Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsBreast ReconstructionWhat Is the Regret Rate for Mastectomies?Common ProblemsTalk to Your SurgeonGet a Second OpinionConsider Your OptionsComplications
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Breast Reconstruction
What Is the Regret Rate for Mastectomies?
Common Problems
Talk to Your Surgeon
Get a Second Opinion
Consider Your Options
Complications
Breast reconstruction after amastectomycan be physically and emotionally difficult. It’s made worse when the results aren’t right. You might be unhappy with your breast reconstruction after a mastectomy for reasons like numbness, scarring, discomfort during exercise, drooping breasts, wrinkling, and more.
While some issues improve within the first year after reconstruction, you should talk to your surgeon if you are still unhappy with the results. Another surgery may not always be the answer, but it is common for women to have one or more corrective surgeries before seeing their desired outcome.
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About Breast Reconstruction
Breast reconstruction after a mastectomy (removal of breast tissue to treat or prevent breast cancer) helps restore the look and feel of breasts. It is an elective procedure that helps some people with breasts maintain their emotional and sexual health while battlingbreast cancer.
Reconstruction often begins with amastectomybut is rarely completed in one surgery. Instead, it typically requires a staged approach involving multiple surgeries over several months.For many, it’s a lifelong process, especially when involving implants. Some people also need unexpected corrective surgeries to get their desired results or to correct complications.
In general, most women with cancer who opt for a mastectomy do not regret the surgery, though some do. Those who choose a bilateral (double) mastectomy are the least likely to regret their decision.
Research published as a survey of more than 1,500 women found that 22 percent of participants experienced regret of more than 25 on a scale of 0 to 100. Only 15 percent of participants who had a double mastectomy expressed regret.
Sometimes individuals are unhappy with their results right after reconstruction. For others, time changes their results, leading to dissatisfaction. Regardless of the timeframe, common problems after breast reconstruction include:
If you are unhappy with the results of your reconstruction, talk openly with your plastic surgeon. Expressing concerns may also shed light on complications that need correcting.
Some concerns, such as wrinkling or swelling, often resolve in the months following reconstruction. It can take six months to a year for implants to settle into place. In these cases, your surgeon may advise you to wait before deciding on corrective surgery.
However, they may provide you with corrective breast reconstruction options. These options can vary based on the type of reconstruction,radiation therapy,the size of your breasts, and body type.
Being Honest With Your SurgeonIf you are unhappy with your reconstructed breasts, be honest and upfront with your surgeon. While this may feel uncomfortable, it’s beneficial; they’re used to having these conversations and may not realize you aren’t happy with the results.
Being Honest With Your Surgeon
If you are unhappy with your reconstructed breasts, be honest and upfront with your surgeon. While this may feel uncomfortable, it’s beneficial; they’re used to having these conversations and may not realize you aren’t happy with the results.
While it’s a good idea to talk with your plastic surgeon about your options, getting asecond opinionis always OK. Specific geographic regions may offer corrective techniques you can’t find in your area, requiring you to travel to find one that offers advanced reconstruction options. Check with breast cancer online forums or support groups for suggestions.
How to Get a Second OpinionLook for a board-certified plastic surgeon with extensive experience in breast reconstruction. During your consultation, don’t be shy aboutasking questionsor asking to see pictures. While insurance often covers corrective surgeries, it’s always best to check in with your insurance company before getting the procedure.
How to Get a Second Opinion
Look for a board-certified plastic surgeon with extensive experience in breast reconstruction. During your consultation, don’t be shy aboutasking questionsor asking to see pictures. While insurance often covers corrective surgeries, it’s always best to check in with your insurance company before getting the procedure.
Your options will depend on your unique case. Your surgeon may recommend corrective surgery, waiting,scar creams, or accepting your breasts as they are. It helps to weigh each option’s positive and negative aspects.
Some things to take into consideration include the following:
Corrective Surgery
Often, corrective plastic surgery can fix cosmetic concerns. In some cases, your healthcare provider may even be willing to re-do your breast reconstruction. Your options will vary based on your previous reconstruction and how you healed.
Some common corrective surgeries include:
Accepting Your Breasts As They Are
Sometimes the best option is to wait for a few months to see if swelling, wrinkling, or settling solves the problem. This is especially true right after reconstruction.
Additionally, you and your healthcare team may devise an alternative solution that works for you. For example, some people use padding or abreast prosthesison one side to help with unevenness.
For some, the risk of corrective surgery may not outweigh the benefit. In this case, some people accept their breasts for what they are.
Complications differ from unhappiness with your reconstruction results and must be addressed immediately. Complications after surgery include things such as:
There is an ongoing risk for complications such as:
Symptoms of complications after breast reconstruction include:
Summary
Breast reconstruction after a mastectomy is an elective surgery that helps restore the look and feel of breasts. Some people with breasts may be unhappy with their initial results or with changes that occur over time.
