Wimminfolk- have any of you had a breast lift?

I haven’t had a breast lift, but I have had more plastic surgery than the average, ordinary bear and I will tell you this: It hurts way more and takes way longer to heal than they tell you. I have had great results with everything I had done, but you can end up with some pretty knarly scars. I know women that have had body work done, the recovery is pretty easy, it still takes a pretty long time, and they are really glad they had it done.

No but I would consider it in the future.

I had a breast reduction was out for six weeks, no joke.

The thing I was going to look into (depending on price and how much I can get from insurance) is a tummy tuck.

Nah, I just work out more and build up that muscle under the breast, it works.

I haven’t had one, but know many many people who have. The first 24 hours after the procedure if you augment are very painful. You must have someone wait on you hand and foot the first 24 hours. For another 4 days you will be very sore, not able to lift much of anything. I don’t remember for how long in total you need to be careful about what you lift. Most people I know who were augmented are happy with the results, although I hear the stats for something going wrong are higher than most people think. I would look into those stats. Not only unhappy with how the breasts turned out, but also medical complications.

One friend of mine her breasts are very uneven after augmentation. We are all a little uneven naturally, her doctor gave her a few more cc’s in one breast to even her out, but it was too much and now she is quite uneven, with the other breast being the larger one. However, most of my friends the augmentation was beautiful. Some of them balanced their figure, having had larger hips, or just very very flat chests. I know people who did it because they had children and afterwards deflated, some were getting into their 50’s and began to sag, and some were teens and 20’s and just wanted bigger boobs.

Consistently, out of all the people I know who have had it done, the worst mistake is going too big. Also, if you are extremely thin, the breasts will look fake.

Fantastic tags! Haha

@KNOWITALL You haven’t seen mine. :D Nothing will work on my boobies, except surgery.

@AshLeigh Teehee!

@WillWorkForChocolate If it makes you feel good about yourself and you have the money, do what you gotta do sister!

It sure helped my sister-in-law with her career as a personal trainer, but she’s got a big dent between her breasts that’s pretty ugly, and they’re a little too big for her skinny frame.

Fluther didn’t even allow tatas for some reason, but boobies was ok. LOL.

@KNOWITALL I know exactly that dent you are talking about. Extremely low fat percentage (low body fat) doesn’t look good with fake ones.

A good friend had her breasts reduced several years and is thrilled. The weight was making her back hurt and causing her bra straps to dig deeply into the tops of her shoulders. She said that she felt top-heavy.

I had a lumpectomy in 1996: that breast is a little smaller and much perkier than the unmolested one. I am thrilled to have them both attached to me; no matter how they hang.

The surgeon had to cut where he had to cut, but the scar is small and really unimportant.

@JLeslie Yeah, not planning on getting a humongoloid boob job, just want them plumped back up to a natural look. I’m a D cup right now. With the lift and possible augmentation, I’d like to stay a large C or small D. I used to be a nice perky C before pregnancy and nursing, blew up to a FF, then deflated to a DD then down to a D after losing weight.

I pretty much just want them as close to what they were before babies as possible.

it’s tough to turn the clock back.

Have you all heard the latest news bulletin about Angelina Jolie’s recent prophelactic double mastectomy? http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/health/angelina-jolies-disclosure-highlights-a-breast-cancer-dilemma.html?_r=0

@WillWorkForChocolate I completely understand. I am one of those scaredy cat of surgery type people, but aside from my fears about surgery, if I was very deflated I would probably consider it. My tatas are one of my better physical features. Having said that, I worked in the bra industry and saw many many breasts. Most women lose some fullness. Are they so deflated they don’t even look good in a bra?

@JLeslie I’m one of those scaredy cats, too, so I try everything I can to help myself naturally. I’d almost rather have the double masectomy at some point than worrying about looks, cancer, etc…

@KNOWITALL I’m afraid of the surgery, so double mastectomy is out for me unless I have the cancer gene. I have no reason to think I have it. No female cancers in my family.

I wonder, if someone did have the Angelina Jolie surgery, if average health insurance would pay for it? Or would they rather have to pay for cancer treatment and possibly, a dead patient? Insurance companies are not always logical.

Regarding breast reduction, I heard someone point out once that when women get breast reduction surgery, they often then appear to have huge stomachs because when the breasts are big, they tend to hide the stomach. When the breasts are reduced, now you have underneath that a more obvious stomach.

@JLeslie They look okay in a bra, especially one of my lovely push-ups, but I feel ugly and incredibly self-conscious when I’m naked. It’s taking a toll on our sex life.

@WillWorkForChocolate Go to a doctor and find out about the surgery. You can see before and after. They can give you false cookies to put in your bra to decide how much you want them built up. Or, maybe they don’t bother when it is a deflated situation and not going ip from your original cup size. I’m not sure about that. My girlfriend picked from photos of several breasts to show her doctor the type of breast she liked, position of the nipple, things like that. The doctor provided her with the photos. Interestingly, she liked very different looking breasts than I did.

FYI: Breast reduction is a much longer and more difficult recorvery than augmentation. I only mention it because people have mentioned reduction on the thread.

@jca there is some sort of happy medium that is best. Big breasts can mean women need to buy larger blouses and their thin waste line can get lost. A friend of mine has very large breasts and she is short waisted, and can look like a box in the wrong clothing. Hers a real by the way. Not that it matters.

I know two women who got reductions and both were not happy with how much the surgeon removed, too much. They both were a little heavy though, and kind of lost their hour glass-ness. I agreed that I think the doctor took too much in both cases.

