Breast Reduction. Anyone had one?

[BrightSparkles]

A few questions... I'm seriously considering getting it done.
For as long as I can remember I have been a 14/16 DD or E. I'm completely utterly over it. I constantly have aching neck/shoulders and headaches. I have always said after I finish having kids and breast feeding I want to have a reduction done. I have also always been really self concious of them. Lets face it cleavage is nice but I'm over such a massive one. I always feel like people are looking.

Have you had one done? Roughly how much am I looking at paying?Did it make you feel better? Any other information you can give me would be helpful.
TIA x

[lindsaymaree]

My MIL had one and she LOVED it! Said it gave her heaps more confindence.

From someone just observing it looked like she lost 10kg, massive change in appearence!

[kass]

A friend of mine had one and also loves it. I think medicare paid a substantial part of it as it was for health reasons like you've described - have you looked into this?

[Kazbah]

I have

Was an F, now a D. Lost 1.2kg in one afternoon

First day after, even with the post-surgery stuff, I woke up without back pain the next morning.

I went privately, and was about $4g out of pocket. Worth every cent. Of course, I'd gone past a point in my life where I gave up on ever meeting Mr Right and having a kid or 2. So whether that's affected my b/f failure, I don't know.

Surgery was an afternoon, I stayed in hospital overnight, possibly 2 nights and went home. Scarring not too bad, I had the surgery about 5 years ago now and it has really faded. The surgery itself removed tissue from the lower half of my boobs, and then lipo around my back. The lipo is what hurt the most in the recovery. The scarring is around the lower part of my breast, where the bra would sit, plus a straight line up to the nipple and around the nipple itself.

Ummm what do you want to know?

[Roryrory]

My um had one a few months ago after losing 50kg - she looks and feels great! Her tummy removal is next

[~breeze~]

Yep, I had one in 2003 I was about 12F & was supposed to go down to a C cup but the Dr screwed up & left me a full D cup. Dont get me wrong, it was ALOT better than what I was before... the back ache vanished & I felt a hell of alot more confidence walking around not having people "talk" to my boobs all the time IYKWIM.
Due to depression (including depression about not getting the boob size I paid for) I have put on about 20kg & most of it has gone straight to my boobs, I'm now a 14E again

I did mine privately & it cost approx $3000. Nobody told me I could claim anything from medicare & my health fund due to me having it for medical reasons so I was totally out of pocket.

I desperately want another one. I will ask for a size smaller than what I want next time (if I ever get a next time) because unfortunately I dont trust that they will remove enough tissue to get them the right size.

I stayed a night or 2 in hospital but I also had an allergic reaction to the morphine they gave me so I was very sick.

Scarring is fine. As another poster wrote it goes around the bottom of the breast & a line up the middle to your nipple, then all the way around your nipple (they remove your nipple & stitch it back on in the right spot). So I had mine about 7yrs ago now & my scars are hardly noticable.

I highly recommend it, not only for the health reasons but you will feel a million dollars with all that weight in your boobs gone

[cindyb]

My mum had one about years ago and managed to get it paid for on medicare - she did have to go on the waiting list for it though - but all her back pain gone and she has felt fantastic ever since - from memory she wasnt able to drive for a couple weeks and she had an infection in one of her nipples but she was really pleased with the results and her scars are very minimal.

[The[cookie]Doctor]

Ahh I have my own thread for this question

Hi, my name is DC and I am an 18J-K. I suffer from super back pain, excessive under breast itching, shoulder strap marking, difficulty sleeping, difficulty in buying clothers, pain from exercise, the humility that comes with it... the list goes on. I had been a 12DD-E the 5 years prior to my pregnancy (no cups to DD's at 15.. awesome) and I hated them and wanted a reduction even then!

I have seen two reconstructive surgeons. First one told me I was a perfect canditate for the public system and although I was happy to pay out of pocket -he had a kind heart and said he would not consent to operating on me without private health insurance. In the event something goes wrong it was too much to pay out of pocket for a long time in a private hospital.

The next guy I saw said flat out - you won't get in to have it done here (Canberra) as they have too many cancer surgeries and do not like their statistics to look bad so very rarely take on breast reductions. He said if I wanted a chance at any hospital up there giving me a fair go, I would need to see a chiropractor to have scans etc done and also look at a psychological evaluation to see how much it was affecting me. I was knocked off the Canberra waiting list after three months - 'elective' surgery has no place in the public system - DESPITE the fact I was originally referred by my GP and another surgeon who said it would be classed as medical. My hope bombed!

We're now in Melbourne again and I can't fathom another $180 out of my pocket just to sit 5 years on a waiting list. Im not in a position to get PHI right now either so I guess I am at stalemate.

