for a woman who is overweight...40+ pounds... is it a bad idea to get a breast reduction? will my weight cause them to enlargen again?
Having large, heavy, breasts that give you symptoms and being overweight are two completely separate problems.
Since your large breasts are troubling to you, you will probably benefit by breast reduction surgery. Your weight will not cause your breasts to get large again. If you do lose weight, your breasts will get a little smaller, but usually not much.
Breast reduction is a great surgery. Some of my happiest patients had breast reduction. As for when to have surgery (before or after weight loss) it is really up to you. In my view, once patients have breast reduction surgery, they are able to be more active and participate with their family and at work more effectively. Only if you gained even more weight would your weight cause your breast to enlarge. On the contrary, I think that you would actually loose more weight by having the breast reduction and then heading outside or to the gym or whatever you like to do.
If you are actively losing weight, then I would suggest holding off on the breast reduction until your wight loss is complete. The breasts will also deflate some with weight loss. However, many women find that their breasts are too large for them to be active, and sometimes breast reductions can help them get motivated and feel at ease to exercise and get into shape. It really is patient dependent.
Many patients who were considered clinically obese have come to me despondent, after being turned away by other surgeons who refused to perform breast reduction surgery on them until they lost the weight. I find taking that position ridiculous. Altough breasts are comprised partly of fat, even a drastic weight loss won't result in more than negligible shrinkage in that area (and even then, the breasts will still be saggy). Many doctors ignore a crucial dilemma: When your breasts are so large, exercise is a miserable, if not impossible option. How exactly are you supposed to drop pounds?
Being overweight doesn't exclude you frim having breast reduction surgery. In fact, it will motivate you to lose weight by improving your body image and freeing you to exercise with minimal bouncing and flopping.
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