Breast Augmentation: Cost, Reviews, Photos

The shape of your breasts are very important in the overall appearance of your breasts after augmentation.

You have to balance all the risks involved, scarring and possible inability to breast feed, and decide what is the ideal choice for you.

From the photos you have provided the breast lift is very important to your final outcome. (Bahram Ghaderi, MD, Chicago Plastic Surgeon)

If you are planning to breast feed in the near future you may want to postpone your breast augmentation until after you have completed breast feeding your baby.

One reason for postponement is that your breast tissue may change during and after lactation.

From your photo you look like a great candidate for a lift and augmentation. (Christine Rodgers, MD, Denver Plastic Surgeon)

If both of your nipples are below the breast fold creases, you should strongly consider breast lifts to have better and more even breast shapes! Implant placement can be done at the same time or months later. If you are looking at having another child in the near future, you may compromise the surgical result performed before the pregnancy. It would be prudent to correct your breasts 3+ months after you have stopped nursing.You could revisit with your plastic surgeon when you feel ready for your surgery. (Douglas J. Raskin, MD, DMD, Colorado Springs Plastic Surgeon)

Breast lifts and breastfeeding

You definitely need a lift! Most women can breastfeed after a breast lift. While some of the milk ducts are cut or removed, many are still present. If you are considering pregnancy in the near future, you may want to consider waiting on your breast surgery so that you don’t need to worry about the inability to breastfeed. Implants alone would not give you a pretty or perky result. It is best to do the right procedure at the outset, rather than be unhappy with a costly compromise. (Holly Casey Wall, MD, FACS, Shreveport Plastic Surgeon)

Options for breast ptosis

Without a breast lift, the shape of your breasts will not improve. Without a breast lift, the ability to improve the symmetry between the two breasts is limited. If you just want bigger breasts that do not have better shape, then breast augmentation alone is an option. I doubt that is what you are looking for, however. Although a breast lift could affect your ability to breast feed in the future, the risk of having this problem is quite low. (William T. Stoeckel, MD, Raleigh-Durham Plastic Surgeon)

Needing a breast lift

Your photos certainly suggest the need for a full breast lift, not a minor one either.

Unless you create a great shape with the lift, augmentation will not look good, in fact, it will look worse than doing nothing at all. Remember three things please:

1. All a breast augmentation can do is to make you a bigger/fuller version of what you already are
2. Breast implants do NOT lift the breast up from a droopy position
3. Breast lifts do not necessarily prevent breast feedingMaybe wait until you’re done having kids then do it all. (Richard P. Rand, MD, FACS, )

Breast Enhancement Surgery

I would strongly advise you not to have implants placed alone. Firstly, congrats on losing the weight that is great but you will not have a good result without adjusting the shape of your breasts which requires a lift (Ryan Neinstein, MD, FRCSC, New York Plastic Surgeon)

First off, you don’t “need” any surgery. You’re breasts are the way they are supposed to be. What we do as cosmetic surgeons is provide procedures that will change the way your breasts look in ways that you will hopefully find pleasing. Augmentation will increase the size of your breasts with the least amount of scarring, but they will still be somewhat droopy. If you are fine with this, there is no reason you “have to” have a lift. A lift would help tighten the skin and shrink the size of you areola but will require more scarring. If this seems like a good tradeoff to you then a lift will be a good idea. You should seek out as many opinions as you need to feel comfortable from board certified plastic surgeons in your area before proceeding with a plan that makes sense to you. (Clark Schierle, MD, PhD, Chicago Plastic Surgeon)

I agree with your surgeon a breast augmentation with a breast lift is necessary. It does not appear that you would need a lift. Implants alone wouldn’t give you a very nice result. I recommend that you see a board certified plastic surgeon in consultation to get more specific answers to your questions which can best be addressed after a thorough history and examination is performed. (Antoine A. Hallak, MD, FACS, San Diego Plastic Surgeon)

You would benefit from a lift. If you want larger breasts, then an augmentation could be done at the same time. I wouldn’t recommend an augmentation alone without the lift based on your pictures. (Asif Pirani, MD, FRCS(C), Toronto Plastic Surgeon)

Options other than a breast lift

Based on your pictures you will require a breast lift procedure, with or without an implant to get the best result. The ability to breastfeed after this type of surgery could be affected. If this is of great concern to you, wait to have the surgery. (Gregory Pisarski, MD, FACS, Houston Plastic Surgeon)