I know the cost now, is around $10,000 with most places, including over night and two days of drainage tubes at home. You will get a portion of this back from medicare, and a portion if you have PHI. The surgeons I saw in Canberra said these days it is about 5-6k out of pocket.

Anyway, I desperately want it done and that is my most recent research/experience to do with it. Good luck!

[deletedit]

I'd love one of those too ... but not a reduction per se, more a lift. I get mammoth when I'm breastfeeding so when I'm done I fit into a D or DD cup but ... I have far too much skin for what's inside. I've got smaller after each breastfeeding for some reason so it'll probably be worse again this time. I reckon if they took away just skin and perked it all up I'd be a C. I haven't been a C cup since I was 14, I can't imagine how nice it would be to be able to buy clothes and bras without having to think about my boobs before anything else. That alone would be well worth $5000 and would pay itself back pretty fast in being able to buy cheaper bras and just any old clothes.

I'd imagine you'd have to be stable weight and not be breastfeeding for quite a while before you can even think about looking into one of these?

[AnyDream]

An extra question for those who've had this done - how did it affect nipple/breast sensation?

[Raupe]

That's my problem exactly. I'm a 18 H (doesn't really fit me either, but I'm too scared to find out just how big they really are ) I REALLY want a reduction, too, but I am planning on having children in the next couple of years. So maybe it would be better to wait until after I finished breatfeeding... but then HOW do you breastfeed when your bb's are soooooo huge? I'm scared I'll squish the poor bubba when I'm feeding it! And how do you manage to feed when your nipples are facing south? Do you manually lift them up to feed??
I would need at least three hands!! One to hold bubba, one to lift boob up and one to attach baby...

[nickle730]

I have had it done... twice! Will BBL to post, no time now...

[~breeze~]

An extra question for those who've had this done - how did it affect nipple/breast sensation?

My sensation is still the same.. I've always had sensitive nipples.

I was unable to BF my DD (approx 2 yrs post op) but the milk came out of my nipples after having DS (I was unable to BF due to not being able to get him to attatch) so anyone yet to have kids still have a chance of being able to BF

[Doodlebug]

I would love, love, love to get this done!

I'm currently breastfeeding my 8wk old ds2 and am wearing a 14G maternity bra, unfortunately I still get bra marks on my boobs.

I would love to be a C cup, I think that would just be ideal. Not to have to choose clothes based on what fits over your boobs, be able to run or do an aerobics class without the tightest bra I can find plus a tight exercize top underneath a baggy t-shirt to hide the 'bounce'.

Dh and I have talked about it, possibly in 2yrs time out of our tax refund if I can manage to save the family tax money throughout the year....

Raupe - Yes, I have to lift my boob then hold it in place so ds can attach and suck properly. I also have a fabulous b/f pillow which helps.

[Raupe]

Sharon - so it is all possible! That's good to know. I thought I'd have to ask dp to help "hold" it whilst feeding! Not that he would mind!

[Smoke Jaguar]

My mum had it done well after her childbearing days and it was none too soon. I also know someone who had it done before kids and breastfed her first one without knowing it wasn't supposed to work! When her second came along she had a bit more trouble and was told then that it wasn't supposed to work the first time. She's BFing her third baby part time, cos he was a hungry little tacker who required more than her few functioning ducts could manage, and it was the first time she could notice the surgery having an impact.
There are conversations you can have with the surgeon about needing to BF, it's just that a lot of the time BF doesn't even rate for the young women who are desperate to get it done (reflects our society, cos these women, in hindsight, would have taken more care in their decisions) and it's not entirely the surgeon's fault that provision for BFing wasn't made.
The super important thing to remember is that you MUST go to a plastic surgeon, not a cosmetic surgeon. A plastic surgeon is a proper doctor and a cosmetic surgeon could be anyone, a GP who did a brief course even. There are nightmare stories from women who didn't know there was a difference

[nickle730]

I had my first reduction at 17 - I was wearing a G cup bra and that was too small. The surgeon suggested that a B cup would suit my frame but I opted for a C cup as I figured I was used to having large breasts (I started wearing a bra at 11) and I figured that a B would feel too small. I had 800 grams removed from one breast and 1kg from the other (one breast is usually denser than the other). I was warned by the surgeon that I would probably have difficulty BF, although he also stated that women with excessively large breasts also often have difficulty (don't know if this is true?). The surgery itself took almost 7 hours and the recovery was painful. I was in hospital for 3 days... I will NEVER forget the removal of the drainage tubes. Having the dressings removed a week or so after surgery was so painful I fainted. I had pain for approx 6 weeks and felt I couldn't raise my arms properly (above shoulder height) for a couple of months.