Common concerns include more scarring than expected, breasts that look or feel too small or too big, loose skin, discomfort during exercise, and more.
While more surgery is not always the answer, breast reconstruction can be lifelong and corrective surgeries are common.
12 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Pusic AL, Matros E, Fine N, et al.Patient-reported outcomes 1 year after immediate breast reconstruction: results of the mastectomy reconstruction outcomes consortium study.J Clin Oncol. 2017;35(22):2499-2506. doi:10.1200/JCO.2016.69.9561Wilkins EG, Hamill JB, Kim HM, et al.Complications in postmastectomy breast reconstruction one-year outcomes of the mastectomy reconstruction outcomes consortium (mroc) study.Annals of Surgery. 2018;267(1):164. doi:10.1097/SLA.0000000000002033Friedrich M, Kramer S, Friedrich D, et al.Difficulties of breast reconstruction – problems that no one likes to face.Anticancer Research. 2021;41(11):5365-5375. doi:10.21873/anticanres.15349Amanda Deliere, Deanna Attai, David Victorson, Kristine Kuchta, Catherine Pesce, Katherine Kopkash, Mark Sisco, Akhil Seth, Katharine Yao. “Patients Undergoing Bilateral Mastectomy and Breast-Conserving Surgery Have the Lowest Levels of Regret: The WhySurg Study"Ann Surg Oncol. 2021 Oct;28(10):5686-5697. doi: 10.1245/s10434-021-10452-w. Epub 2021 Aug 25.Cancer Treatment Centers of America.Unsatisfied with your breast reconstruction.breastcancer.org “Numbness After Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction.“City of Hope. “Unsatisfied with your breast reconstruction? Corrective surgery may be an option for you.“breastcancer.org. “Mastectomy and Lumpectomy Scars"cancer.org “Reconstructing the Nipple and Areola After Breast Surgery"Momoh AO, Griffith KA, Hawley ST, et al.Postmastectomy breast reconstruction: exploring plastic surgeon practice patterns and perspectives.Plast Reconstr Surg. 2020;145(4):865-876. doi:10.1097/PRS.0000000000006627Manyam BV, Shah C, Woody NM, et al.Long-term complications and reconstruction failures in previously radiated breast cancer patients receiving salvage mastectomy with autologous reconstruction or tissue expander/implant-based reconstruction.Breast J. 2019;25(6):1071-1078. doi:10.1111/tbj.13428Cancer Treatment Centers of America.Breast reconstruction after mastectomy.
12 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Pusic AL, Matros E, Fine N, et al.Patient-reported outcomes 1 year after immediate breast reconstruction: results of the mastectomy reconstruction outcomes consortium study.J Clin Oncol. 2017;35(22):2499-2506. doi:10.1200/JCO.2016.69.9561Wilkins EG, Hamill JB, Kim HM, et al.Complications in postmastectomy breast reconstruction one-year outcomes of the mastectomy reconstruction outcomes consortium (mroc) study.Annals of Surgery. 2018;267(1):164. doi:10.1097/SLA.0000000000002033Friedrich M, Kramer S, Friedrich D, et al.Difficulties of breast reconstruction – problems that no one likes to face.Anticancer Research. 2021;41(11):5365-5375. doi:10.21873/anticanres.15349Amanda Deliere, Deanna Attai, David Victorson, Kristine Kuchta, Catherine Pesce, Katherine Kopkash, Mark Sisco, Akhil Seth, Katharine Yao. “Patients Undergoing Bilateral Mastectomy and Breast-Conserving Surgery Have the Lowest Levels of Regret: The WhySurg Study"Ann Surg Oncol. 2021 Oct;28(10):5686-5697. doi: 10.1245/s10434-021-10452-w. Epub 2021 Aug 25.Cancer Treatment Centers of America.Unsatisfied with your breast reconstruction.breastcancer.org “Numbness After Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction.“City of Hope. “Unsatisfied with your breast reconstruction? Corrective surgery may be an option for you.“breastcancer.org. “Mastectomy and Lumpectomy Scars"cancer.org “Reconstructing the Nipple and Areola After Breast Surgery"Momoh AO, Griffith KA, Hawley ST, et al.Postmastectomy breast reconstruction: exploring plastic surgeon practice patterns and perspectives.Plast Reconstr Surg. 2020;145(4):865-876. doi:10.1097/PRS.0000000000006627Manyam BV, Shah C, Woody NM, et al.Long-term complications and reconstruction failures in previously radiated breast cancer patients receiving salvage mastectomy with autologous reconstruction or tissue expander/implant-based reconstruction.Breast J. 2019;25(6):1071-1078. doi:10.1111/tbj.13428Cancer Treatment Centers of America.Breast reconstruction after mastectomy.