Menopause Weight Gain, When To Have Surgery?

There is no benefit to waiting til after menopause to have the procedures if those areas are bothersome to you now.  It is very important, however, not to gain weight after liposuction.  That is the number one cause of dissatisfaction with the procedure.

    This is a bit difficult to answer without pictures or an exam and a review of your medical history.  If you have loose skin on your abdomen and are close to goal weight, then a tummy tuck can certainly be considered.  Find a plastic surgeon with ELITE credentials who performs hundreds of liposuction and tummy tuck procedures each year.  Then look at the plastic surgeon's website before and after photo galleries to get a sense of who can deliver the results.

Kenneth Hughes, MD Los Angeles, CA

Hello,

You are a few ticks above ideal BMI, indicating that regardless of your decision to have liposuction, you should consider lifestyle change to reduce body weight (unless you are a body builder and your excess weight is muscle).

On the one hand, having liposuction will not significantly reduce your weight, on the other, loosing the weight prior will not necessarily improve the contour of your belly and flanks (love handles).  What I tell my prospective patients is that if you are committed to surgery, then part of the commitment should also be to a full effort to change your lifestyle (life long diet and exercise program).

Whether you decide to follow through with surgery prior or after weight reduction should be a decision based on the recommendation of a responsible surgeon (if you really have too much excess fat, you should probably wait on surgery).  If that is not the case, then having liposuction before or after weight loss is equivocal.  Similarly, having liposuction before or after menopause will probably not make a difference.  However, if you choose to wait on liposuction until after entering menopause, then you should have already been successful at reducing your excess body weight through lifestyle change.

Best of luck!