{"id":25789,"date":"2023-10-04T09:03:30","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T16:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https://www.realself.com\/news\/?p=25789"},"modified":"2023-10-04T09:03:36","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T16:03:36","slug":"symmastia-causes-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https://www.realself.com\/news\/symmastia-causes-treatment","title":{"rendered":"Doctors Explain What Causes Symmastia, AKA Uniboob, and How to Fix It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Symmastia<\/em> likely isn’t a word you hear too frequently, but we’re willing to bet you know its much more commonly used moniker: uniboob. In short, it’s a connection between the breasts, resulting in a lack of distinct cleavage and the appearance of, well, one boob. While it is possible to be born with symmastia, it’s an extremely rare birth defect. Rather, it’s much more likely to occur as an issue after a breast surgery. Here, more on what symmastia is, exactly why it happens, and how it can be addressed.<\/p>

What is symmastia?<\/h2>

Symmastia occurs when the skin on the sternum is lifted up so that you can no longer see a crisp line of definition and demarcation between the breasts, says Dr. Johnny Franco<\/a>, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Austin, Texas. Again, while there is research<\/a> indicating that it can be a congenital birth defect, this “natural” type of symmastia is so rare that the doctors we spoke with said they’ve never seen it. Instead, the condition typically happens after either a breast augmentation<\/a> or a breast reconstruction<\/a>. <\/p>

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What causes symmastia?<\/h2>

First, an important caveat. All the surgeons we spoke with were quick to underscore that postsurgical symmastia isn’t necessarily indicative of  poor surgical technique or that something was done incorrectly. “It’s tough to isolate the cause of symmastia to one thing,” says Dr. Joseph Zakhary<\/a>, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Phoenix, adding that a combination of factors is usually at play. These factors include things such as an overdissection of the skin, which leads to a tenting of the chest skin and allows the implants to come too close together. Implants that are too big can also potentially lead to symmastia. It’s not necessarily the volume that’s problematic but rather the width of the implant; those that are wider can end up stretching out the implant pockets, pushing them together and erasing cleavage, Dr. Franco explains. He also notes that not following post-augmentation protocol<\/a> is an issue. “Not wearing a properly supportive bra, resuming physical activity before you’re cleared to do so, or generally putting too much pressure on the implants immediately after surgery while you’re still healing can end up pushing them closer to the midline and increase the risk of symmastia,” he says.<\/p>

There’s also a good chance of symmastia occurring after post-mastectomy breast reconstruction. The goal during a mastectomy is to remove as much breast tissue as possible, but this in turn means there’s less support for the implants and they’re more likely to get pushed together, Dr. Franco notes.<\/p>

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