Will Areola Incision Damage Milk Ducts?

I believe you should go with the periareolar incision as your surgeon suggests. I believe you should go with the technique that your surgeon is most comfortable with performing. Both surgical approaches and both surgeries have a risk of milk duct transection and therefore, decreased ability to breast-feed. In addition, there is not just one breast duct in the female breast. In the average female breast, there are anywhere between 13 and 25 or more breast ducts. The milk ducts are most concentrated around the nipple areolar complex. Typically, an incision around the nipple areolar complex does transect some, but not all of the ducts. I believe performing a nipple areolar complex incision and placing implants underneath the muscle would still allow you to breast-feed your future children. Sensitivity should remain intact even with the nipple areolar complex incision.

The areolar incision often results in a beautiful scar. But the scars with other approaches can also be equally good. I believe that the scars from each of the 3 traditional approaches can all be great if done well. My personal opinion is that the inframammary incision offers the lowest risk of contamination and (for me) the best exposure and control of the implant pocket. I believe that the capsular contracture rate is slightly higher when using the areolar approach. With that said, I think that the areolar incision can be used with little risk of affecting your ability to breast feed. The risk of nerve injury is also quite low with either of the approaches. In the end, you need to be comfortable with your surgeon and your surgeon needs to be comfortable with the specifics of the procedure that he is using.