Due to your droopy breasts a breast augmentation alone would result in unacceptable aesthetic results. You should have a lift and an augmentation if you desire to be larger in size, or just a lift is you happy with your size. (Ernesto Hayn, MD, West Palm Beach Plastic Surgeon)

Unfortunately, droopy breasts after weight loss almost always require a lift in order to achieve any reasonably anesthetic result. This is especially true in you. An augmentation without the lift will only make your cosmetic problem worse. If you are truly worried about not being able to breast feed, then I would do absolutely nothing until you have finished having children. At that time you can decide if your breast tissue is adequate when lifted or if you need to add an implant at the time of the lift. (Robert T. Buchanan, MD, Dallas)

Breast augmentation and breast lift will be the best combination for you. Since your breasts are fairly droopy I would advise against a breast augmentation alone as it may very well lead to money spent and an unhappy result

Without a full lifting operation an implant would ONLY give you larger hanging breasts! You really need to understand the risks/benefits of these operations. (Darryl J. Blinski, MD, Miami Plastic Surgeon)

As you can see from all the previouse comments, it is almost unanimous recommendation that you will combine a lift with augmentation. In my opinion, the key hole breasts lift technique is the best because it lifts the nipples and tightens the skin 3 dimensionally into an oval shape which is more attractive. As far as breastfeeding, you still will be able to do it, though you might need to supplement it with a bottle.

You might need to do it anyhow, because of your breast tissue loss after your previous child deliveries. Always, consult with board certified plastic surgeons and check their before and after pictures to make sure that you like the results. (Shlomo Widder, MD, McLean Plastic Surgeon)

breast surgery can affect your ability to breast feed but implants alone will not lift your breasts. You can always wait until you are done having children. (Steven Wallach, MD, Manhattan Plastic Surgeon)

What to do with Breast asymmetry and droop

You have 2 conditions:

• Breasts are not the same size
• Significant droop

The best answer for you will require taking care of both the droop and the different size. The droop will be taken care of with a lift. A lift can be done with minimal scarring – see the link belowThe size difference can be taken care of with implants. You have plenty of choices and should explore your options. (Ricardo L. Rodriguez, MD, Baltimore Plastic Surgeon)

Breast augmentation vs lift breast feeding

A breast augmentation without addressing the ptosis (droop) would not give you an acceptable cosmetic appearance. Perhaps, it would be best to complete your family before undergoing the needed procedures to ensure that there is no interference with your ability to breast feed. Pregnancy and breast feeding often change the appearance of the breasts and could potentially “undo” the benefits received with surgery. If breast feeding is an important issue and you do not want to risk having to have additional surgery, I would wait. (Janet Turkle, MD, Indianapolis Plastic Surgeon)

Alternatives to breast lift- want to avoid risks to breast feeding

If you get only implants, your results will not look optimal (to put it delicately), and this will put you in the position where you will be forced to get a lift just to be happy. Plus, you will likely at that point to have to wait months for the implants to settle so that the lift procedure can be done accurately – not good.

Given that breast feeding is a concern to you, and as a doctor, I recommend breast feeding as the best way to go for the baby, and since you are looking for alternatives, here is my recommendation. Delay any breast operation until after you have finished child rearing. Any breast operation can put breast feeding potential at risk.

Thia is the only logical option that meets your requirements. On the other hand, If you are unwilling to way for whatever reason, and are willing to accept the risk of loss of breast feeding ability (say around 15% or so), then I would agree that you need at least a lift to achieve symmetry, reduce areola size, to shape the breasts, and to return the nipples to a good position. The lift will tend to decrease size a bit, and over the long run, it may not be able to provide you with the upper pole fullness that you may desire, so you may want to think about an implant at the same time as a lift or at a later time.

As a woman of color, you must also consider that you are at risk for keloids, hypertrophic scars, and hyperpigmented scars. Check any other scars you may have.In the end, what it all comes down to is that you must choose what you want to achieve, what you want to sacrifice.

Just because there are risks involved doesn’t mean that you will have problems, and only you can decide for you what is worth it. I don’t see any other alternatives. As I mentioned above, since this is a choice, and not something that has to be done now, you can always do this later on when breast feeding doesn’t matter. (Scott E. Kasden, MD, Seattle Plastic Surgeon)