Indications

Traditionally, the indications for breast reduction were a spectrum of interrelated problems:

• physical symptoms:
  • neck ache
  • back ache
  • chronically poor posture
  • shoulder skin indenting from bra straps
  • mastalgia
  • upper limb neurological symptoms such as paraesthesia
  • infra-mammary intertrigo
  • inability to exercise
• psychological symptoms:
  • embarrassment
  • low self-esteem
  • depression

Associated problems included an inability to purchase correctly sized clothes. Together, these symptoms can lead to social alienation.

However, increasingly fewer women are being offered breast reduction surgery on the grounds of an increased operative risk with higher body mass index(1). Typical BMI figures quoted range from 30 to 35 in the United Kingdom.

Reference:

• (1) Chun YS, Schwartz MA, Gu X, Lipsitz SR, Carty MJ. Body mass index as a predictor of postoperative complications in reduction mammaplasty.Plast Reconstr Surg. 2012;129(2):228-233.