What results can I Expect from a breast reduction?

What results can I expect from a breast reduction in Sydney?

A breast reduction is a surgical procedure that is designed to reduce the weight of a breast and re-shape it. It almost always involves lifting the nipple of the breast. Most of the weight removed from the breast comes from the lower pole (the segment of breast gland under the nipple when standing).

Because the nipple is lifted, there is always a scar around the areola. Different surgeons will choose different diameters of areola based on multiple factors.

A vertical scar under the areola is almost always necessary. Whilst Specialist Plastic Surgeons in Sydney can lift your nipple & areola, long term shaping requires support from underneath to push the complex upwards. Breast reduction / lift procedures that only leave a scar around the areola tend not to be successful at lifting the nipple & areola well and tend to flatten the breast, rather than reshaping it into a better form.

The horizontal (inframammary fold) scar is the one scar that can be omitted or shortened sometimes. During your first consultation with Dr Gavin Sandercoe, he will draw a surgical plan on your breasts and explain which scars can be adjusted if your breast shape is suitable.

Dr Gavin Sandercoe’s gallery can show you an assortment of breast reduction results, but there are reasons that some results do not make it to the gallery. The most common reason is the presence of combined procedures, a substantial change in total body weight, or that the patient declined the use of their images on the internet. The gallery of Sydney breast reduction results can be located here.

To demonstrate a rapid-fire broad overview of the potential results that could be achieved from a breast reduction, we have compiled a quick list of consecutive patients from 2023 that meet standardised criteria.

Criteria for inclusion:-

1. Attended 3 and 12 month follow up appointments
2. Patient consented to the use of their photography on the internet
3. Photography lighting equivalent on all images
4. No substantial weight changes between time points
5. Not a combined procedure (for example, all patients having an abdominoplasty at the same time or in the follow up period have been excluded)

We reviewed the numbers from Dr Gavin Sandercoe, a Sydney Specialist Plastic Surgeon who practices in Bella Vista, Norwest for 2023 (so that the 12-month appointments, which are sometimes late, are complete). In that year, Dr Gavin Sandercoe performed 59 breast reductions and 6 mastopexies (breast lift with volume preservation).

Of the 59 breast reductions, 18 were combined procedures with an abdominoplasty. A further 6 patients had operations on adjacent areas within the 12 month follow up period. These 24 patients have been excluded from this page as the abdominoplasty (or other operation) will also change the perceived results of the breast reduction.

This leaves 35 stand-alone breast reductions for the calendar year of 2023. Of these:-

• 11 patients did not attend their 12 month follow up
• 10 patients have requested that their photos are not published on the internet
• 3 have tattoos on their torso that cannot be adequately blurred to maintain their privacy without changing their photos.

This leaves 11 valid patients out of starting number of 59!!

Whilst this is a disappointing attrition rate, the remaining 11 patients do show a reasonable breadth of results. There is a reasonable spread of peri-operative weight and shape, and a variety of skin tones presented. Skin tones are important because darker skin colours have a statistically greater chance of having a hypertrophic (raised, pink) scar, which take a long time to settle and fade. There are also patients in this sequence with darker skins that have normal scars at one year, which is the more common outcome.

They also show some of the less discussed complications that can happen with a breast reduction

• Small asymmetries. They are usually in the context of breasts that were uneven to begin with and are usually an improvement on the pre-existing asymmetry.
• Mild dog ears. These tend to happen in women with a pre-existing lateral chest wall roll, and the post breast reduction dog ear is still an improvement on the pre-operative shape. A webpage discussing dog ears after breast reduction is in development
• Hypertrophic scars.

Dr Gavin Sandercoe is a Specialist Plastic Surgeon in Sydney who has performed over 1000 breast reductions and mastopexies (breast lift with volume preservation) and does this procedure at least weekly. If you are looking for a Sydney Plastic Surgeon who is not afraid to show you all their results, and does not gloss over the potential complications, please contact Dr Gavin Sandercoe on the contact form below.