Breast lift surgery, also called mastopexy, is a popular cosmetic procedure for women looking to raise the position of their breasts or correct breast sagging. However, in addition to enhancing the appearance of the breasts, a breast lift can sometimes provide a couple of other significant benefits. Although most people don’t realize it, a successful breast lift procedure can both improve your posture and reduce your back pain. Here, we’ll take a closer look at these little-known advantages of this common cosmetic surgery.
How Does a Breast Lift Work?
Before examining the benefits of a breast lift, it’s helpful to have an understanding of how the surgery works. Although each breast lift procedure is tailored to the specific needs of the patient, the surgery typically involves removing excess skin from the breasts and reshaping the remaining breast tissue. The goal of mastopexy is to lift the position of the breasts, improve breast symmetry, and give the breasts a fuller and firmer appearance. In many cases, a breast lift will be combined with breast augmentation or breast reduction.
How Does a Breast Lift Improve Your Posture?
If you have sagging breasts, there’s a good chance that they’re negatively affecting your posture—even if you don’t realize that it’s happening. When your breasts are low on your chest, their weight is constantly pulling down on your shoulders and neck. That extra weight can subconsciously cause you to shift your shoulders forward and hunch when you’re sitting, standing, or walking. When you undergo a breast lift, the weight of your breasts will be higher up on your chest, which will reduce the amount of pull on your shoulders and make it much easier for you to sit and stand up straight.
Although a breast lift on its own can improve your posture, it tends to be even more effective when combined with a breast reduction.
Reducing Back Pain With a Breast Lift
When you have breasts that are large and saggy, they can often cause a variety of unpleasant symptoms, including:
- Back pain
- Neck pain
- Shoulder pain
- Stiff neck
- Difficulty exercising
Ultimately, these symptoms are directly related to the poor posture caused by large, sagging breasts. That additional weight on the front of your body puts quite a bit of pressure on your upper back, shoulders, and neck. This pressure alone can cause pain and discomfort, and when you spend significant amounts of time hunched over, that tends to exacerbate the problem. For many women, simply raising the position of the breasts with a breast lift can alleviate back, shoulder, and neck pain. However, if you have large breasts, you may also require breast reduction to completely eliminate your discomfort.
What Is the Takeaway?
If you believe that the position of your breasts is causing you pain and negatively affecting your posture, a breast lift procedure may be able to help. However, to achieve major results, you may also need to undergo a breast reduction. When you sit down for a consultation with Dr. Stephens, he’ll be glad to evaluate your situation and help you determine if one or both of these procedures are right for you.