Breasts too big can make someone look heavy. Breasts too small and any weight on your gut means the woman loses her “womanly figure.” Which can look boxy or volkswagen. Just use some horrible terms that are out there to describe us poor women who are supposed to fit into some sort of ideal. My husband actually uses the term piñata to describe that box look. Horrible. He calls men volkswagens. LOL. Really bad.

Most insurance companies and Medicare will cover prophelyactic mastectomies when the proper criteria are met.

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=medicare+coverage++prophylactic+mastectomies&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

That said, you need read the fine print always.

This is also true for reconstructive surgery after a mastectomy.

@gailcalled I wonder if the insurance companies are paying for the genetic testing? Back in the day I know the BRCA gene testing was very expensive. The company had a patent on the test and happily charged women a fortune because they could, because they had exclusivity to the test. Possibly the patent has expired and costs have come down. Maybe there is even more testing done now? I am not up to date on the testing or research.

@gailcalled: Yes, but will they pay for a voluntary mastectomy? That’s the real question. Then that requires the plastic surgery to reconstruct. If this is all optional, will they pay?

@JLeslie You think this would be too much? Only kidding!

Oh Lord. I get so upset when I see women like that. There is a woman in my gym who has huge bugungas. For sure fake. I just look at her and think when she was 18 she did that to herself probably, and now she is 50, years of sun left her skin leathery and wrinkled (I have a lot of wrinkles for my age ugh) and her hair is overbleached blond. Oy. When you live in FL you see eveything.

If I were to do this, I’d go for a natural looking, round shaped breast, similar to what I used to have. I don’t want people to see me in public and think, “Wow, those are some fake tatas!” I only mention augmentation, because I haven’t gotten a doctor’s opinion on what my breasts would look like with the lift alone. It’s possible that I’d be very happy with just a lift and a reduction in areola size.

@jca: To have a prophylactic or preventative mastectomy, there are clear and complicated medical guidelines for making the decision. “Optional” and “voluntary” are terms too loose to apply to the geneticl testing, family history, counseling and decision-making process involved.

Here

Here’s info from aetna

Google your insurance company for specific details on its coverage.

Most seem to offer the same criteria as does Medicare. If you qualify for the surgery, then you also qualify for the reconstruction.

“Most insurance companies do have criteria under which they will consider a prophylactic mastectomy medically necessary—as a reminder, if they pay for your mastectomy they must also cover a reconstructive procedure of your choice. There are always exceptions to this rule, as outlined in WHCRA 1998, but this law does protect the majority of women insured in the United States.” From The Reconstruction Network

@JLeslie Mine are that deflated.

I was an “A” cup before I had my son. 20 months of breastfeeding at a full C, then it was like popping a balloon. All this skin and no breast tissue. They kind of look like sad puppy ears with stretch marks. Not – at all – what I’d like to have.

That said, my biggest problem is finding a bra that works. A balconet works the best, but it’s not a guarantee I won’t just spill out, or have to adjust it 5000 times a day.

I really couldn’t care less how they look without clothing on. I had a battle to have my son, and I won. These are my war wounds.

That said, if I could magically * poof * them into looking like “normal” breasts, I would. I just don’t want surgery.

@Seek_Kolinahr Adust how? Adjust how your boobs are stuffed in there? Or, adjust the back and strap and the wire is sliding up onto your breasts?

All of the above.

I get professionally fitted about twice a year. Still haven’t met a bra I like.

You aren’t wearing the right size around your back. You need a smaller size. Are you already in a 32? It can be difficult to find 30’s but they do exist. Also, the less expensive bras stretch out fast. You might be good for a few months, but over time they don’t fit anymore.

Yeah… No. Again, I do professional fittings at least a couple of times a year. A bra might, MIGHT, look good and feel comfortable for a few minutes – literally minutes, but it never lasts.

Bras aren’t made for women with post-baby meatbags hanging off their chests. That’s one secret Victoria isn’t giving away.

The thing is the wire is not supposed to rub on the breast. It shouldn’t matter if you are totally flat the band around your back should stay in place if it fits correctly. If it is tight enough. Your breasts have nothing to do with the band size, they only have something to do with the cups. Was your yeah, no, you are in a 32? If they measure you and the smallest they have is a 32 and you really need a 30, they may not tell you.

I had a great doctor. Results were fantastic. I did it in 2004 and you have to be looking for them to see the scars. You could see them for the first two years but the results were still way better than the ones I had to roll up to fit in my bra.
Recovery for the boobs was a piece of cake. The tummy tuck took weeks to recover but still worth it.

Choosing the right doctor is important. I asked everyone I knew who worked in the medical industry who they would go to if they were going to get it done. To my surprise many HAD had the surgery and were willing to show me. I went with the doctor that two people had gone to and who I never would have guessed had had surgery because they looked so natural.

@Judi You bring up a great point that once you start asking, then you start to find out who has already done it. I wonder if @WillWorkForChocolate has talked to friends about it, or even lives in a community where people talk about it when they get it done. In FL when a friend or someone on my staff had it done we all knew. We checked them out when they came back to work, it was all very open. My neighbor told me she had hers done, I didn’t know by just looking at her, but one day she was talking about losing weight after her pregnancy and that led to talks about her breasts deflating and become very uneven, etc, etc. it was all very normal in FL.

As opposed to another friend of mine had breast augmentation surgery when she was a teen. She was sure to do it in the winter so she could wear sweaters and hoped no one would notice. She told me, I knew her from growing up in MD, and would see her when she came up to see her father. She lived in a small conservative southern town with her mom and step dad when she had it done and never would have told anyone.