2019: The year of my long-awaited thigh lift!

My journey began several years ago, with fluctuating weight followed by lipo to my thighs. I won't get into the specifics, but lipo was a bad decision for me, leaving me with very rippled, loose skin and affected my confidence greatly. Although I am a normal weight for my height and look good in clothes, I am never ever naked from the waist down! In summer, I wear sheer tights or long skirts as my bare legs are unsightly. I would love nothing more than to be proud of my body and be rid of the saggy, loose skin left by liposuction. I have tried exercising and losing more weight but the area remains unaffected. I have also wasted money on numerous massage and skin tightening therapies, none of which have made a visible difference. A thigh lift seems like the only realistic option available for tightening the skin and hopefully, allowing me to enjoy my body.
I recently broke up with my boyfriend of three years; a fairly difficult relationship followed by a similarly difficult breakup. I never allowed him to see me fully naked, and was always anxious about revealing my legs. I know that self-confidence is multi-faceted and dependent on various factors, but surely body confidence is one of them. I am a huge proponent of doing proper research and pursuing a surgical procedure if it will improve your self-confidence and body image. We all deserve to feel good in our skin, especially after a breakup when our confidence could certainly be improved upon!
My research thus far has taken me to Dr Peter Fisher, an absolute artist in his field and a very lovely man! He specialises in surgery after huge weight loss and has particular expertise in thigh lifts. Doctors specialising in this area are pretty much non-existent in England, UK (where I live) so perusing Dr Fisher’s before and after pics is heaven to me! His work is incredible. I initially spoke to him on the phone about 4 years ago, following my lipo. My results were such a mess and I was so down that I knew I didn’t want to live the rest of my days with saggy skin, hiding under numerous layers. Dr Fisher suggested a spiral thigh lift, which would involve an incision around the groin area, going round the back of the legs to tighten the back of the thighs. The scar, when healed, would be almost imperceptible with underwear or swimwear on. The alternative would be to have a vertical scar going down the leg, which is more difficult to hide and, Dr Fisher told me, unnecessary for the condition of my skin, though it would provide skin tightening to a larger area, not just the top of the thigh. The only problem would be the distance. From London, San Antonio where Dr Fisher is based would be a 14+ hour flight, and I would need to stay there for a decent amount of time to allow for recovery before flying home. Surgery is challenging enough without being so far from a familiar environment, so I’m not sure if this is viable, though I know people frequently visit Dr Fisher from out of town.
I have found an alternative surgeon in the UK, though I am not sure how practised in thigh lifts she is. Her name is CC Kat and she performed my breast augmentation around 7 years ago. She is an incredible surgeon and a true perfectionist, I was absolutely delighted with the results of my BA. I have seen results of a couple of her body lifts, which are amazing, so I’m hoping to have a consultation with her in January to see what she recommends. She is based around 2.5 hours drive from where I live, making this a much more viable option for me than America. However, if I feel Dr Fisher would be a significantly better option, I would make the journey. Not to be too cliched, but you only live once, right?! I think it’s worth the expense and downtime to feel better about my body in the long term.
I have posted some recent pics to give an idea of my legs at the moment. I believe I would have to lose a little weight and get down to my target of 10.5 stone (so, losing about 14 lbs) before surgery, so this will be my focus for the coming months. I’m planning surgery in April next year, to allow plenty of recovery before the Summer months. In the meantime, I hope to share my journey with you guys so watch this space for updates...

I just wanted to share something that has been affecting me and my decision to pursue this surgery: guilt. Specifically, guilt about not telling my mum. I share everything with her, but pursuing surgery (especially abroad) is not something I believe she would encourage or understand. When I told her about my plans to have a BA, she was extremely supportive and accompanied me to Birmingham to look after me following surgery (as it turns out, there wasn't much help needed as my surgery was amazingly pain free). With lipo, I travelled alone to Spain where I had the procedure without telling anyone (this caused me a lot of guilt too but I felt it was something I really wanted to do). Since that went wrong, I have been so down about my body, looking in the mirror makes me cringe and it limits a lot of my activities. I don't pursue anything that would require me to have bare legs (even wearing tights in the summer sun!) I haven't been on holiday for several years, or swimming since I was a child. My legs have always been a bone of contention for me. Now I am single, I can't even comprehend meeting someone given the way I feel about my body. I am straddling the lines between depression over how I feel about my body and loose skin, and guilt for pursuing surgery secretively. As telling my mum is not an option just now (it would cause her immense stress and worry, and my dad died in 2018 so I couldn't inflict that upon her), I need to either get over this toxic guilt or decide to live with my body the way it is. As you know, diet and exercise do very little for skin tightening and I have lived with loose skin on my thighs for too long now. Surgery seems to be the only option available to resolving these difficulties and finally loving my body. Isn't that what everyone deserves? I am constantly reminding myself that this is something I am doing for me, not for anyone else, and it is extremely personal. My intention is not to keep anything from my mum or to hurt her in any way, but I know telling her about this will not go down well.
On a positive note, I mentioned to Dr Fisher that I have some loose skin on my flanks which is quite annoying as my underwear pinches it and it looks unsightly. Dr Fisher suggested buttock auto-augementation to fix the laxity of my butt and deal with the flank area too. This made me super excited as I would love to have a projected bottom, not the flat mass of skin that is currently there. He also mentioned that he may decide to do a vertical incision. I am good with this. If it brings more tightening to the area and better results, I think a vertical scar is a compromise I can live with. I really just want to be proud of my body for once, rather than hiding it away under baggy clothes.
I have a consultation with Dr Kat in the UK on 11th January. I'm looking forward to it, but I also know that she would have to offer the world in order to match Dr Fisher's recommendations! I hope I can deal with the mental stress I am finding myself under in order to proceed with this surgery once and for all. I am starting to lose a little weight in order to get down to a good size for surgery and not have any additional 'baggage'.

