Understanding Breast Shapes
Have you always felt your breasts were an odd shape? Tuberous breast is a condition some women are born with that causes the breasts to develop an unusual shape during puberty.
Severity of the condition can affect shape and, or symmetry. Women with mild tuberous breast often describe their breasts as pointy, while women with severe tuberous breast may describe their breasts as tubular shaped, narrow, droopy, downward pointing, or asymmetric. These shapes result from underdevelopment of the lower portion of the breast during development due to the presence of constricting bands. These constricting bands can also lead to a high breast fold, large, stretched, puffy-looking nipple (herniated nipple), and short distance between the nipple and fold.
Many women who have tuberous breasts don’t know they have it. Women seeking breast augmentation who have tuberous breast augmentation and don’t know it often say that their main goal is to improve the shape, rather than change the volume. A common request is to use a small volume implant to create a rounder shape.
Treatment of tuberous breast is customized based on your aesthetic goals and degree of severity. The most important step is to release the tuberous bands. Tuberous breast reconstruction might also include:
1. Breast implants to provide rounder structure
2. Liposuction with fat transfer to the breast to add natural volume
3. And internal bra to reconstruct the fold in a lower position
4. A breast lift to re-drape and reshape the breast
5. A tissue expander (inflatable implant) to widen a narrow breast footprint
If tuberous breast is not recognized and an implant is placed, the tuberous shape can become more obvious.
In some stages tuberous breast reconstruction can be performed in one stage. In the most severe cases, tuberous breast reconstruction may be performed in two stages.
If you think you might have tuberous breast and are interested in different options for improving your breast aesthetics, check out the following cases below.
Breast Case 1
This patient wanted to improve shape and rejuvenate the position of her breasts with a decrease in areola size and improvement in nipple position. We reconstructed her tuberous shape with release of constricting bands, a breast lift, an internal bra, and fat transfer to add natural, customized volume.
Breast Case 2
This patient was interested in improving the shape and adding volume to her breasts. We released the constricting bands and added an implant to improve round shape and added fat transfer for custom cleavage lines.
