Many teenage girls with small breasts wish that their breasts were a whole lot larger and dream of having a breast augmentation. They clearly see the positive attention directed towards women flaunting their sizable and voluptuous cleavage and wish that they had the same.
But there is also a dark side to having large breasts…
There are countless teenage girls whose massively large breasts (also known as macromastia) are a curse to them, physically and emotionally. Not only are they uncomfortable, make it difficult to find appealing, properly fitting clothing and present significant problems engaging in many physical activities but they also attract extremely undesirable attention. Boys may frequently stare at their breasts or make unwanted and degrading sexual comments. Girls can be even more ruthless and vicious in their approach to the point of adversely affecting socialization.
One of the frequent emotional consequences of this undesirable attention during such a vulnerable period of a girl’s life is low self-esteem. Associated with this can be general unhappiness, depression, withdrawal, impairment of socialization, weight gain and eating disorders. Any one of these alone can be quite destructive and even devastating.
A study was recently performed that evaluated the emotional impact that large breasts had on teenage girls. The findings revealed that they had a significant negative effect on the health related quality of life and self-esteem. Even more disturbing, it also discovered a very high risk of eating disorders. When accounting for other variables such as age and body mass index (BMI, a weight related parameter), it was found that the risk of eating disorders in girls with macromastia was triple that of girls without large breasts. Clearly, this is a very significant and serious problem.
Fortunately, breast reduction surgery is a very efficacious procedure for the treatment of large breasts in teenage girls. My experience from having performed breast reductions on countless teenage girls over the years bears this out. However, not every girl with “larger” breasts is a good candidate for the surgery. This must be carefully determined with a thorough consultation.
If you would like more information on breast reduction surgery or for any other plastic surgery procedure that I perform, or to schedule a consultation with me, please call my office at 480-451-3000.
Steven H. Turkeltaub, M.D. P.C.
Scottsdale and Phoenix, Arizona