My GP referred us to the surgeon. The GP admitted to being unsure who to refer us to and he consulted with the other doctors in the practice. We had a consultation with two surgeons, one was a cosmetic surgeon and one was a plastic surgeon. Someone advised us that a plastic surgeon is more qualified than a cosmetic surgeon (as Mayaness has stated) and so we went with the plastic surgeon. We asked around and he was well respected, had swish offices on Collins St in Melbourne and showed us photographs of his work. What we didn't know was that this surgeon specialised in reconstructive surgery. I ended up with C cup breasts... which had been butchered! My nipples/areolas were asymetrical in size and position (oooh.... VERY uneven), the sutures were large and the result was wide scarring. He had put me back together, but with very little consideration for appearance. I was very unhappy with the result, but I also thought that this must have been the best result that could be achieved with my breasts. My parents lived overseas and so my mother really had little idea of the healed results for quite a long time, by which stage it seemed too late to complain. What's more, I didn't want this surgeon touching me again with a scalpel. When I was 23 I saw a different surgeon who performed revision surgery at no cost. He reduced my breasts again by a cup size or so (they grew a little after the first surgery) and cut out all the old scarring and resutured. He also repositioned my areola and attempted to trim them to matching size (only so much tissue to work with!). The end result, whilst not perfect, is certainly more aesthetically pleasing than originally. Interestingly, the second surgeon stated that most of my ducts appeared intact and he supposed I would have a reasonable chance of breast feeding. I guess this is not surprising given that a reconstructive surgeon is concerned with function more than appearance. Recovery from the second surgery was much easier and less painful... but it still hurt!!

My nipple sensation is OK. I do think I have lost some sensation, but I can certainly feel them being touched and can derive pleasure from them. I do have some numb areas on the area of my breasts nearest my armpits, it feels like your foot does when you've been sitting on it and it goes to sleep - I know it's being touched, I just don't really feel it. It is not a pleasant sensation and I don't like this area of my breast being touched. My scars have faded well, although the initial surgeon incised to far up my breast from underneath and so if I show cleavage the scar at either end of the incision is visible. Initially this scar was 'dog-eared' or raised at where the sutures were tied off, but this was repaired in my second surgery. I'm now told that no one would notice the scar in my cleavage and quite frankly, I don't care if they do! I dress to please myself and I've certainly never had anyone comment on the scarring.

I didn't really attempt to feed my first child as I was advised by numerous MW's 'not to bother'. I did feed my second child until he was 3 months old and I comp FF fed him from about 2 weeks when my supply could not keep up. I am pregnant again and will try again to BF, with the aim of supplying as much breast milk as I am able to. Interestingly, this pg is the first in which I have experienced any 'boob symptoms' - hopefully this bodes well for a better supply, as many women post surgery do find that they have more success and a better supply for each subsequent baby... but that's a whole other thread!!

Now, having had children, I have asked myself whether I would advise my 17 year old self to have a breast reduction or to wait. I'm now 33 and still having babies. Would I like to be able to BF without comping? Absolutely! But I don't honestly believe that I could have carried those huge breasts around for another 16 plus years without repercussions, particularly for my back and neck. What would my self esteem be like if I had spent the last 16 years being desperately unhappy with my body? Mayaness, you say that it is a reflection on our society that young girls are desperate for this surgery and don't place a great deal of emphasis on the effect it will have on their ability to BF. I can assure you that the decision to go ahead and have this surgery was never taken lightly, and I would be very surprised if anyone underwent a surgery such as a breast reduction without a great deal of consideration. I did consider the implication of surgery and the possibility that it might mean that I couldn't BF my future children. My mother and I discussed it at length. Did I care at 17? Well, yes, I did. But I had to make the decision that was best for me at the time, not based on some possible future scenario. And ultimately, I did make the best decision I could make at the time. To have regrets would be pointless. To state that young girls would take 'more care in their decisions' is belittling and condescending, and to be honest, I am offended - I assure you that my 17 year old self (and my mother) took plenty of care in our decisions.

My advice to my 17 year old self? Research your surgeon... check, check and check again!!!

I know my story is not all sunshine and light, but I want to provide honest information to anyone considering breast reduction surgery! I'm happy to answer any or all questions that I can... :-)

[Smoke Jaguar]

Mayaness, you say that it is a reflection on our society that young girls are desperate for this surgery and don't place a great deal of emphasis on the effect it will have on their ability to BF

Nah, not quite what I was driving at. Among other things, I am also saying that women and girls need to push for techniques that optimise any chance of being able to BF, rather than it having to be about choosing between pain and breastfeeding your possible future children. It just doesn't rate enough as important in our society to make the extra push, or even for younger girls to realise just what their making a choice about to know it's not good enough to hope for the best and not expect better outcomes for back health AND breastfeeding.
Anyway, word of mouth is important, not how much you'll pay. My mum was quoted stacks more for a cosmetic surgeon she saw first before realising she could claim on Medicare with a plastic surgeon.