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Does Breast Feeding Increase Your Risk For Saggy Breasts After a Breast Augmentation?
The breast augmentation that you had sometime in your past has really added sizzle to your sex appeal and sex life. And now, well, you’re pregnant!
Or maybe, perhaps, you have even just given birth to a wonderful baby. (This latter scenario isn’t very likely though. No, not the giving birth to a “wonderful baby” part, but if you have just delivered, you wouldn’t be reading this right now though my blogs can be pretty humorous and addicting!)
You are contemplating whether or not to breast feed but you are very concerned because your friends have told you that breast feeding will cause your breasts to sag and lose their allure and beauty. This is making your decision a little bit difficult.
What should you do?
Let’s examine whether or not it is true that breast feeding leads to droopy, unattractive breasts or if this belief is just an unfounded old wives’ tale.
The definitive answer to this relationship is not yet clear and, of course, there are individual variables and factors that will ultimately determine your particular outcome. However, a recent plastic surgery study has produced evidence indicating that breast feeding by itself does not lead to (increased) sagging of the breasts.
Wouldn’t that be nice!
This plastic surgery study was done at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine and the results were presented at the recent annual meeting of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Changes in breast measurements of 57 women with breast implants who had nursed for at least 6 months were determined and then compared with those of a similar group of 62 women who also had previously undergone a breast augmentation but who didn’t breast feed. The breast measurements were taken prior to pregnancy and again either at one year after pregnancy or a year after stopping breast feeding.
What were the findings?
After analyzing thenumbers, it was discovered that there were no significant differences in either the measurements or breast sagging between the women with breast implants who breast fed versus those who did not. The data revealed that it was the pregnancy itself that led to breast sagging and deflation and not the breast feeding. This finding is also consistent with the results of a previous published study but it involved women who did not have breast implants.
Though the results from this recent study are encouraging, particularly for women considering breast feeding, the findings shouldn’t be taken as gospel yet. Additional and larger studies will need to be performed in the future in order to better ascertain the validity of this finding.
If you would like more information on a breast augmentation, breast implants or for any other plastic surgery procedure that I perform, please call my office at 480-451-3000.
Steven H. Turkeltaub, M.D. P.C.
Scottsdale and Phoenix, Arizona