Breast Reduction – Myths Debunked

Breast Reduction is a Painful Procedure

On the contrary, breast reduction is one of the least painful surgeries that are performed. As we are dealing with skin, fat and breast tissue – these don’t have as many nerve endings as muscle and bone, therefore you won’t experience as much pain in a procedure that deals with muscle or bone.

Of course, everyone experiences differing levels of pain. However, over the past 26 years of performing 2 – 4 breast reductions a week, we can say that in our experience most women say that they needed Panadol only for pain relief.

They all add that it was so easy that they wished they had done the surgery years before and not put up with their problems for fear of a painful procedure!

Breast Reduction has to be Performed After You’ve Had Children.

Whoever made this up must be a male we figure as there is no logical reason to this. If your breasts are large and you have not had kids, breast reduction will not interfere with you falling pregnant or affect anything else to do with your pregnancy.

Breast Reduction Will Interfere with Breast Feeding

During breast reduction surgery, breast tissue and milk ducts in certain areas of the breast are removed. Not all breast tissue and ducts are disturbed however, and many women find they have no problem breast feeding after breast reduction surgery.

Of course, some woman cannot breast feed at all, regardless of the size of their breasts or any previous surgery.

Your Nipple is Removed as Part of Breast Reduction Surgery

In more than 99 out of 100 women, the nipple is NOT removed during surgery.

You will have a scar around the areolar as skin, breast tissue and fat are removed from around the nipple/areolar complex, but the nipple remains attached to the underlying breast mound at all times.

In the case of very long breasts, it may be necessary to remove the nipple and graft it back on, but this is extremely rare. Your surgeon will discuss this with you if this was the case for you.

You Need to Stay in Hospital Overnight After a Breast Reduction

We perform breast reduction as a day case only.

Dr McGovern has been performing breast reduction surgery since 1994 and has never had a patient stay in hospital overnight after breast reduction surgery. It is not necessary.

Your anaesthetic is a general anaesthetic and the surgery is about 3 hours in length. Provided you are the first patient on the list that day, you have plenty of time to recover after surgery and go home in the afternoon.

Again, the procedure is not particularly painful and doesn’t interfere with your mobility at all, so there is no reason to stay in hospital.

You do need someone to drive you to and from the hospital to your home, and stay with you overnight, but that is normal after any general anaesthetic.

Breast Reduction Can Only be Performed Once In Your Life

This is also incorrect. There is absolutely no reason why a breast reduction cannot be performed more than once, if the woman decides it is necessary.

A small proportion of the females that come for breast reduction are very young. They have had enormous breasts from a very young age and they feel old. It is not uncommon to see 18-year old’s with J cup breasts or larger and they do not want to wait for years for their surgery.

We have a lovely story of an 18-year-old just a few weeks back who was so happy in the operating theatre recovery room directly after her operation. She was lying in the hospital bed and told Dr McGovern it was the first time she had been able to see her toes whilst lying down for many years!

These girls get a chance to live a normal teenage life after breast reduction surgery.

After going through the hormone changes of pregnancy and breast feeding, many find their breast size increases again to a level that they may want a secondary breast reduction at some stage in their life.

In other cases, it is menopause that is the hormonal trigger for large breasts to grow further.

Whatever the reason, if after an initial breast reduction, you find your breasts have grown to a size you are unhappy with, it is no problem at all to do the procedure again.

If you have any questions about Breast Reduction Surgery, feel free to give us a call.

We’re here to help you! .