Your Breast Surgery Options Explained

Posted on by Dr. Golosow

A woman’s breasts can impact her self-esteem and self-confidence significantly. There can be changes in the breasts from aging, weight fluctuation, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and even diseases such as cancer. Thankfully, there are numerous surgical options available for women that can give them the breast look they want and improve their quality of life. 

Breast Surgery Options

Every woman’s body and goals are different. There are options for any need. Some surgeries can be combined, as well. Here are breast surgery options that you and your surgeon can choose from:

  1. Breast Augmentation: When your breasts are not the size you want or are asymmetrical, breast augmentation can help. This is one of the most popular surgeries performed because it helps women feel more confident and can give better shape, volume, and contours to the breasts.
  2.  Breast Implant Exchange: After a woman has had augmentation, she may eventually decide on a breast implant exchange, also called a revision. This procedure entails removing the current implant and putting in a new one. Some reasons this surgery is done are due to capsular contracture, rupture, wanting to change the size or shape of the implant, or wanting to change the type of implant.
  3. Breast Implant Removal: Sometimes, a woman may decide to remove the implants permanently. It can be because she experienced problems with her implants, or sometimes she just wants to go back to the natural size and shape of the breasts instead of the current augmented one.
  4. Breast Reduction: When a woman’s breasts become excessively large, they can cause great discomfort to her. The weight can cause back and postural issues that impact the quality of life. If a woman is faced with these problems, she may decide to reduce the size of her breasts surgically to help. This surgery can reduce and eliminate pain and other issues caused by large breasts such as sell-consciousness or the inability to do activities she loves.
  5. Breast Lift: Aging, pregnancy, weight fluctuations, and breastfeeding can impact the firmness and volume of the breasts. They may begin to sag and droop. A breast lift can help them sit higher on the chest and look more youthful and firmer. Sometimes breast lifts are combined with augmentations or reductions to give the best results.
  6. Breast Reconstruction: Breast cancer can sometimes cause a woman to lose her breasts via mastectomy. This is a necessary surgery, but the loss of one or both breasts can impact a woman emotionally. There are methods to reconstruct breasts after mastectomy. The two main options surgeons have are implants or using the patient’s tissues to rebuild and give them a new breast or breasts. Having this surgery can help a woman celebrate survival and also help her heal emotionally at the same time. She will feel more feminine and like her old self again.

Schedule a Consultation

If you are interested in one or more of these procedures, call Lorraine Golosow, MD. and her staff today to book your consultation.

Why Some Women are Removing Their Breast Implants

Posted on by Dr. Golosow
breast implant removal ft myers

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), the number of women having their once-beloved breast implants removed has jumped by about 10%, while the number of breast augmentations performed dropped by approximately 3%. Maybe that doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you consider the number of breast augmentations performed in a year (between 300,000 and 400,000,) it’s staggering.

The ASPS only expects the number of these “explant” procedures to grow. After a solid three decades of growth, what is happening to the breast implant trend?

The Body Positivity Movement

With stars like Sharon Osborne, Victoria Beckham, and Melissa Gilbert opening up about their breast implant removals, and with pop sensations like Lizzo preaching self-love in the face of all adversity, it’s really not surprising that so many women are abandoning their implants. Public ideals are shifting away from the “bigger is better” mentality of the early-to-mid 2000s. More and more women, even if they do opt for implants, are choosing sizes more in line with their natural shape and body type.

The contemporary ideas about fitness have shifted as well; many women who once chose surgery to modify their bodies have created healthier eating habits for themselves and established exercise routines instead. These women are simply discovering that their implants don’t match their new lifestyles.

Implant Upkeep

However significantly changing ideas about beauty have affected how women see their implants, the biggest reason for implant removal is, quite simply, that breast implants don’t last forever. Like all manufactured products, they have a shelf life. Women who are now in their 30s and 40s who got their implants in their 20s are faced with either replacing or removing them.

Breast Explants: New Wave of Plastic Surgery?

It’s important to understand that this is only the beginning of a trend. Many women are still seeking out breast implants, and some are even seeking out those same large implants that were so popular a decade ago.

However, as western ideas of beauty continue to relax and shift away from the dramatic, sometimes unnatural “hourglass,” it certainly wouldn’t be surprising if the number of breast reductions continued to drop, or if the number of women having their implants removed continued to rise.

If you are considering a cosmetic procedure in the Ft. Myers area, consider scheduling a consultation with Dr. Lorraine Golosow at Associates in Cosmetic Surgery.