Breast Augmentation: Stories

I understand what your going through I think. I had my first surgery in August '09, for 250cc Moderate Profile being told it would be full B small C. After 7 months, one breast had capsular contracture and I was very disappointed with the size. I just had surgery again (2 weeks ago), to fix the caps. contract. and at the same time had larger implants put in. I was very specific this time in the look I wanted when explaining to my doctor and he was quite insistent that anything over and above what I asked 425cc High Profile, would be too large. I really put my faith and trust in him thinking he really understood me this time and although I am pleased it is STILL not the result I wanted. VERY, VERY frustrating and now $11,000 spent. Definately wait a while to see what happens they may just need to settle or you could have the capsular contracture and if your not happy, be extremely clear and specific of what you want - it is YOUR body and YOUR money. Good luck... :)

You should always give your body the full recovery time to see if the other falls to align itself with the other breasts. It is quite possible, and common for breasts to fall and settle at different rates. Just let your surgeon know you are concerned, and devise a plan should this not correct itself. You might as well sit back and wait anyways, because most surgeons do not feel it is safe to reoperate until 4 to 6 months after intitial surgery.

Please read my comments above carefully - its important to distinguish between the situations where an implant is being placed beneath 'tight' skin (ie. to enlarge a smaller tight breast) or 'loose' skin (ie. to 'fill', or perhaps more to the point 're-fill', a breast that has been previously stretched from engorgement during breast feeding, or fat no longer present due to weight loss). Mine was a case of 're-filling' a breast stretched by breast-feeding, and it is in cases such as mine that I notice little change post-operatively. If yours is the former case, then there is likely to be fairly significant change over time - six months or so (as butterflyin said). In this case, it is good advice to wait for skin to 'give' and the implant to 'settle.' That is, unless the implants have been placed in a markedly asymmetric position to start with, or (as xSarax pointed out) the problem is one of scar tissue tethering one implant higher and preventing 'drop'. Your surgeon should be able to determine the difference, though determining scar tissue interference can be more difficult and take time to rule out that its not just a failure to 'give'. An area of scar tissue may be suspected if when gently pushing the breasts with a flat hand in all directions (up/down, left/right), you discern some tethering in one area, which may produce sharp pain. Obviously in the early days, when there is swelling & pain generally its hard to discern this. Determining asymmetry in the placement of the implant on the chest wall, is best done standing naked and standing straight and square in front of mirror, placing a finger beneath the base of each implant at its intersection with the chest wall. Are they level? (its just like determining if a picture hung on the wall is level). Now stand back and look at the whole picture because even though you may discover one higher or lower, the overall effect may be 'right' because of natural asymmetry in the rest of your body. Difference in the order of 10mm in placement may not be any issue. But differences of 15-20mm in implant placement upon the chest wall may not look right and need further surgery to correct. If you had implants placed into 'tight' breast skin then its important to realise that the pendulous underside area of the breast skin (FORWARD of where the implant base intersects with the chest wall) will 'give' over time, so asymmetry here may correct itself over time. This can bother women in the settling period, but may prove needless fretting in months to come. Remember, gravity is acting upon the contents of the implants as you are sitting, standing, moving about in an upright position sixteen hours a day, causing more give in the underside skin and settling them downwards slightly in a more natural teardrop shape. Bandaging as xSerax referred to is one way a surgeon may try to expedite this process.

I had the same problem. Be patient. My doctor had me wrap an ACE bandage around the top of my breasts for the first few weeks to push them downwards. One still ended up being higher than the other. It turns out it was scar tissue, which he removed 4 months later at no extra cost. The removal was very easy and minimally painful. It took my breasts a year to completely"settle". Just express your concerns to your doc at your follow-ups. Most are very eager to make their patients happy.

Hi Sera, Thanks for your notes. Do you think that my doctor would do my breast lift or to fix this problem for free?? Do some of them do it for free??

My breasts have not changed one iota from the day they were done. I had minimal post-op swelling & it had resolved by the time the bandages came off. I notice this is often the case when augmentation is undertaken to fill already stretched, sagging breasts. Changes occurring over six months or so seem to occur when placing an implant tight breasts. The skin/underlying tissues, more so on the underside of each breast where the weight of the implants is focused, 'give' over time and the implanta appear to 'drop' slightly and 'settle' (the implant itself does not drop - or shouldn't - just the distribution of the contents). However, this may not necessarily occur in each breast at the SAME rate, which means there may be a period of temporary asymmetry. You need to post more information and definitely some photos to get answers. Asymmetry was a problem in my surgery, but this was due to one implant being placed higher than the other, and this required further surgery to correct. I hope your surgeon takes good care of you.

Of course you want to talk with your doctor about this-mine took about 6 months before they stopped changing-4 weeks is way to early-let yourself heal and both breast settle and then decide.