The indication for the breast lift will be given by the plastic surgeon during the pre-operative consultation. The plastic surgeon will perform a thorough medical examination on the patient and also ask questions about the patient’s lifestyle and habits, as well as weight and medical conditions and allergies. All this information is necessary to help the doctor assess the eligibility of the patient for the procedure.
Generally speaking, patients with saggy breasts are good candidates for mastopexy. However, there are certain cases when it is not a good idea to schedule your breast lift. This means that the patient could be a good candidate, but the timing might not be right.
So, when should you not schedule a breast lift?
Before anything else, it wouldn’t be recommended to schedule your breast lift before getting pregnant. One of the causes of breast sagginess is pregnancy, so it is not ideal to elevate your breasts before getting pregnant again. During pregnancy, the breasts might be affected by breast ptosis once again, and hence the results achieved with the procedure will be compromised. Moreover, if pregnancy occurs after the breast lift, an additional procedure might be necessary after breastfeeding stops to correct the imperfections that might occur again.
Aside from pregnancy, there is another factor that can have a significant effect on the aesthetics of the breasts, and this is weight fluctuation. This means that patients should never schedule their breast lift if their weight is fluctuating or they don’t have a normal weight. When we gain weight, the breasts can increase their volume, just like any other feature of the body with adipose cells. When the weight goes away, the breasts can become saggy as the volume shrinks, but the skin envelope is still the same. This can determine an unpleasant shape of the breasts and a low position on the chest wall.
It can happen for patients to lose a considerable amount of weight and hence their breasts will look like empty bags. This can be the main cause for undergoing mastopexy in the first place, but might just as well happen after the breast lift. Undergoing a breast lift is no guarantee that the breasts will look perky and youthful for a long time, especially if the patient is unable to keep a constant weight. So, the recommendation would be to not schedule the breast lift until reaching a normal weight and keeping it constant for at least six months.
If you ask a responsible plastic surgeon when not to schedule the breast lift, he will also talk to you about smoking and its effects on the healing process and advise you to avoid the procedure if you are a smoker. To get satisfactory results and avoid severe complications, patients should quit smoking three weeks before the procedure and don’t smoke for another three weeks post-op.