Aging, genetics, and lifestyle all play a part in the way you look. No matter how well you take care of yourself, your body will continue to age. Clients often come to us looking to rejuvenate and redefine their body’s contour into one that’s more youthful, with a breast lift being one of the more common requests. If your sagging or misshapen breasts are bothering you, The Plastic and Cosmetic Center of South Texas in San Antonio, TX can help.
The medical term for breast sagging is ptosis, and it’s something most women will experience at some point as their bodies age. The change is natural and gradual, but that doesn’t mean you have to sit there and let it happen. No one should have to feel bad about the way they look, and many patients pursue breast augmentation in San Antonio.
What Causes Sagging Breasts?
During a woman’s youth, her breasts are lifted and perky thanks to Cooper’s ligaments. Cooper’s ligaments are located within the breast and help them keep their shape and location. Unfortunately, these ligaments can stretch and lengthen over time which can lead to saggy, drooping breasts. While Cooper’s ligaments play a significant role in sagging breasts, they aren’t the only cause.
Sagging breasts can be influenced by aging, a collagen deficiency, hormone imbalance, gravity, and significant weight gain or loss – all of which contribute to the look, shape, and positioning of your breasts.
Can Sagging Breasts Be Prevented?
Aging generally begins to have an effect on a woman’s breasts in her late 30s to early 40s. The degree to which you experience breast sagging is influenced by genetics and your lifestyle. For example, sagging breasts are common in women who have gained weight and failed to lose it. However, they can also occur in women who do lose a significant amount of weight.
Pregnancy can also play a major role in the look of your breasts – particularly if you’ve been pregnant more than once. The combination of larger, heavier breasts and the hormonal rollercoaster that happen during pregnancy can significantly alter the size and shape of your breasts, often leading to sagging or drooping.
Are You a Candidate for Surgery?
During your consultation, your provider will examine the state of your breasts and determine your candidacy for cosmetic surgery. If your breasts are only sagging to a minor degree, it’s possible to maintain your bust through non-surgical procedures. If your breasts have deflated and lost volume, the issue can be corrected by combining a breast lift with breast augmentation.
Significantly sagging breasts, with nipples that point downwards, are usually not correctable with non-invasive treatments. For these clients, a lift may be the best option.
Characteristics of a Good Candidate
You’re In Good General Health
The most important factor regarding a client’s candidacy for surgery is their health. It’s best to be free of all medical and skin conditions before undergoing the procedure. If you have any preexisting conditions, be sure to bring them up to your provider at your initial consultation. They will require a detailed medical history before clearing you for surgery.
Keep in mind that preexisting conditions do not automatically disqualify you from surgery. Many conditions have nothing to do with your ability to heal or undergo surgery. That being said, depending on your condition, your provider may be able to treat it before surgery.
You Still Have Some Skin Elasticity
To achieve the best results, you’ll need to have some natural skin elasticity remaining in your breasts and upper chest. The idea is to create a natural-looking, more youthful contour, and the more elastic your skin is, the better your results can be.
You’re a Non-Smoker
Smoking or using other tobacco products has long been known to thin the blood and increase bleeding. When undergoing surgery, it is extremely important that you’re not using any substances that could influence your body’s ability to heal. If you smoke or use other tobacco products, you’ll usually be asked to quit at least six weeks before your procedure and for several months after.
If you’ve been thinking about quitting smoking, doing so before your surgery is ideal since you’ll have to quit for several months anyway.
Your Expectations Are Realistic
Breast lift surgery can provide amazing results – but it’s important to have realistic expectations about what the procedure can and cannot do. It can, and will, address drooping, saggy breasts, but if your cosmetic goals go beyond your breasts, you may require other treatments or procedures in order to achieve them.
How Long Will a Breast Lift Last?
Every patient is different, and each responds to surgery and medications differently. Generally speaking, your lift will last from ten to fifteen years, though that timeframe can sometimes be extended by taking care of yourself and incorporating the following practices into your daily routine.
Work On Maintaining a Healthy Weight
Anyone looking to lose weight should probably postpone their surgery until they’re at or within a few pounds of their target weight. When you lose significant weight, your skin doesn’t always have the elasticity to bounce back into place, resulting in loose skin in various places around your body – including your breasts. Losing weight after your surgery can also cause your breasts to deflate as you burn fat.
Significant weight gain is something you’ll want to avoid, as additional fat that accumulates in your breasts can cause them to begin sagging and drooping again. If you’re at or near your goal weight, continue exercising regularly and eating a healthy diet to maintain your current shape and weight.
