Where to find a small prosthesis

Binney4

Hi!

I've got a friend who's trying to find a proportionately small prosthesis for her small frame and having no luck.  At the moment she's stuck with the fiber-fill sort, but she'd like one that's more natural looking and feeling. Any thoughts? I recall there's one you can cut to size (or was I dreaming that?!) Would something like that work?

Thanks!
Binney

12954

Having been there, if you are truely small the options are limited. I have a size 1, which in realitly is a little big. The fitter offered to try a partial prothesis meant for post lumpectomy , but I found that just too depressing. The Ameona foam forms run small, My size 1 is considerably smaller than the real (silicon) one. I bought one online -It was inexpensive enough to try without using the insurance deductible. I have reachd the point that more often than not I don't wear any form ( the biggest benefit of being small), but when I do it is almost always the foam-- Good luck there's nothing like going to a shop only to be told you are too small for anything we stock.

OneBadBoob

Can we give a shout out to Erica (Barbara) who is probably the most knowledgeable?

purplemb

I have a set of the inserts, I also have a size one... these were from JC penney too.. they are much smaller and more real than the foam forms..

good luck

MB

She-ra

How small is she? I'm 100lbs, 5'3, 32 inch chest and wear a size 4 prosthesis which is the biggest I could go and still look natural. Size 1 is extremely small.

Dx 4/15/2008, IDC, 4cm, Stage IIb, Grade 2, 3/9 nodes, ER+/PR+, HER2-

BoobsinaBox

Binney,

PALs are mentioned on BreastFree.org.  I have two pairs, one is the smallest they make, which is about a 34B or 36A, and one is a 36B.  Barbara ordered a special size which is smaller than their usual A cup.  I don't know how happy she is with it, but I love mine.  I wear the A cup pair pretty much all the time, after going without anything for a year and a half following my bilat in 2006.  As I recall, they only charged Barbara an extra $10 for the smaller, special order pair (that would be $60 for a pair).  Check with BreastFree and also somewhere on this forum (early on the favorite bras and prostheses thread, I think). She wrote about her special order, and I wrote about mine as well.  It was sometime late last summer - July or August, I think.

Dawn 

Erica3681

Edited to say: Dawn, I think we were posting at the same time! You covered some of what I said, below, but I'll leave my post as is. I like my Pals forms, but these days seem to mostly wear my Silique Comfort Lites.

Hi Binney,

I think the one you're remembering is the PALs form. It's a non-silicone gel form and can be cut away to make it smaller. The smallest size they sell still fits me like a large B, though, and cutting away wouldn't make it smaller-enough. But you can order custom forms from them. I did that (the salesperson suggested a half-size smaller than their smallest regular-size triangle form) and the resulting form is a nice A cup size on me. These forms can be worn directy against the skin. Some people love them, others not so much. They're very inexpensive, so a great backup form. You can read about them, with a link to their website, in the Breast Forms section of BreastFree.org, under Non-Silicone Forms.

I myself wear a size 2 or 3 silicone form, depending on the form. But my experience is that the sizes aren't always consistent in different styles, even from the same manufacturer. For example, I wear a size 3 in the Amoena Climate breast form. I originally tried a size 2 and it was tiny. I'm sure a size 1 would be very very small in that form. However, when I tried the Amoena Natura 3S form, the size 3 was way too big for me. So it will probably take some trial and error for your friend to find a small form that fits, but I think there are at least a few out there.

The idea of using an "enhancer" might be a good one. I tried Silique's enhancer, which has a cool-max backing, so can be worn comfortably against the skin. It was too small for me, but might be just the thing for someone looking for a AA or smaller. Here's a link to an online site that sells it: http://www.smartshopforwomen.com/products/924/Slique-Breast-Form-Enhancer-With-Cool-Max-Back.htm.

Hope this helps!

Barbara

sushanna1

Not sure if this will help, but I am somewhere between an A and a AA and after a lumpectomy, re-excision and three excisional biopsies purchased an Amoena Balance 2D size 2.  (Not sure whether it is silicon or gel.)  I find that it slips around regardless of the type of bra that I use so I wear it about half of the time.  It has becp,e increasingly difficult to find any kind of attractive bra in a 36AA!  I used to wear teeny bopper stretch bras, but now am just too uneven to pull it off.  I don't like padded bras so relunctantly moved up to what are referred to as "tee shirt" bras, but they sure look padded to me.  Barbara--Thanks for the link.

Sue

Binney4

Thanks, all! I just knew I could count on you Sisters to have grappled with this and come up smiling. You all rock!
Be well!
Binney

She-ra

Binney, I just came across this on ebay, a size 0 breast form from Airway. I had a few from this brand and they are very high quality.  

http://cgi.ebay.com/Airway-Post-Mastectomy-Breast-Form-Small-sz-0-New_W0QQitemZ220403289049QQihZ012QQcategoryZ20403QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem