Breast Reduction

Most women who are bothered by their overabundant breast tissue are candidates for breast reduction surgery. Women who can trace physical and quality-of-life complaints to their breast size are especially good candidates for this procedure. If you are in generally good health, at a stable body weight, and do not smoke, breast reduction could be right for you.

While breast reduction may not be right for every woman with larger breasts, it is often deemed medically necessary and may even be covered by your health insurance. Women who suffer from chronic pain, skin irritation, shoulder grooves, and other related complaints should be evaluated by medical professionals to determine whether these may be caused by breast size or something else. If weight loss, physical therapy, and chiropractic treatments have proven unsuccessful in relieving your symptoms, breast reduction surgery can be considered medically necessary.

If your primary care physician or other physician has determined that your symptoms are related to oversized breasts, and you have tried other methods such as physical therapy or anti-inflammatory medication they can submit evidence to your insurance company to help you qualify for insurance coverage. Insurance companies will usually place stipulations on the coverage; for example, many companies require that a minimum amount of tissue must be removed in order to receive coverage.

It’s not uncommon for excessively large breasts to be due in part to being overweight. If this may be the case for you, efforts should be made to achieve and maintain a stable body weight not only to undergo breast reduction but for the sake of your health. However, if you are already at a stable and healthy body weight, weight loss may be unnecessary as well as ineffective in reducing your breast size. Numerous women have naturally large breasts at every body weight.

Breast reduction surgery will always leave scars. These scars will usually have either a lollipop shape (encircling the nipple-areolar complex and extending down to the breast crease) or an anchor shape (like a lollipop scar, but also with a scar underneath the breast along the crease). While the top priority is effectively reducing breast size according to your expectations, every effort is made to minimize the scars. Most of the time, scars initially appear dark or red but fade with the passage of time.