When seeking out surgical breast enhancement surgery, timing is everything. This is a partnered post to encourage you to learn about your options and the best time to have the procedure.
Women who consider any sort of cosmetic breast surgery — whether it be augmentation, lift, or reduction — have a lot of decisions to make. Perhaps the most notable of these is the decision of timing. When to have surgery can be just as important as the surgeon who performs it or the implants a patient chooses.
The breasts are especially susceptible to the changes of life; weight fluctuations, aging, pregnancy, and other factors can all change them significantly throughout a woman’s lifetime, making it difficult to determine the opportune time for cosmetic enhancement.
If you’re considering a surgery, here is a breakdown of the 3 most common forms of aesthetic breast enhancement to help you understand when the right time is for each.
Breast Augmentation
By far the most popular version of surgical breast enhancement, hundreds of thousands of women undergo breast augmentation in the United States each year. But there’s a common myth around the timing of breast augmentation that having the surgery before having kids can result in trouble breastfeeding and unsightly breasts later on.
Happily, this is a largely outdated notion. Today’s techniques often preserve a woman’s ability to breastfeed, and pregnancy and breastfeeding don’t always affect the look of augmented breasts.
The key to successful breastfeeding with implants lies with the incision. For the best results, surgeons recommend choosing an incision that doesn’t affect the nipple. According to the breast augmentation FAQs on the site of Austin plastic surgeon Dr. Mahlon Kerr, the inframammary incision, made along the crease where the bottom of the breast meets the chest, offers the best chances for future breastfeeding.
Patients who aren’t worried about breastfeeding down the line can choose an incision along the lower edge of the areola, called the periareolar incision, but it’s not as good of a choice for future mothers.
Breast augmentation is exceedingly popular with women in their late teens and early 20s, many of whom go on to successfully breastfeed later in life.
Breast Lift
Breast sagginess (technically called ptosis) isn’t a matter of if, but when. Although it’s completely normal, sagging can certainly be the source of feelings of self-consciousness for many women. Sagginess has many causes, including the size of a woman’s breasts, her age, her skin elasticity, and whether or not she’s been pregnant.
For these reasons, breast lift surgery is primarily performed on women older than 35 or so. Undergoing the surgery before the aging process has had the opportunity to occur or before pregnancy can lead to short-lived results, which may require revisionary surgery sooner rather than later in order to maintain results.
Breast Reduction
Many plastic surgeons report that the overwhelming refrain they hear from breast reduction patients is, “Why didn’t I do this sooner?” Extremely large, pendulous breasts can do more than make a woman feel unattractive.
They can actually cause physical pain, including chronic neck and back issues. An ideal time to have this procedure seems to be as soon as the breasts are done developing, as early as the teens for some.
Surgical reduction of the breasts is the only proven way to bring relief to these women. It is important to note that the ability to breastfeed is generally diminished after surgery. Just like with liposuction while breastfeeding.
Still, most younger women who choose breast reduction surgery feel that they’ve made the right decision. Even if it means formula-feeding later on. For these patients, surgery is much more than an issue of looks.
There’s now a less, non-invasive way to reduce breast size without surgery. Coolsculpting breasts can help reduce the fat cells but it won’t remove the breast tissue.
If you’re considering any of these breast procedures, an experienced plastic surgeon can help you prioritize your goals and determine the right time for you. You can use this surgeon finder tool to search for board-certified physicians in your area.