There is an old (closed) discussion on this topic, but I am resurrecting it. I have an appointment for a consultation for this procedure tomorrow. Does anyone have any recent experience with this? Advice/questions to ask the surgeon? It’s something I have wanted to do for a long time, but now that I have finally gotten the nerve to go ahead, I’m feeling a little anxious. I’ve looked at some websites with details, but was hoping to hear some real life experiences. Thanks!
It’s the gift that keeps on giving. Be sure the surgeon is listening to you. I wanted to go smaller but he said I wouldn’t be happy at that size. I should have insisted. Recovery was easy for me. I am so glad I did it.
Still a fan almost 23 years later.
I had a single reduction almost 10 years ago to even out the mastectomy on the other side.
It was painless, as was the recovery.
@Wellspring , @“Youdon’tsay” , @bjkmom - That’s what I was hoping to hear! So far I’ve never heard anyone that regretted it.How long was the recovery - things like lifting, driving, going back to work, etc? And when were you able to have the OK to do more strenuous things, like going to the gym?
My other question that I forgot to ask was what kind of anesthesia did you get? Is it usually general?
Thanks again for any advice!
@my2sunz, I work in an OR that routinely does breast reductions. We use local and IV sedation-usually propofol, versed, and light doses of narcotics. Our patients breathe on their own and wake up very quickly, nothing at all like the general anesthesia that utilizes gases and other heavy drugs (which necessitate mechanical ventilation). Of course it all depends on patient medical condition prior to surgery, length of surgery, how large the breasts are, etc., whether or not local/IV sedation can be used.
I don’t see the patients after their surgeries, but I believe that clearance to go to the gym and do strenuous exercises and resistance training usually takes around six weeks or more, depending. Most women are back at work within 2 weeks, though. Like all things, it’s variable-you may know someone who was back to work within a couple of days, or someone else who took off a month to recover.
I’m a little cloudy on recovery because I did it during my maternity leave with ds2 so i already was off work. Sorry. My parents came to help me with the baby for several days so it must have been at least a week before I could left ds2.
My doctor said it is a lot less common for insurance companies to cover the procedure unless you have done a year of PT or weight loss. My BMI is within limits but I still would need to do PT.
!!!
It’s my fantasy to have a reduction but I don’t qualify medically.
Good luck to you, OP.
Okay, it was a while ago but there was no requirement for weight loss or PT. The doc said she needs this and the insurance company agreed. I was knocked out for the procedure but went home that night. Maybe I took it easy for the weekend but I don’t remember any protracted recovery. No pain at all. Some swelling. Mostly just a feeling of liberation.
I apologize for being naive, but if a woman was in normal weight guidelines, how would doing physical therapy reduce her breast size? I’m a big fan of physical therapy, but I don’t get how it deals with this particular issue.
Posture correction. If your “stem” is too weak to carry big boobs, posture suffers and then spine suffers. there are two ways of dealing with the back issues: reinforcing the core through PT so it could continue to carry the weight or taking the boob weight off. At least that is what I was told. 
I dealt with the boob issue by growing more muscle and reducing body fat.
The things we learn on these threads…
Thanks to everyone who is willing to share.
@“Cardinal Fang” my extra boobage was believed to be contributing to my carpal tunnel syndrome so they tried some PT first. The only requirement I had weight wise was that they had to be able to take more than a pound off of each side. They were!
No PT was going to mitigate the entirely out of proportion size of my breasts. I was not interested in learning to cope with them. I was interested in not having to carry them around any longer than I already had.
I had mine reduced ten years ago and still mention from time to time how glad I am that I had the reduction.
Mine were not huge but were very heavy. Bra straps left marks and my rib cage hurt on a daily basis. The doctor refused after my first consult. That summer I was miserable and would prop my breasts on a pillow to read at night for some relief. I went for a second consultation a year after the first and basically begged. He heard my request and then asked what size I wanted to be…and I responded that he was to make them as small as he possibly could–and then he agreed. He said he was use to women wanting to go down one size but I was not asking for cosmetic reasons.
I remember the recovery as being very painful and lasting a few weeks.
I also had to have one nipple redone as it was just a little too “off”.
(Doc said he had difficulty because they were so dense, which made me feel redeemed)
The scars are now a tiny little line. I did take about 3-4 years for all sensation to return but
I was prepared for that and all is recovered at least 95%.
I was very fortunate that I had a friend who had a reduction a few years before me and was
able to tell me these things.
Still, I only wish I had done it earlier in my life ( I was 57).
Good Luck!
So glad I did this! I ended up with a frozen shoulder, a horribly painful experience which greatly delayed recovery. The dr. also hadn’t gone nearly small enough, so I ended up with a second reduction 6 months later. That recovery was much quicker. It’s been 6 years and I’m happy about it every day. I wish I’d done it 20 years earlier.
My biggest advice is to make sure your surgeon is listening to you. I spent a ton of time researching and on forums, and it was extremely rare a woman wished she’d been left bigger. A common complaint was the dr. didn’t reduce as much as they had requested. God luck!
Once I had my reduction, I took up running. When I was doing marathons and at my lowest weight, my boobs did feel tiny to me. Of course, they weren’t, but compared to what they had been, especially while pregnant, it really was a huge difference. But, man, it was great to be able to wear anything and have it hang well.
An interesting observation. Why are these surgeons trusting their own opinions instead of what the patient requested? Maybe the doctors are men who have opinions about the attractiveness of women’s chests. Or maybe the doctors figure that they can always go back and reduce more, but they can’t reduce less (which is no good; if I go in for breast reduction, I want the doc to get it right the first time and not make me go back because he didn’t do what I said).
Yeah, I think it’s that they can always reduce further (who wants a second surgery???), and I wonder whether they think women don’t realize the difference it will make and so don’t want to take too much off and have women complain. But, really, let us decide what we want, OK?