Does a breast lift always result in dramatically smaller breasts?

A breast lift alone should not alter breast size. The skin removed from a breast during a breast lift has very little mass.

Perhaps you had a breast reduction, a lift combined with a reduction in the size of the breast.

It is also possible that the size was not actually reduced, but the lift caused the breast shape to change and for you to feel more comfortable in a different size bra.

The simple answer to you question is that all breast lifts do not require a reduction in the size of the breast. But it sounds like you may have had some miscommunication with your surgeon.

Part of the process for getting good surgical results with this procedure is not only matching the breast lift to the patient's body proportions but also to listen to the patient and get a real sense of what they are looking for. Some women are very clear that they do not want to change the size of their breasts, simply the shape, while other wants both improvement in shape as well as reduction in size. This communication throughout your consultation is key to getting the results you desire.

When women typically come in looking for a breast lift, they are usually only concerned with the position of their breasts outside of a bra. They typically do not have much in the way of problems related to overtly large breasts such as back pain, extremity numbness, open sores, etc. Most women with 36G cup breasts probably have some type of symptomatology. For the woman without symptoms, a lift usually requires little in the way of extra tissue removal.

Hopefully, you and your surgeon outlined what the postoperative goals would be for your procedure. Here in the United States, if a woman has very large breasts and is symptomatic from them, she can elect to have a breast reduction performed which is breast lift plus extra tissue reduction. Most women have these procedures paid through their medical insurance. Most medical insurance companies dictate that a minimum amount of tissue has to be removed for them to cover the costs of the surgery and pay the surgeon. This is explained to the patient ahead of time.

It is sad to say, but breast reduction surgery is a common source of litigation in plastic surgery. This usually has to do with unexpected scarring issues, shape change issues, and wound healing problems.

Hopefully you had some medical problems related to your large breasts and that they have improved with the reduction and lift of your breasts. Doctor-Patient communication is very important, and if focused on during consultation visits, can avoid many later problems.

It sounds like there may have been a communication gap between you and your surgeon, since you are clearly surprised by your results.  There are a few possibilities to consider.

Basically, when you lift a breast, you do have to remove at least some loose skin to tighten the new breast.  If you had a lot of loose skin before your surgery, that skin fills your bra just as breast tissue fills a bra. So now that the skin is gone, you fit into a smaller bra.  Just ask your surgeon how much tissue he/she removed from each breast and ask whether it was mostly skin.

It's also possible that your insurance company dictated a minimum amount of tissue to be removed, assuming your procedure was covered by insurance. 

Further, many women don't wear the correct bra size at all.  Were you sized for your postoperative bra in the same store that did your preoperative sizing?  Also, bras in different brand and styles can vary widely in size and shape--you may wear a D in one brand/style and a C in another brand/style, for instance.  Are the bra brands and sizes you are wearing now the same as your preoperative ones?

It's probably hard for you to see any positives in this situation right now, but consider whether you like the shape of your breasts now.  Consider whether you got the lift you wanted.  

Hope this helps.

It sounds as though you had a communication gap with your doctor. A G cup patient would, in almost any surgeon's eye, need a "breast reduction" to improve symptoms and make the breasts a better size match for the rest of your body. A reduction essentially always includes a lift.

A lift alone, however, doesn't require your breasts to become much smaller if all of your breast tissue is preserved and just the skin envelope is reshaped and reduced.

On the other hand, if you just lift a patient with huge breasts and don't reduce them some, gravity will take over again and you will need the surgery repeated.