What is breast reduction?
Breast reduction surgery removes a lot of the breast tissue and skin from the breasts. This reshapes and lifts the breasts and reduces their size. It can also make the dark area around the nipple smaller.
Your doctor makes a cut around the dark area and down to the crease under the breast. The cut is called an incision. To reduce the breast size, the doctor removes extra skin and breast tissue. The doctor sews the remaining skin together. This tightens and lifts the breasts. The surgery may pull the nipples and the area around them into a different spot on the breasts. Your doctor may need to move your nipples higher. You may lose some feeling in them because of this. The doctor closes the incisions with stitches.
After surgery, your breasts will weigh less. But you may have lasting scars on your breasts. And you may have less feeling in your breasts and nipples. Breast reduction may make it hard to breastfeed.
Breast reduction surgery is usually done in a hospital or surgical centre. You will likely be asleep for your surgery. You will probably be able to go home the same day. Depending on the type of work you do, you should be able to go back to work or your normal routine in 2 to 3 weeks. The incisions leave scars that usually fade a lot with time.
Follow-up care is a key part of your treatment and safety. Be sure to make and go to all appointments, and call your doctor or nurse call line if you are having problems. It's also a good idea to know your test results and keep a list of the medicines you take.
Surgery can be stressful. This information will help you understand what you can expect. And it will help you safely prepare for surgery.
Where can you learn more?
Go to https://www.healthwise.net/patientEd
Enter E381 in the search box to learn more about "Breast Reduction: Before Your Surgery".