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Pusic AL, Matros E, Fine N, et al.Patient-reported outcomes 1 year after immediate breast reconstruction: results of the mastectomy reconstruction outcomes consortium study.J Clin Oncol. 2017;35(22):2499-2506. doi:10.1200/JCO.2016.69.9561Wilkins EG, Hamill JB, Kim HM, et al.Complications in postmastectomy breast reconstruction one-year outcomes of the mastectomy reconstruction outcomes consortium (mroc) study.Annals of Surgery. 2018;267(1):164. doi:10.1097/SLA.0000000000002033Friedrich M, Kramer S, Friedrich D, et al.Difficulties of breast reconstruction – problems that no one likes to face.Anticancer Research. 2021;41(11):5365-5375. doi:10.21873/anticanres.15349Amanda Deliere, Deanna Attai, David Victorson, Kristine Kuchta, Catherine Pesce, Katherine Kopkash, Mark Sisco, Akhil Seth, Katharine Yao. “Patients Undergoing Bilateral Mastectomy and Breast-Conserving Surgery Have the Lowest Levels of Regret: The WhySurg Study"Ann Surg Oncol. 2021 Oct;28(10):5686-5697. doi: 10.1245/s10434-021-10452-w. Epub 2021 Aug 25.Cancer Treatment Centers of America.Unsatisfied with your breast reconstruction.breastcancer.org “Numbness After Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction.“City of Hope. “Unsatisfied with your breast reconstruction? Corrective surgery may be an option for you.“breastcancer.org. “Mastectomy and Lumpectomy Scars"cancer.org “Reconstructing the Nipple and Areola After Breast Surgery"Momoh AO, Griffith KA, Hawley ST, et al.Postmastectomy breast reconstruction: exploring plastic surgeon practice patterns and perspectives.Plast Reconstr Surg. 2020;145(4):865-876. doi:10.1097/PRS.0000000000006627Manyam BV, Shah C, Woody NM, et al.Long-term complications and reconstruction failures in previously radiated breast cancer patients receiving salvage mastectomy with autologous reconstruction or tissue expander/implant-based reconstruction.Breast J. 2019;25(6):1071-1078. doi:10.1111/tbj.13428Cancer Treatment Centers of America.Breast reconstruction after mastectomy.
Pusic AL, Matros E, Fine N, et al.Patient-reported outcomes 1 year after immediate breast reconstruction: results of the mastectomy reconstruction outcomes consortium study.J Clin Oncol. 2017;35(22):2499-2506. doi:10.1200/JCO.2016.69.9561
Wilkins EG, Hamill JB, Kim HM, et al.Complications in postmastectomy breast reconstruction one-year outcomes of the mastectomy reconstruction outcomes consortium (mroc) study.Annals of Surgery. 2018;267(1):164. doi:10.1097/SLA.0000000000002033
Friedrich M, Kramer S, Friedrich D, et al.Difficulties of breast reconstruction – problems that no one likes to face.Anticancer Research. 2021;41(11):5365-5375. doi:10.21873/anticanres.15349
Amanda Deliere, Deanna Attai, David Victorson, Kristine Kuchta, Catherine Pesce, Katherine Kopkash, Mark Sisco, Akhil Seth, Katharine Yao. “Patients Undergoing Bilateral Mastectomy and Breast-Conserving Surgery Have the Lowest Levels of Regret: The WhySurg Study"Ann Surg Oncol. 2021 Oct;28(10):5686-5697. doi: 10.1245/s10434-021-10452-w. Epub 2021 Aug 25.
Cancer Treatment Centers of America.Unsatisfied with your breast reconstruction.
breastcancer.org “Numbness After Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction.”
City of Hope. “Unsatisfied with your breast reconstruction? Corrective surgery may be an option for you.”
breastcancer.org. “Mastectomy and Lumpectomy Scars”
cancer.org “Reconstructing the Nipple and Areola After Breast Surgery”
Momoh AO, Griffith KA, Hawley ST, et al.Postmastectomy breast reconstruction: exploring plastic surgeon practice patterns and perspectives.Plast Reconstr Surg. 2020;145(4):865-876. doi:10.1097/PRS.0000000000006627
Manyam BV, Shah C, Woody NM, et al.Long-term complications and reconstruction failures in previously radiated breast cancer patients receiving salvage mastectomy with autologous reconstruction or tissue expander/implant-based reconstruction.Breast J. 2019;25(6):1071-1078. doi:10.1111/tbj.13428
Cancer Treatment Centers of America.Breast reconstruction after mastectomy.
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