Do I have tuberous/tubular breasts? (Photos)

Your breasts have a defined breast fold and no constriction of tissue around the nipples, which means that they are not tubular. A straightforward full breast lift would probably be sufficient. The choice to whether perform the lift and augmentation at the same time depends on the surgeon. Some surgeons prefer to do it together while other prefer to do it in a single procedure.

You do not have tuberous breasts, you have hanging breasts from weight gain and weight loss. The technique I recommend is a breast lift using The Bellesoma Method. This will reshape your breast tissue creating upper pole fullness without implants, elevate them higher on the chest wall and more medial to increase your cleavage. Vertical scars are avoided, nipple sensation (in 95%) and the ability to breast feed are maintained.

Best Wishes,

Gary Horndeski, M.D.

Tuberous breasts present on a large spectrum. You have certain mild features that would need to be addressed with the lift. In my opinion you could still get fairly sizeable implants done at the same time as a lift. Implant size would depend on your base width measurement and on your goal photos. The combination of these two factors would help to counsel you on feasibility of a one stage approach in meeting your goals. I often recommend fat transfer in your situation to further enhance the cleavage lines and for contour of the breast!

Your plastic surgeon is correct. Your primary problem is too much skin and this needs to be corrected with a breast lift or “mastopexy”. When you augment to your desired size at the same time, you are placing a lot of tension on the skin incisions and risk complications.

For patients such as you who know they want to be large breasted when all is said and done, I recommend a first stage breast lift to get your breasts to look pretty and perky and lifted and youthful. A smaller implant can be inserted at the same time with little risk, but this will cost you more. Once you have healed from your breast lift (about three months) you can undergo a breast augmentation to your desired size without the same worries of complications due to tension. Best of luck to you.