Wear a Well-Fitting Bra When You Exercise
The old wives’ tale that wearing an ill-fitting bra, or no bra at all, will cause your breasts to sag has been debunked by research. If you’re someone who rarely wears a bra, feel free to continue doing so. However, repetitive movements, such as your breasts bouncing up and down while you jog, can cause your breasts to sag because the tissue is pulled down by gravity.
If you’re not sure what size bra is best for you while exercising, keep in mind that it should be tight enough to keep your breasts from moving very much, but loose enough to not be uncomfortable. You may need to try on several different sizes to find the right fit, but it will be worth it in the long run.
Have Your Hormone Levels Checked
Your estrogen levels can influence the state of your skin when it rises or falls significantly. Estrogen fluctuations happen throughout your life and can stem from a variety of causes. Menopause, though, often results in a large reduction in your body’s estrogen levels, and it can cause changes throughout your body.
A reduction in your estrogen level can affect the collagen your skin produces, making it weaker and less effective. Collagen is the protein that keeps your skin healthy, elastic, and able to bounce right back into position when moved. When your collagen levels deplete, or your body is unable to produce quality collagen due to the effects of aging, it can cause your breasts to sag. Having your hormone levels checked periodically can help you avoid hormone-related breast sagging.
Don’t Get Pregnant
Pregnancy is, arguably, one of the biggest drivers of change in a woman’s body. The weight gain it causes can be significant, resulting in a distended abdomen, excess body weight and, you guessed it – sagging breasts.
Regardless of the procedure, you’re looking for, it’s almost never a good idea to undergo cosmetic surgery to tighten your body and achieve a more youthful look and feel if you still plan to have children. Pregnancy often reduces the effectiveness of your surgery as it causes changes to your shape and your skin. The best time to have your procedure done is after you’re finished having children.
What Are the Benefits of a Breast Lift?
Now that you know what a breast lift is and how long it can last, it’s time to find out the benefits of surgery.
You Can Have Firmer Breasts
The procedure does more than simply lift your breasts – it can also result in firmer, much younger feeling breasts. By removing excess skin and fatty tissue, your newly reshaped and relocated breasts will not only look more youthful, but they’ll also feel like it, too.
Your Nipple Projection Will Be Improved
A tell-tale and much-maligned symptom of sagging breasts is a downward nipple projection. Sometimes the skin beneath your breast doesn’t stretch as much as the skin on top as your breasts start to sag. The result is downward-pointing nipples.
During the procedure, as your breasts are lifted to a higher position, the projection of your nipples will also be addressed; the result being perkier, less tubular-looking breasts.
The Shape of Your Breasts Will Change for the Better
Sagging, deflated breasts sometimes lose their shape, becoming more tubular and less round. The shape is usually the result of significant tissue loss in the breasts, often stemming from weight loss, hormone levels, or genetics. Either way, sagging, deflated breasts can seriously impact your self-esteem.
If you’re sick of sagging, deflated, downward-pointing breasts, the procedure will address all of these issues and create a newer, younger, firmer, and rounder breasts.
It Can Relieve Back Pain
One thing that large breasts and sagging breasts have in common is that they can result in back pain. Your back and shoulders are not intended to support a significant amount of weight on the front of your chest and can become fatigued and sore throughout the day. Not all women experience back and shoulder pain due to their breasts, but the condition is prevalent enough that most women have experienced it at least once or twice.
The surgery can help alleviate your pain by repositioning the weight of sagging breasts higher on the chest, putting less strain on your back and shoulders. Women with particularly large breasts may want to look into reducing the size and weight of their breasts if discomfort persists.
Can You Combine Procedures?
Absolutely! If your cosmetic goals include more than just a lift, you can choose to undergo more than one procedure at a time for even more dramatic results. For example, breast augmentation is commonly paired with a lift to not only create more youthful breasts but larger ones, too. Additionally, women who have been pregnant sometimes pair their lift with a tummy tuck to address loose skin and a distended abdomen.
Should your cosmetic goals require more than one procedure, make sure to bring it up to your provider at your consultation.
Contact Us to Get Started
The breast lift is a procedure designed to lift, firm, and shape your breasts to create a youthful, perky contour. The surgery itself can last from ten to fifteen years, though that timeframe may be extended if you take care of your body and your skin by regularly exercising and eating a healthy diet. If you’d like more information about how a breast lift can transform your life, call the Plastic and Cosmetic Center of South Texas in San Antonio, TX at 210-890-2415.
