Perhaps you have long surpassed the threshold of endurance.
Your breasts have become increasingly burdensome over time. Too heavy to carry around every day.
It could also be that pains in your back and spine have appeared, becoming more continuous and intense.
And in all likelihood, the bras worn for years to support such weight are now almost irreparably marking your shoulders, creating true grooves. Not to mention the inappropriate looks and comments, especially if you are still in your early youth. Perhaps an age still too early to have created an adequate protective shield.
In short, the physical and psychological discomfort could be so significant as to significantly affect your life, limiting it in various ways every day.
If all or a significant part of what has just been said is happening, then breast reduction – or breast reduction surgery – is the intervention capable of making a clear change in the quality of your life.
It involves removing the excess mammary gland and giving the remaining breast a new, more lifted shape, as a voluminous breast is generally lower due to its weight.
What to do before the visit for Breast Reduction
So, you have decided to undergo the procedure, or maybe you are still thinking about it but would like to clarify some points.
In both cases, it will be necessary to meet in a preliminary visit.
In this initial phase, I recommend doing a mental exercise and trying to quantify how much you would like to reduce your breasts. It is also helpful to do an online search, using keywords such as breast reduction surgery, to stimulate any questions and insights to discuss during the preliminary visit.
The first visit for Breast Reduction
Here you are in my studio
In this meeting, after examining you to determine the starting point, I will explain in detail how the breast reduction surgery will be performed and what the probable final result will be in terms of the shape and size of the new breast.
All this is aimed at directing your expectations in the right direction. It is important that you understand what can and cannot be achieved.
I will also want you to be clear about possible complications and how the postoperative course will be.
How to prepare for Breast Reduction Surgery
As preparation for the procedure, I recommend letting what was said during the visit settle, so as to stimulate subsequent questions that you can also ask me over the phone or during a second visit if you wish.
In the meantime, you will undergo routine preparatory tests (blood tests, electrocardiogram, ultrasound, or mammography).
On the day of the procedure, after handling some paperwork, it will be interesting for you to look at the marking of the breast. It will give you an even more precise idea of how much tissue will be removed.
Breast Reduction Surgery: the procedure
You already know that you will be in the operating room for 2-3 hours. Everything is done under general anesthesia or sedation with regional anesthesia.
I will remove the breast tissue according to the markings made immediately before the procedure. In the end, there will be inevitable scars around the areola, in the inframammary fold, and in the part of the breast below the areola. They may appear rather reddish in the initial months and then lighten in 10-12 months. I do not use drains.
The sutures for breast reduction are both absorbable and non-absorbable, therefore also to be removed. At the end of the procedure, dressing is applied, and compressive elastic bands are used.
I usually discharge you on the same day. However, overnight hospitalization is still possible if there are clinical indications.
Postoperative: comparing before and after Breast Reduction
Let me reassure you from the start.
Breast reduction surgery may be accompanied by moderate pain in the first 24-48 hours. However, it is easily controlled with common pain relievers.
After 48-72 hours, you will take your first shower. From then on, you will wear a non-rigid supportive bra daily for the first 2 months. Postoperative check-ups will be scheduled for 1, 2, 4 weeks; 3-6 months. More frequent if necessary.
It will be during these check-ups that you will have the pleasure of seeing how your breasts have changed, comparing before and after the breast reduction.
You will gradually resume normal, lighter daily activities in just 5-7 days.
As for sports, you can start with intensity only after 2-3 months. Although you can do something moderate and with limited effort on the lower part of the body (not running) after 4-5 weeks. I still recommend starting with walks from the first or second day.
