I Wear Size 32H, Hoping to be Size 32DD After Reduction, How Many CCs Would that Require? (photo)

If you currently wear a size 32 H and desire a 32 DD, that is 3 cup size reduction.  For a size of 32, that corresponds to approximately 300 cc volume.  From your height and weight, your calculated body surface area is 1.75 meters squared and according to Aetna insurance table, that would require about 600 grams be removed.  A 600 gram removal will make you much smaller than you desired, a DD.  My advice to you is to choose the size you want rather than make a decision based on what an insurance company will pay for.  There is a new technqiue called the "Ultimate Breat Lift" which is able to reduce back, neck and shoulder pain without large volume reductions.  This is based on the principal transferring the breast weight to the underlying pectoral major muscle.  This can be done without the unsightly boat anchor shaped incision of the Wise pattern which was developed in 1957.  Additional benefits are there is upper pole fullnes, maintenance of nipple sensitivity and the ability to breast feed.

Best of Luck,

Gary Horndeski, M.D.

Only a physical exam would allow a plastic surgeon to know how approximately how many grams would be removed to reduce your breasts to your desired size.  Younger women tend to have more dense / heavier breast tissue as opposed to older women where the tissue is less dense and lighter for a given breast size.  Most of my patients are looking for their breast size to be proportional to their body size after the surgery.  How many grams it takes to accomplish that varies patient to patient.  Insurance companies vary widely on the amount of weight which needs to be removed for them to pay for it as a reduction.  Some use your height, with more grams required the taller you are, some use BMI (body mass index)  and some use BSA (body surface area).  Both BMI and BSA are formulas using your height and weight to determine the grams to be removed.  Your plastic surgeon, after meeting with you and determining what your insurance coverage is, will know what will be required.

When patients see me for a reduction, they have 3 choices.  We work towards removed just enough to satisfy insurance company requirements, I do the procedure as I normally do and you end up usually being a generous C or small D cup, or we are aggressive and maximize the excision/reduction and accept whatever cup size that results in. 

You cannot get a guarantee on what cup size you will have. There is no reliable way to do this.  if you are doing this cosmetically, you dictate how much volume you want to remove and accept whatever result comes from that.  Hope you can achieve what you are desiring through communication with your surgeon.

Your breasts do seem out of proportion to the rest of your body.  How much needs to be removed is not easy to determine preop.  Since your right breast is larger more tissue will need to be removed from that side.  As far as how much insurance requires varies according to the insurance company.  Some have a standard 500 gram minimum.  Occasionally that number can be smaller based on your body mass index (BMI), or Body Surface Area (BSA).  This is called the Schnur scale based on Height and weight. 

A consultation with a board certified (ABPS) plastic surgeon  will answer your questions further.

Every insurance company is a bit different. Many go by body mass index and determine a weight of the specimens removed.  Often around 500 gms per side( about 1 pound).  Pre authorization is often needed.