Yesterday I had my consultation with lovely Mrs Kat in Birmingham. When I walked in, she told me she couldn’t imagine why I’d want a thigh lift, but clothes can hide a multitude of sins! When I undressed, she could see the issue. Specifically, she drew my legs on a pad, with straight lines to represent my outer thighs and squiggly lines to represent my inner thighs. She said that the procedure would involve a horizontal incision to just over halfway down my leg, to tighten the loose skin; the area around the knee is less of a concern and so a incision all the way to the knee would be unnecessary. She told me however that she doesn’t perform groin incisions as they tend to migrate down the leg in time. Her scars are so incredibly neat and she uses dissolvable stiches, so a scar however long is not a concern of mine. I understand that you trade a scar for improved contour and improved contour is definitely preferable to sagging skin.
Mrs Kat showed me some pictures of previous thigh lifts she had done. I believe her speciality is breast surgery and reconstruction, so I don’t think thigh lifts are a common procedure. There were two patients she showed me; one was a massive weight loss case, the other was a woman of a similar shape and weight to me. The first result was tremendous. Very noticeable improvement and the loose skin was all gone. The second was improved but more subtle, and still with some remaining obvious loose skin at the back of the thighs which the incision hadn’t accounted for. This one looked more like me, and I wondered if I would be content with this more subtle result. Improved for sure, but I don’t think I’d be bikini confident.
I told Mrs Kat of my plans to visit America for surgery and mentioned the spiral thigh lift, recommended by Dr Fisher. She hadn’t heard of this procedure. Dr Fisher had also recommended an auto-augmentation of the buttocks for me, as there is some looseness as a result of a BBL that didn’t take. This recommendation made my heart sing, as I have always wanted a more shapely butt and the idea that he would be able to add to my curves while removing the loose skin is very exciting. When I told Mrs Kat of this, she said that she reserves auto-augmentation for reconstruction surgeries and it wouldn’t be something I would need. She said if I wanted more projection of the buttocks, she could do a BBL, but I don’t have much fat reserves (I really don’t want to gain weight for this). Having been down the BBL route before, this isn’t very appealing.
One thing that surprised me was the fact that Mrs Kat would do the thigh lift under local anaesthetic. I told her I am quite squeamish and the idea of a local anaesthetic scares me a little. She said in that case, we’d do it under twilight sedation, which would allow me to be asleep during the procedure, but responsive if, for example, I was asked to move. She said this would be a lot easier to recover from than general anaesthetic and would therefore cut recovery time right down. She said the procedure itself had a fairly easy recovery. Again, this was not what I expected based on the reviews I’ve read on Realself! As the procedure is ‘superficial’ (i.e. doesn’t involve the repair of muscles) it wouldn’t require a period of bedrest. In fact, she said she would recommend being up and about the following day, moving where possible. Other than some tightness, she didn’t anticipate there being much pain or discomfort. Again, I’m not sure if this is general to thigh lifts or just the procedure she was proposing, as the majority of thigh lift reviews describe fairly intense pain for a few days.
I loved seeing Mrs Kat. She is a highly skilled surgeon and a gentle, kind person. I came away feeling fairly confused however. She is proposing a procedure somewhat different to that proposed by Dr Peter Fisher. Dr Fisher has proposed an extended spiral TL, with the incision in the groin as opposed to horizontal (though there may be a horizontal component) while Mrs Kat suggested a purely horizontal scar. Dr Fisher’s proposal to autoaugment the buttocks is also very appealing, as I would love to improve the whole area that is causing concern. Having much improved thighs would be wonderful, but having an even more curvaceous, womanly shape with more projected buttocks would be the icing on the cake and if I’m going for surgery, shouldn’t I go for the hole hog as opposed to the middle ground? I know more scarring and pain would likely be involved, but it’s a compromise for improved contour. One of the things I love about Dr Fisher’s work is his emphasis on the female form. I have seen instances of skin removal where it’s like he has opened the curtains to an amazingly curvy figure which is an amazing skill.
So, therein lies my dilemma. Two amazing surgeons. One in the UK, a mere 2 hours from where I live. One in the US: an hour drive and two long-haul flights. The first surgeon proposes liposuction to the area followed by a horizontal lift which will result in improved contour of the thighs. The second proposes a spiral thigh lift and auto-augmentation of the buttocks, to take away the dimpled look and increase the buttock projection using my own tissues. This would also relieve me of the loose skin on my flanks which, although not the worst thing in the world, causes a slight underwear ‘overhang’. There is a significant difference in cost involved in the second option due to longer stay in a hotel/ Airbnb, flights, nursing care and the surgery itself which is approximately £4,000 more expensive. This is most definitely a consideration. However, my lower body has been an area of contention for some time and the loose skin on my thighs has prevents me from wearing clothes I like, and doing activities I enjoy (such as swimming) so I feel that saving a bit extra in the meantime might be worth it. I’m not sure what results I could really expect from autoaugmentation of the buttocks, but it may well be worth the extra moolah! Would love to hear your thoughts as to which option I should choose...