Reconstruction options for small breasted, petite woman?

Hi famousthecat!

We're sure others will be by shortly to weigh in with their thoughts and advice. In the meantime (at the risk of further overwhelming you!), we'd suggest checking out the main Breastcancer.org site's pages on Types of Breast Reconstruction, for some information on each available option and details about which option might work best for you.

We hope this helps!

--The Mods

I met with a PS right away and that was a mistake because I was overwhelmed and didn’t have any questions ready. You are doing great by doing your research first.

There is a Facebook page called, flat and fabulous that has a lot of good info for people considering their options. Seeing photos has helped me understand the options too.

I’m still deciding and researching so appreciate new posts here

I have heard that New Orleans will work with patients that don’t have in network practitioners available. I would at least call and talk to them and they might be able to refer you to a similar practice near you who would also work with you.

I would be very hesitant to let residents do a complicated recon on me. Explore all options. Measure twice,cut once!

famous - I am also petite and was small breasted. I guess I still am. My first recon was done by a well regarded PS at a fairly high volume, well known cancer center, but she used moderate plus profile implants on me in a direct to implant surgery. They were too narrow and projected too much and just looked weird. I had her swap them out with low plus profile implants and they are much better. I would have preferred low profile implants, but alas I think at this point the original set had stretched my skin too much for that. I had about 170g of tissue removed from each breast and am now sporting 210cc implants. So slightly bigger. So if you decide on implants and want to stay small, definitely talk to your PS about special ordering low profile implants. Even large cancer centers don't tend to keep these on hand. I think this is why the first set were such a poor fit; that was the closest they could get to my original size with what they kept on hand, and my PS doesn't prepare far enough ahead to have special ordered anything, and I didn't know enough to ask. Most women get high or very high profile implants for reconstruction. And most women also get gummy bear (cohesive) implants. My first ones were cohesive but the second set is "responsive", so they are softer and feel much less like foreign objects wedged in my chest. I am pleased with the responsives, and they don't have any more rippling than the first set.

Even with these low profile implants, I still am more comfortable wearing a bra all the time. Implants are just not the same as natural tissue. I didn't have a choice as I was not a candidate for diep due to being so thin. Still, I would not do a diep reconstruction due to the additional down time. Plus, I feel like that's just messing up one part of your body to "fix" another part, and neither of them will come out looking that great. I will try to get some fat grafting to my existing implants to smooth out the edges and match the sides a little better (my cancer side had radiation and the skin has thinned, making that side look a little smaller).

One thing I might have looked into if I had known at the time is a pure fat grafting reconstruction, where they leave the skin and nipple intact, and instead of cutting a free flap from your abdomen, they just lipo out some fat and deposit it where your breast used to be. You probably won't get much projection doing this but if you're already pretty small, you might just end up a little smaller; nearly flat but still with a little bit of shape there. I have no idea how small you are when you say "small breasted". I have not seen anyone else on here with implants as small as mine, and I think mine are still too big.

Good luck with your decision.