Study - did BA meet or exceed expectations?

by **COOKIE** 17th July 2013, 2:55 pm

A new study published by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) in their May 2013 issue of the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery shows that women reported their breast augmentation expectations were either met or exceeded in 98.1 percent of cases. .

The study, conducted over a 5-year period, polled 225 women who underwent breast augmentation by a single surgeon. The data was gathered by conducting in-person interviews at least one month following completion of surgery. On a scale of one to 10, the mean satisfaction rating was a 9.3, with 98.7 percent of women saying they would choose to repeat the surgery.

"Breast implants are one of those surgeries that make a noticeable difference in women's lives, not just physically but psychologically. Women say they feel better about themselves after surgery, and this poll definitely supports that."

Post-operative breast augmentation questions were asked across six different categories: patient data, indications, recovery, results, complications and psychological effects. All implants were placed submuscularly, predominantly using saline implants via an inframammary incision hidden within the natural crease below the breast. The mean implant volume was 390cc.

The women polled responded that they were happy with their post-augmentation breast size in 85.5 percent of cases, with satisfactory firmness rated at 75.7 percent. Women rated their average self-consciousness level about their breasts at 86.2 percent before surgery, with that number falling to 12.6 percent after surgery. Women also rated their self-esteem higher after surgery (91.1 percent), as well as noticing an improvement in their quality of life (64.3 percent).

"It's hard to explain the positive impact women feel when an issue they've been sensitive about their whole lives, like breast size, is suddenly no longer an issue. Seeing the changes listed as objective numbers is very telling."

Although breast augmentation was the most frequently performed cosmetic surgical procedure last year in the United States, with the ASPS reporting nearly 300,000 procedures performed in 2012, there is only limited data reported that focuses on the procedure from the patients' perspective.

Another post-augmentation survey, this one taken among members of the RealSelf.com online plastic surgery community, shows that 7.5 out of every 10 women would rate breast augmentation as "Worth It." The RealSelf poll focused more on questions about women's sex lives following their augmentation surgery. On a scale of one to 10, respondents averaged a two point increase when asked to rate their sex lives before and after augmentation; 61 percent of women said they had sex more often after their surgery and 70 percent said they noticed an improvement in their sex life.

"It's the self-confidence. When women return to my office for their follow-up after surgery, they just carry themselves differently. You can see they feel better about themselves, and that translates into improvements across multiple areas of their lives, both personally and professionally."

Source HERE

I hope those that have size issues feel better after reading this knowing that after healing 98.1% of women were happy with results. That's a HIGH percentage! It does take some time to go through the recovery and it often doesn't help when women think from reading only early post-op women that most women think their breasts are too small post-op... There's a lot of changes that occur after surgery and as this study proves, on the most part, women aren't actually unhappy with size.... They actually go on to be very happy with what they have.