Breast Reduction: Info, Prices, Photos, Reviews, Q&A

Physical Symptoms of Large Breasts

If you have large breasts, you can probably relate to at least one of the following physical symptoms:

Back pain, shoulder pain, and neck pain – which is pretty constant and simply due to the sheer weight of your breasts.

Even sitting up straight in a chair can hurt your back, and eventually your neck and shoulders as well.

For every insurance company who denied a breast reduction, I wish they’d strap 2-pound cantaloupes to their representative’s chest and make them walk a mile. Maybe two.

Shoulder grooving from bra straps – a bra can only give so much support.

With especially heavy breasts, the bra is constantly pulled down by the weight of the breasts, and there’s no place for the bra straps to go but down. Down into your shoulders, that is. Eventually, this constant pull-down can cause a nice ridge in your shoulders.

Difficulty breathing – from the weight of the breast on the chest wall.

Chafing and Rashes – fat people sweat more. So do women with fat boobs. Sweat between the breasts and underneath sagging breasts can cause rashes from constant friction of skin-on-skin, or skin-on-uncomfortable bras, cotton, satin or otherwise.

Poor posture. It’s no secret that some women with large breasts want to hide them. This is often done by slouching.

These are some of the reasons that breast reduction is classified as a reconstructive surgery rather than a cosmetic procedure.

Symptoms such as these make it difficult to exercise and enjoy regular physical activities. Even so, diet and exercise do little to decrease the mass of breast fat, and often breast reduction is the only course of action to reduce the physical symptoms of having large and pendulous breasts.

Ideally, a woman who seeks a breast reduction will have gone through puberty so that her breasts are fully developed

Emotional Reasons for Breast Reduction

Let’s face it: apart from the physical debilitations of having large breasts, a plethora of emotional issues are associated with them as well. Emotional issues can be equally as devastating, but none of the big insurance guns will recognize any emotional issues for needing a breast reduction as legitimate reasons to foot the bill for your surgery.

Emotionally, you know that you may be a candidate for breast reduction if:

• You’d rather tell people that you’re afraid of the water than put on a bathing suit.
• You dreaded co-ed gym class when you had to do anything that involved running or jumping.
• Wearing an A-line dress gives you the appearance of being in an Empire waist dress. Speaking of Empire waist dresses, when was the last time you found an Empire waist dress where your boobs didn’t fall well below the Empire “waist?”

If You’re Suffering From Any Kind Of Neck Or Back Pain Because Of Your Breasts

• You loathe formal occasions because you know you’re never going to find the right strapless bra that will sufficiently hold the “girls” in, and the one dress you do have that you can wear a regular bra with went out of style 10 years ago.
• You were told that you got a job because you had “talent,” as your male interviewer stared at your chest. (This actually happened to me. No lie.)
• You’d love to take horseback riding lessons, but you only want to do it alone and with a female instructor who has a chest that’s at least as big as yours. That is, if you think you can even handle the constant jiggling of your breasts at all. Similarly, you think twice about riding wooden roller coasters.
• You’ve brought two of the same 2-piece suits (but in two different sizes) into a dressing room and played mix-and-match because you need to buy the larger jacket and the smaller size pants or skirt.
• You’re hesitant to wear button-down shirts or dresses because you’re self-conscious of the proverbial “pull” that inevitably happens between buttons #3 and 4, as your breasts stress the buttons and make them look like they’re going to pop at any moment.

I’ve said these things very tongue-in-cheek, but they are very real issues that large breasted women deal with, everyday. Sometimes the things we look forward to most become hurdles for women who are hampered with large breasts.

Sadly, very large breasts can cause women to have first-time intimacy issues because they think their breasts are unsightly. And, honestly, some can be. Large breasts can leave women with stretch marks as the weight of the breast drags the skin down. They’re often misshapen. They can also have enlarged areolas that aren’t the size of a nickel or quarter, but more like the size of a small pancake. Ok, maybe not the size of pancakes, but you get the idea.

There is a definite stigma that comes with having large breasts, and many women will do anything to get rid of it. So I’m glad you’re here.

Who is Not a Candidate for Breast Reduction?

Even if you have large breasts, you may not be a candidate for breast reduction if you have one of the following symptoms or conditions:

• You are not seeking a breast reduction to alleviate physical symptoms, but are seeking one for cosmetic reasons only (e.g., you are not at least a D-cup).
• You have breast cancer.
• You have uncontrolled diabetes.
• You have cellulitis, which is an infection of the soft tissue of the breast.
• You have hardened or dry and broken breast skin.
• You are breast feeding. You must give yourself sufficient time for your breast milk to dry up before proceeding with the surgery.

You may also not be a candidate if you haven’t gone through puberty and your breasts aren’t fully developed. Your plastic surgeon may give you an intermediary breast reduction to “hold you over,” if you have an extreme case. In any event, your plastic surgeon can help decide if breast reduction is right for you and best determine the procedure which will give you your desired results.