Am I Eligible for a Short Scar or Scarless Breast Reduction?

I am currently a 36G, 5 feet 6 inches and 130 pounds and 36 years old. My breasts have always been a tremendous weight that causes back pain, headaches and overall posture problems. I have breastfed three children and I'm left with heavy tissue and sagging breasts. I am wondering if you think I would be eligible for a short scar or scarless breast reduction and not in need of the full anchor scar? I've attached my photo for your review. Thank you so much in advance.

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age 35-44 headache 5 ft 4 in to 5 ft 7 in breast feeding 130-149 lbs back pain candidate posture scarless

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23 Doctor Answers | Asked by mishmosh in NJ

Doctor Answers (23)
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Not a chance

Short scar or no scar reductions are basically liposuction. You have Grade 3 ptosis and need a full standard mastopexy with an inverted T or lollypop scar. Anything else will not give you a good result.

Am I Eligible for a Short Scar or Scarless Breast Reduction?

I will echo the opinions expressed by my colleagues, Based on your photos, I do not believe that you are good candidate for a short scar breast reduction. Because of the ptosis exhibited in your photos, a significant reduction will require the use of an "anchor" type scar.

Vertical Breast Reduction vs Anchor Incision and Scars

All surgery prodeces scars. Plastic surgery is designed to have the scars defy detection as much as possible. We can get nice incioions and resultant scars which usually heal fine. In some patients thick scars can orrur. I do not know who told you there is a scarless breast reduction; there is no such thing. You may be able to have a vertical breats reduction? Then again you will also be told you may be best served with the anchos-Wise pattern. ... more

Breast lift

I give courses at national meetings on performing Vertical reductions. I like doing them on the right candidate. You may not be a good candidate because of the severe laxity of the tissues, but a full exam would be critical.

Steven Wallach, MD

12 reviews

Manhattan Plastic Surgeon

Am I eligible for a short scar or "scarless" breast reduction?

Overall I am a great fan of vertical reductions and mastopexys in the lejuer fashion. You are unfortunately the very case where you require a traditional inverted T reduction. In order to place the nipple areola in the proper position, it will need to be raised 4.0cm – 5.0cm at the very least to get some where near the mid humeral line. That would leave too much skin to be excised centrally and would require an inframammary extension. You would get a better overall shape going into the... more

Scars after breast reduction

Any type of surgery on the breasts will produce scars. Liposuction will result in the shortest scars but is not "scarless". Although it may be an option in some patients the amount of droopiness (ptosis) of your breasts does not make you a good candidate for this procedure. Short scar breast reduction surgery may be performed by a number of different techniques, usually involves only periareolar and vertical scars, and allows for repositioning the nipple superiorly, removing excess... more

Breast Reduction Scars

With the size of your breasts, you are not a candidate for any sort of short scar or scarless breast reduction. Your nipples need to be moved several centimeters superiorly and you also have a lot of excess skin and breast tissue. For these reasons I do not feel that you will be happy with anything other than an anchor-type scar.

How scarless of a breast reduction

Breast reduction has two components, the reduction of volume, and the lift. To reduce volume modestly without a lift of the nipple scarless breast reduction is in essence liposuction which alone can reduce a fatty breast. In order to correct your loose skin and breast sag, at least a vertical or 'lollipop' reduction is needed to get the nipple up and onto the front of the breast. It is possible depending on the amount of skin laxity that the 'T' pattern will give you the best... more

Type of Breast Reduction

Although we would all lilke to eliminate scars, when there is just too much skin that will not shrink, there is no way to do so. Your problem is that you, in spite of having large breasts, have enen more excess skin. When you reduce the breast tissue further, this difference becomes even more marked. As much as I haave tried to reduce the scar in ladies like you, I still get the best results with a standard “anchor incision.” Every one of my patients, despite the longer scar,... more

Short scar breast reduction

Liposuction (scarless) will not work in your case. Short scar or vertical scar will work with added liposuction. However, your short scar would be a longer than than usual short scar in order to lift the breast up and correct the sagging skin.