoolSculpting ELITE destroys fat cells, they are gone for good, making it a highly effective option for nonsurgical fat reduction.
In fact, CoolSculpting ELITE achieves up to 25 percent fat reduction in treated areas, including:
Some patients choose CoolSculpting ELITE to enhance results following a tummy tuck, while others use it as a stand-alone fat reduction treatment. Either (or both) can be combined with your breast reduction procedure to achieve your desired results. It all comes down to your body and your goals for your appearance!
SculpSure
Like CoolSculpting ELITE, SculpSure™ is a nonsurgical treatment designed to reduce unwanted fat using state-of-the-art laser technology. While CoolSculpting ELITE uses the science behind cryolipolysis or “fat freezing,” SculpSure uses heat to gradually reduce up to 25 percent of fat in treated areas over time. At our practice, we offer both CoolSculpting ELITE and SculpSure nonsurgical body contouring options, so you can learn more about both treatments and discuss with our specialists in consultation which might be right for you.
How Do I Choose the Right Procedure For Me?
One of our board-certified plastic surgeons, who specialize in breast and body contouring procedures, can help you determine whether a tummy tuck, liposuction, or nonsurgical fat reduction treatment is the best fit for you. Our breast and body specialists can also make a recommendation based on the amount of belly fat you have, any specific concerns such as muscle tightening after pregnancy, and your personal preferences on:
Many of our patients opt to combine or follow up weight loss and fat reduction procedures with a breast reduction to enhance their results. Combining procedures to target different areas is a great way to achieve full body contouring. For example, you might also wish to combine an arm lift (brachioplasty) with your breast reduction and fat reduction procedures, to sculpt your upper arms at the same time.
Some of our breast reduction patients also seek out CoolTone, a nonsurgical muscle toning treatment that uses magnetic muscle stimulation to add definition to the abdomen after fat reduction and improve athletic performance. CoolTone firms, tones, and strengthens muscles to accelerate exercise and training results for peak performance, and it can help maintain muscles you’ve built and toned in the gym.
Full Body Contouring, Custom-Tailored To Meet Your Goals
As you can see, there are numerous options available to help enhance your breast reduction results by contouring other areas of your body. With the right customized approach, you can enjoy the perfect breast size and shape for your body and get rid of unwanted fat for a smooth, sculpted appearance from head to toe.
Curious about full body contouring during or after a breast reduction procedure? Schedule your consultation to meet with one of our board-certified plastic surgeons, who specialize in body contouring and fat reduction.
breast reduction weight requirements for insurance
I recently saw a female college student as a new patient consultation in my office concerning possible breast reduction surgery. This procedure, also known as reduction mammaplasty, is indicated for the treatment of symptomatic macromastia (large breasts). The commonly reported symptoms related to macromastia are neck, shoulder and back pain caused by the weight of overly large breasts upon the musculoskeletal system. Other secondary symptoms can include breast pain and dermatitis or rashes beneath the breasts.
The college student was referred to me by her gynecologist and arrived with a prescription recommending a consultation with a plastic surgeon due to her condition. The patient was under the common impression that because she was referred to me by another physician, that the suggested surgery would automatically be covered by her health insurance plan. She came in hoping that the breast reduction surgery could be scheduled in four weeks, during her winter break from college.
After completing a patient history and regional breast examination, my staff discussed with her what would be needed to obtain insurance authorization for her surgery.
As it turned out, this patient had no other medical treatment or previous consultations concerning her macromastia. She also had no history of being referred for physical therapy, chiropractic treatment, an orthopedic consultation or a dermatology exam. For many procedures, this lack of treatment history might not be an issue. But for breast reduction, which can be considered cosmetic or reconstructive, depending on the patient – and the insurance company reviewer – the lack of history for this patient would prove problematic.
Unfortunately, the patient had not completed all of the regimens that her insurance required for the reduction procedure to be covered in her case. She will be able to reapply for reduction mammoplasty coverage after the requirements have been completed, but, unfortunately, there is still no guarantee that her insurance will cover the procedure. Naturally, as a college student, she was not in the position to consider paying out-of-pocket for the procedure and was not happy to discover the insurance hurdles she would need to go through for potential coverage.
This story is just an example of why it’s so important for patients to do their homework regarding their insurance coverage for any surgical procedure before seeing a surgeon. The answer to “is breast reduction surgery covered by health insurance?” can be very complicated and involve many variables.
Breast reduction and health insurance
It is universally believed by patients that if a surgery is considered reconstructive, it is medically indicated and covered by health insurance. Conversely, many patients believe if a procedure is considered cosmetic, it is not a medically indicated and covered procedure.
In the case of breast reduction, however, for insurance purposes, it will typically be considered a cosmetic procedure until the patient can prove an adequate number of health issues and attempted remediations of those issues prior to undergoing corrective surgery. Once the threshold has been reached, the insurance company may then consider breast reduction a reconstructive procedure for that patient and cover it. The problem is that the threshold can be different for every insurance company or insurance company reviewer. It is my opinion that breast reduction surgery has long been thought of as a “hybrid” procedure. It is considered reconstructive in attempts to obtain insurance coverage for the surgery, but it is also considered cosmetic in that patients expect meticulous aesthetic expertise in their surgery and results.
In our practice, it has become increasingly difficult to obtain insurance coverage for breast reduction surgery. Insurance companies frequently require 2-3 documented reports from other referred specialists before they’ll consider covering it. Also, the insurance companies commonly request 6-12 months of documentation and treatment by either a physical therapist, chiropractor, dermatologist or orthopedist.
What does this mean for a patient who needs the procedure due to chronic health problems caused by macromastia? Keep yourself updated on policies during this process, as the insurance company’s criteria are this year might not be the same next year.
If you feel that you are a candidate for breast reduction surgery and are requesting coverage under your health insurance, it is important that you contact your health insurance carrier and have them forward to you in writing their criteria for coverage. Every insurance company has different, independent criteria and indications. While your neighbor down the street may qualify for the procedure via one insurance carrier with a seemingly less severe situation, you may not be given the same answer by yours. On average, it takes between 3-6 months of preparation, including secondary consultations with other healthcare providers and possible therapy (physical therapy or chiropractics) to qualify for insurance coverage for breast reduction.
How do you handle this? Notify your primary care physician as soon as possible concerning any symptoms which may be related to your macromastia. It is never too early to start the process. Please contact your plastic surgeon’s office with any questions you might have that relate to breast reduction surgery and coverage through your health insurance and they can try to help guide you through the process, so that you can obtain the care you need.