Women with hypertrophic breasts often suffer from the weight of their breasts on a daily basis. Overly large breasts are a problem when it comes to finding adapted clothes, especially bras, sleeping and exercising, not to mention back, shoulder and neck pain. Women with hypertrophic breasts can undergo breast reduction surgery to decrease their breast size, which alleviates back pain and makes their figure more balanced. This procedure can also correct breast asymmetries if needed.

What happens during breast reduction surgery ?

The procedure is performed with the patient under general anaesthesia. It is 1 to 2 hours long and require an overnight stay under medical observation. During the operation, the surgeon reshapes the breasts by removing excess fat, glandular tissue (from the mammary gland) and skin. In certain cases, the areola has to be repositioned higher on the breasts to be centred again. In hypertrophic breasts, the areola is often oversized, which requires more or less reduction depending on the case.

Breast reduction does not include significant postoperative pain and movements are not altered. It can be combined with a complementary treatment such as a tummy tuck or a liposuction, which has the benefit of only going through one anaesthesia and one recovery for multiple procedures (blood tests are necessary to confirm if multiple procedures can be done).

What does the scar look like ?

There are 3 types of breast reduction scars resulting from the incisions :

  • A round scar around the whole areola
  • A round scar and an added vertical scar going from the areola to the inframammary fold
  • An inverted T shaped scar (a combination of the two previous scars with an additional scar along the inframammary fold)

Scars fade over time, they become thinner and whiter (in most cases) until they become almost invisible. Surgeons determine which incision to perform depending on several factors.

Following surgery, patients have to wait for wound healing to be complete. The definitive result can be seen 3 months after surgery.