Does Symmastia Get Worse over Time? or During/after Pregnancy?

It is impossible to answer your question because it is like trying to predict the future. If you have had stable symmastia for 5 years it is unlikely to get worse. That does not mean it will not. If you add pregnancy to the mix it depends on how much your breasts engorge whether or not you breast feed etc. but is still not predictable with 100% accuracy. It does not sound like it is very severe since you waited this long to fix it but you did not post a photo. What you consider small symmastia may be considered insignificant by a plastic surgeon. Barring any other problems your best bet is to wait until after you have delivered your baby and the breasts have stopped producing milk in order to get the longest life span out of your next surgery.

When I hear a woman say I am going to have a baby in a couple of years it is usually more wishful thinking than planned parenthood. If that is the case and the symmastia bothers you earlier surgery with placement of a smaller implant and possible use of acellular dermal matrix is warranted.

My response to your question/post does not represent formal medical advice or constitute a doctor patient relationship. You need to consult with i.e. personally see a board certified plastic surgeon in order to receive a formal evaluation and develop a doctor patient relationship.

Symmastia may worsen over time, and the effects of pregnancy on breast size / shape cannot be predicted in advance.  If you have noted worsening of your symmastia over time, you may wish to have it corrected now, because once you become pregnant you will need to wait until after you have had the baby and stopped producing milk.  If your "very small" symmastia has been stable, you may want to wait until after any future pregnancies, to see if other breast changes occur that you may want to address at the same time as the symmastia repair.  You would benefit from an in person consultation with a board-certified plastic surgeon who could examine you and discuss your options in detail.

Good luck.

My response to your question/post does not represent formal medical advice or constitute a doctor patient relationship. You need to consult with i.e. personally see a board-certified plastic surgeon in order to receive a formal evaluation and develop a doctor patient relationship.

I is possible that symmastia could get worse over time. If you have a large implant, every time you sleep on the side you are expanding the capsule more medially. It is good that you are accepting to go smaller. This will help the repair of the pocket. They might have to use an ADM to repair the capsule. Pregnancy should not affect the situation. you can do the repair before or after the pregnancy.

Thank you for the question.
Your symmastia may not change with pregnancy but your breast tissue most likely will and so I would recommend that you wait until you are done having kids and then proceed with revisionary breast surgery to address your concerns.

 

Correction of the implant malposition is possible with an internal suture technique (two layer capsulorrhaphy)  and reverse image capsulotomy ( opening the spaces on the sides of the breasts). Keep in mind that even after correction of the implant malposition there may still be some skin” tenting”.

I routinely  recommend the use  of the symmastia (thong) bra  postoperatively.

There is definitely a “learning curve” with these types of procedures  but the success rate is quite high if you are working with a plastic surgeon well experienced with these procedures.

You may find the link attached helpful.

Best wishes.

This conditon could worsen simply because yopur breats will enlarge with your pregnacy.So my recommendation would be to have ht ebay first and then get reevaluated afterwards. 

Symmastia can definitely worsen over time. Oversized implants and aggressive medial dissection are the typical causes of symmastia. To be clear, symmastia involves the migration of an implant over the midline of the sternum. Tenting of the skin between breasts does not constitute symmastia. It is uncertain as to whether pregnancy will make the situation worse, however I am inclined to think that it will not. Whether or not to have a correction prior to pregnancy is more of a personal decision as to whether the symmastia is a concern for you. I recommend a consultation with a board certified plastic surgeon to review your options and determine whether you truly have a symmastia or simply a malposition of your implants.

Symmastia might get worse with time.  Are your implants placed above or below the muscle.  If the implants were placed above the muscle then converting them to a submuscular position might improve them.  Acellular dermal grafts might be needed if the symmastia worsens.  This is a difficult problem to correct.  Before or after pregnancy?  There is not an ideal time to do the surgery.  Given your options, it is better to do this before the problem worsens further.

Implants that are malpositioned could certainly make the condition worse, but more often than not, overtime the implants tend to migrate laterally and inferiorly more than medially.

Malpositioned implants can shift further over time. The problem with synmastia is that the frequently is not muscle attatchment medially and this allows the implant to move in that direction. Increased breast size with pregnancy could make this problem appear worse.

There is nothing to suggest that symmastia will get worse with pregnancy if your breast has been stable over five years. Over a life time as the breast ages there can be more fatty infiltration within the breast tissue and the breast can become more 'matronly' with more cleavage and perhaps more of a symmastia appearance. Reduce the size of implants if the look is your goal, and don't' let a future family be the deciding factor.

Best of luck,

peterejohnsonmd