To What Extent Can my Areolas be Reduced?

Yes, you may be a good candidate for areola reduction. Fortunately, this is a procedure that can often be done under local or general anesthesia.

You are wise to consider the scar that will result, around the  areola. The appearance of the scar may range from a fine line to a wide/thick/raise scar (that may require scar revision surgery).

You should also consider  other unfavorable sequelae resulting from this procedure. This may include asymmetric areola, loss or change of sensation, wound healing problems (possibly suture related), recurrence of the “spreading of the areola”, hypo or hyperpigmentation around the incision line, and potential changing/flattening of the breasts' profiles.

The “maximum” reduction possible will need to be determined on physical examination. Too much of a reduction will result in tension upon the closure line and potential problems afterwards.

 

Please make sure you're working with a well experienced/board-certified plastic surgeon.

Best wishes.

You can definitely have surgery to reduce the diameter of the areola.  The main risks are the aesthetic ones: how much improvement will you get, will the areola stretch out again, and how bad will the scars be.

The obvious solution is the circumareolar mastopexy, often called the donut mastopexy.  The main problem with this procedure is that it can be difficult to keep the areola from stretching out again, and it does not provide as much improvement in the extra skin of the breast as the more extensive mastopexies.  However, it does allow less extensive scars, and is less likely to disrupt the breast tissue and breast feeding in the future.

For a circumareolar mastopexy, your surgeon will usually place a special permanent suture around the areola to reduce the chance of it stretching out again, but that does not always work, and if it breaks at some point in the future (usually on one side), one of the areolae could wind up being a lot bigger than the other.