What happens as you age/gain weight/pregnancy

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Miami, FL - According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), 14.6 million cosmetic plastic surgery procedures were performed in 2012 and breast augmentation was the top surgical procedure. Before any cosmetic surgery, it's not only important to ask questions about what to expect during surgery but also what to expect after surgery.

Dr. Peter Ledoux, a board certified plastic surgeon at the PRMA Center for Advanced Breast Reconstruction in San Antonio explains what happens to breast implants as you age, gain or lose weight or get pregnant.

What Happens to Breast Implants as You Age?
The natural breast tissue changes and becomes more lax over time in all women, including those who have had breast augmentation. This means that unfortunately, some women will experience sagging of their breasts as they age, even after getting breast implants. Some patients will therefore need further surgery in the future, like a breast lift, to address this sagging and restore a more youthful appearance.

Some women can also experience hardening of the breasts over time known as "capsular contracture". If this is severe or bothersome, more surgery is typically recommended. Fortunately, this has become much less frequent as implant technology and techniques have improved over the last several years.

What Happens To Breast Implants if You Gain Weight?
Think about how your breasts change when your weight changes - they can get larger or smaller. Some women lose and gain in their breasts first. For others, it's the last place. Having plastic surgery on your breasts doesn't change any of those tendencies. Your breasts - after a breast augmentation, a breast lift, and even after a breast reduction - can still continue to change size and shape if your weight changes by more than a few "vanity pounds". For example, if you gain weight after a breast reduction, your breasts can increase in size again. The opposite can be true too: If you have a breast reduction and then you lose weight, your breasts can become even smaller than you intended.

What Happens to Breast Implants if You Get Pregnant? Can You still Breast Feed?
Implants do not interfere with pregnancy and usually do not affect breast feeding.
Becoming pregnant after getting implants on the other hand can change how your breasts look, both short term and long term.

Breasts can change significantly with pregnancy regardless of whether you have implants. Most women become significantly larger breasted with pregnancy and breast feeding. This is known as "engorgement" and does not involve or affect the implants themselves. Once breast feeding stops, the breasts usually change again - women experience loss of volume and sagging. Many women actually end up smaller breasted than before pregnancy and a "touch-up" procedure is sometimes needed to restore a youthful appearance to the breast even if you've had breast augmentation before pregnancy.

Source HERE

This is my biggest worry, I'm planning to have mine done may next year at age 26 but me and my husband if we have a baby would like to do it before being 30 so I won't even get a good 5 years out of my boobs before they change again due to pregnancy (whys it the women who get the short end of the stick every time) ha. Anyone had theirs done and then been pregnant and not seen much change? X

We have had many women here hun who's boobs have remained the same after pregnancy. I think for us women its just the genetic luck of the draw MrsB. If you keep your boobs nice and supple throughout pregnancy then this will help prevent any differences but it won't guarantee there won't be.

It all depends on your skins elasticity. If you have good skin, they should hold up well, but if not... Pregnancy can have an impact on how they'll look after. Xx

Thanks, I found this really helpful and I think I can't just put this off because one day I might have a baby, I was thinking I might put off having it done until after a baby but then I think there'd be something else I didn't like of my body. I'm pretty happy with it at the moment apart from my boobs of course so the sooner I can get them done the better. I keep going through stages where i talk myself out of doing it, but I'm probably 95% sure it's the right thing to do next year, I think it'll make me feel so much more confident. Xx

I worry about this too! I got my BA at the age of 24 when babies weren't even on the agenda! I was asked whether I was planning a pregnancy anytime soon, as it would be better to wait until afterwards but I wasn't so I went ahead with it. I am now 28 and still no baby but I would like my first by the time I'm 31 (I need to find a husband first ha!) so that would give me about 7 years after BA.
There's some threads on here from pregnant buddies which you should find useful. I'm hoping that moisturising them, wearing a good sports bra and not breast feeding (it's not something that I have ever wanted to do) will keep them okay! xxx

MarieMc85 wrote:I worry about this too! I got my BA at the age of 24 when babies weren't even on the agenda! I was asked whether I was planning a pregnancy anytime soon, as it would be better to wait until afterwards but I wasn't so I went ahead with it. I am now 28 and still no baby but I would like my first by the time I'm 31 (I need to find a husband first ha!) so that would give me about 7 years after BA.
There's some threads on here from pregnant buddies which you should find useful. I'm hoping that moisturising them, wearing a good sports bra and not breast feeding (it's not something that I have ever wanted to do) will keep them okay! xxx

Thanks for the threads, will take a look. Same here about moisturising/sports bra/no breast feeding, defo with you on them. Xx