Breast reduction is all the rage in cosmetic surgery. Are women asserting their independence or capitulating to yet another impossible standard of beauty?
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/20/well/breast-reduction-trend.html
Maybe someone can spare a gift link?
Imagine carrying all that dead weight on your body 24/7. It is a spine health issue.
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Here’s a gift link, for anyone who doesn’t have access: The Power of a Smaller Breast
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It’s not about trends or vanity. It’s a comfort and health issue. Back pain, neck pain, headaches, skin rashes. It is a life changing procedure.
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I had a breast reduction years ago. Best thing I ever did both physically and cosmetically. I was a 32G. I’m 5’2” and 125lbs. Now I’m a 32D, which isn’t tiny but I’m very happy.
Nothing fits you when you’re a smaller person with huge boobs, your neck hurts all the time, people don’t look at your face, no one thinks you’re a serious person. You can’t wear a bathing suit without looking like you’re filming an adult movie, you can’t run the mile in PE class without three bras on at once.
I will absolutely defend anyone who wants this surgery. It’s life changing.
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I was 22, in the late 70s, when I had my reduction. Like @Izzy74 I was 5’2" and 105lbs soaking wet. While I never wore a bra that fit at that time, the guess is I was a 32 DDD, but might have been larger. My surgeon decided I should go with what he called a full B, although a C cup bra was what I wore.
From the time I was developed at 12 until the day of my surgery, I was only seen for my breast. It was the best thing I ever did for myself, well, my parents did for me! My scars never bothered me and were well worth it for the outcome.
My mother and her sister, who both were A cups wanted to know if they could be on the next table and take my leftovers!
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I spent too many years wishing I had bigger breasts. Then as I got older, I got to know several women who had breast reductions due to the pain of carrying so much weight in their breasts. I have heard so many women lament about their breasts sagging to their navels. If I could have told my younger self one thing, it would have been to be happy with what I have.
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Isn’t that the truth about so many things! 
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A LONG time ago (eons now) I read an essay (think it was a Cosmo article in the 80s) where the author decided to “live with big (or at least bigger) breasts” for a week or two. She’d thought about getting implants being small breasted her whole life but decided to try it out first. It was very funny but it became clear very early that it wasn’t going to work out.
She was a stomach sleeper, the extra weight was tiring, the bra straps hurt–everything you can already imagine. And the conclusion was she was thankful to be one of the “less endowed”.
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I recall the remark: “More than a mouthful is wasted.”
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There was a Designing Women episode like about this. Annie Potts’ character, Mary Jo, receives an unexpected inheritance and thinks about getting breast implants. She tries out several different sizes. It’s really funny. In the end, she decides against it and buys, “TV telephones,” for her family members instead.
I never understood why Designing Women was not in syndication. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen reruns anywhere. They tackled many topics ahead of their time.
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@Hoggirl You can watch Designing Women on Amazon Prime.
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I remember reading that it was one of the procedures with the highest patient happiness outcomes.
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I meant to said that Designing Women is also available on Hulu.
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This thread reminds me of a song:
“Do your boobs hang low?
Can you swing 'em to and fro?
Can you tie 'em in a knot?
Can you tie 'em in a bow?”
I had never heard it but I remember my SisILs singing it at some family gathering. It was very funny at the time…weird, but funny. Darn gravity.
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I can’t read the article, but I’m curious. I can fully understand the reasons wanting to be smaller, but it seems that everyone who does the surgery winds up in the B-D range, aka still normal. Does anyone reduce it willingly (not due to cancer/risk) to AAA?
Because I can verify that being a AAA sucks in its own way. I got implants to be a B and be normal. Whenever I get mammograms the techs say “wow you really don’t have any tissue of your own.” Gee thanks. But it’s true.
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I had breast reduction in 1999. The doc refused to make me smaller than a C cup, saying, “you’ll never forgive me if I make you smaller than that.” Well, I have cursed him every day since. To go through the surgery and recovery and not be where I wanted to be was a huge disappointment. It was okay the first ten years or so, but as I have aged (I’m now 74) and time and gravity have taken their toll I am even more uncomfortable now than I was before the surgery. I wish I had done it differently or that I could do it again.
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Breast surgery, whether augmentation or reduction, is a very individual decision. Yet it is very often wrapped up in societal views about breasts as part of a woman’s sexuality. A former neighbor had extremely painful back issues due to her large breasts, and she wanted reduction surgery - but her H didn’t want her to do it. Big surprise (not) that they later divorced.
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I had a double mastectomy two years ago. Full- up reconstruction will be at the beginning of 2025, but in the interim I have expanders. Let me tell you, going from a DD to a B has made a world of difference. I’ve lost weight in anticipation of surgery, but I can find so many tops that fit. No worries at all about buttons down the front or going up a size or two to have clothes hang properly.
The next step will be creating “foobs” using belly fat, and I am more than willing to retain some fat to keep the breast size smaller.
It’s such a personal choice and there are women who do want to be the same size or larger. More power to them.
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In order to keep blood supply/sensation/milk ducts surgeons can only remove so much tissue.