Aquired Asymmetry

Hi Mr Alvi,

It's so nice of you to take the time to answer questions on this forum thank you.

Its very long and hard to explain but here goes....

I have not always had breast asymmetry. I was only just 16 when I got pregnant and had my son and I dont think my breasts were fully developed by then, they were a size A and had a very wide gap inbetween. (I liked them though.) When I was pregnant they were a large C so the skin got stretched a lot and I have stretch marks which are quite prominent even now, 9 years later. After the pregnancy my breasts never grew anymore. I had implanon contraceptive fitted in my left arm a few weeks after my son was born. They got more full-looking because of contraceptives, and because I put on a stone, but it wasn't real/permanent growth.

Last year, around July/August I stopped hormonal contraceptives altogether because of mood swings. My boobs went completely FLAT for a while after stopping. I lost about a stone too. I remember thinking I might even take the pill to fill them back out! They deflated totally. And in then in the September my left breast grew suddenly. It hurt like mad and swelled up for about 5-6 weeks, got very red and warm to the touch. The veins were very prominent. Even the breast tissue in my arm pit and the 'comet tail' of tissue on my chest swelled, grew and hurt like mad, and I got shooting pains down my left arm, right where the scar from implanon was. My right breast stayed the same, it filled out a little bit from the total flatness after stopping implanon but it didn't hurt at all. This really freaked me out and upset me because the difference was noticable, I spent ages looking in the mirror and trying on different tops and bra's to hide it. I'd never heard of anyone having two different sized breasts. went to my GP 3 times but I did'nt feel like she was listening to me so I changed my GP. My new one listened more and seemed more concerned. He put me on antibiotics to check it wasn't an infection. It wasn't, so he referred me to the breast clinic at hospital, asking specifically that they do an ultrasound. He did mention the big scary C word, but told me not to worry as he didn't think it was that. I went to the breast clinic and I didn't get an ultrasound I was just examined by hand. The breast specialist concluded it was just something hormonal, which is what my first GP said. So i just had to accept that my boob had grown permenantly and it wasn't temporary swelling that would eventually subside.

Every period I had since then, my left breast has swelled up (even the breast tissue under my arm) and hurt far more than the right. This has slowly slowly got better over time and during my last period in May it hardly hurt and swelled up at all. But the breast tissue in the crease of my left armpit always hurts, all through the month and because its bigger than the other side its annoying, it feels like holding a newspaper or something under my arm constantly, like it gets in the way. Its also a constant reminder of what happened so I can never really relax and forget about it. I thought for a while it might be accessory breast tissue but I have no real clue as I'm not a doctor.

So now, my left breast protrudes from my chest more than the right by about an inch. Its heavier. There is a palpable mass of breast tissue at the bottom of the left breast that is not there at all on the right side. The infra mammery crease on the left is lower than on the right. The large gap I have always had between them is not as wide, because the left breast is now wider and has a little cleavage but the right one looks underdeveloped next to it. The midline of my chest looks as though its off to one side, but I think its just because the left breast is wider. When I bend over forwards, my breasts are kind of long and not very wide and the left on hangs lower. The left nipple is now higher than the right as the breast is more pert and full. And to make it even more complicated, I found out that I must have always had (or have somehow developed) rib asymmetry. My whole rib cage sticks out further on the left at the bottom and some of the individual rib bones in my chest at the top near my collar bone are uneven. My left shoulder looks slightly off as well, they're uneven so I'm worried that it could be a problem with my back. I have rheumatoid arthritis and thought it may be related?

So I'm scared that the strange swelling and pain in the left breast will cause me problems with capsular contracture or put me at more risk of complications... I think that maybe the 'pockets' under my breasts that implants fit into could be different sizes maybe. I think that my ribs might affect the even-ness. And more than ANYTHING I want a surgeon who will take these things into account.

I know I cant expect perfect symmetry. I'm just so scared that implants will enhance all these asymmetry/s and make them more obvious if its not done correctly.