About huge breasts and how breast reduction surgery helps, explains Dr. Alina Mȋtcan, Plastic Surgery, Aesthetics and Reconstructive Microsurgery specialist, Zetta Hospital
. Dr. Alina Mȋtcan about breast reduction Photo source Dr. Alina Mȋtcan
“A breast can weigh 2 kg. It’s a very big effort for a woman”
While many women desire a voluptuous bust and turn to breast augmentation surgery, others carry the burden of huge breasts on a daily basis.
My guest at Adevărul Live, Dr. Alina Mȋcan, specialist in Plastic Surgery, Aesthetics and Reconstructive Microsurgery, Zetta Hospital, explains what breast gigantomastia is and what the consequences are for women who have this problem.
Antoineta Banu: What are the problems of patients who want breast reduction surgery?
Dr. Alina Mȋcan: I also perform breast reduction on very young women, as young as 18, who have giant breasts. And when I say giants, I mean 2kg per breast. It is a very big effort for these women who carry a heavy weight with them every day and feel it.
Patients with this gigantomastia of the breasts complain of back pain because the pressure on the spine is very high. Then there are the hygiene issues, which becomes very difficult, especially in the summer when, due to the heat, women sweat a lot under the breasts. It is very difficult for them to have good local hygiene, which causes micozelol, infections that are very difficult to control. Girls and women who have these very large breasts also face the impossibility of wearing certain clothes.
Let’s not forget the psychological discomfort they have. They say they feel awkward in society, thinking they are somehow cast aside because they have very large breasts. From my case study, I found that women with very large breasts also have extra pounds, so this picture becomes an even bigger stigma for them.
“Breast reduction surgery also solves the problem of patients who were born with a smaller breast and a very large one”
Antoineta Banu: How is this breast reduction surgery done?
Dr. Alina Mȋcan: It is a surgical intervention, of course, which removes the excess gland and fat from the breasts. The areola is repositioned, raising it to the position where it should be, and the lower pole of the breast is surgically removed.
Antoineta Banu: Do you also solve the case of breast asymmetries?
Dr. Alina Mȋcan: Most of the time yes. As we know, we also have an asymmetry in the breasts, one breast is bigger, the other is smaller. Very rarely do both breasts look the same. And yes, we can also correct breast asymmetries, in gigantomastia surgery.
Antoineta Banu: Have you also had patients who visibly had one breast much larger than the other?
Dr. Alina Mȋcan: There are also patients who were born this way, with a smaller breast and a very large one. In this case, several surgical interventions are combined. For the very large breast, we do breast reduction surgery, and for the other one, most of the time we have to use that implant to equalize them and get a good cleavage and volume for the patient.
“Without mammography and rigorous analysis, I do not perform breast reduction surgery”
Antoineta Banu: How does the patient prepare for this intervention?
Dr. Alina Mȋcan: To carry out any breast intervention, a breast ultrasound or mammography is needed first so that we can realize that everything is fine there. After we have the specific investigations and know the results, the laboratory analyzes follow.
If the patient has other pathologies, we definitely need some additional consultations. Let’s say everything is fine and we plan the intervention. The operation takes about 4-5 hours. It is performed with general anesthesia. The patient stays in the clinic overnight. Basically the next day she is discharged and goes home.
What is important to remember about breast reduction surgery, as with any breast surgery, the patient will go home with a bustier, a bra, of course, no sponge, no wire. It’s a medical bra that she keeps on for two months postoperatively, most of the time, with only small breaks of one or two hours, maximum per day. Breast hygiene is important and we teach our patients how to care for their breasts.
Of course, the operated woman is not allowed to curl for 2-3 weeks, no intense physical effort. He is not allowed to carry weights, not trolleys, suitcases. They are not allowed to walk the puppy or pick up the child. It is very important that the patient sleeps on her back. All this, about two months. Of course, the patient is allowed to shower immediately postoperatively, but in return she will not be allowed to bathe in the tub or go to the pool for a month.
Antoineta Banu: And no sun, no beach…
Dr. Alina Mȋcan: After a month, but basically use SPF, high sun protection and no topless.
“At least one year after the operation, the patient should not plan a pregnancy”
Antoineta Banu: Between breast reduction and breast augmentation surgery, which recovery is faster?
Dr. Alina Mȋcan: Recovery depends on the patient, not necessarily on the operation itself. We can say that with breast reduction, patients feel much better because they breathe much easier, because the weight disappears from the breasts and implicitly from the chest.
They are super happy with the results because they finally have a normal life and are much more motivated to recover faster, to start enjoying their new breasts. For patients with breast implants, with breast augmentation, the first days after the operation can be slightly more difficult, because here we have an extra pressure on the chest that the patient feels and has to learn with the new breasts
Antoineta Banu: Are there also patients who have given birth, have gone through breastfeeding and then come for this breast reduction?
Dr. Alina Mȋcan: Of course yes. There are also patients who have become new mothers. In their case, the operation is done one year after birth and at least six months after stopping breastfeeding. This is the rule. Ladies who have lost a lot of weight, either through diet or surgery, and complain about this problem, that of sagging and very large breasts, come for breast reconstruction,
Antoineta Banu: Those who go through breast reduction surgery and who are not yet mothers, but want to become and want to breastfeed the child, do they have a contraindication? I mean, will they be able to do it naturally?
Dr. Alina Mȋcan: There is no contraindication. It’s just that I explain to the patients that there is a possibility that the child’s breastfeeding will decrease a lot. After the operation, somewhere around 60-70% may not breastfeed the baby, because during the intervention we work on the gland, on the galactophoretic channels. They are the ones that produce and secrete milk and are interrupted by surgery.
There is a possibility that lactation will also be affected when the baby arrives. But this is not a problem, because usually patients with extremely large breasts cannot breastfeed the baby, they have no milk.
The vast majority of my patients, according to the confessions, revealed this aspect to me. But, of course, there is also that 30% percentage in which mothers can breastfeed, after the intervention. What is important for ladies to remember is that for at least one year after the operation, the patient should not plan a pregnancy. To take care and attention, to give time to the breasts to recover, to be a complete cure.
“The lifestyle after the operation is important, without very large weight fluctuations”
Antoineta Banu: After this breast reduction operation, can the breasts still sag with age?
Dr. Alina Mȋcan: Sleds will still sag, of course, but they won’t grow anymore, that is, they won’t be as saggy and voluminous anymore. Patients who already have very sagging breasts, they no longer have elasticity in the tissues in that area, because all the ligaments are weakened.
Through the operation, we clearly anchor there, but with gravity and the passage of time the breast will sag, slightly. I emphasize again, the importance of the life regime after the operation, where there are no very large weight fluctuations. It is important that the patient has a healthy diet, normal physical activity, not sedentarism. We don’t gain 20kg because then we will certainly see changes in the breasts as well, as well as losing weight.
Antoinette Banu After how long could a gym physical activity start?
Dr. Alina Mȋcan: After two months, the patients can resume their intense physical activity. I start, of course, with the lower part, with the arms and pectorals, with the back gradually, with light weights, but they can start from two months after the intervention.
Watch the full edition of Adevărul Live produced and moderated by Antoaneta Banu.
