Articles

A diagnosis of breast cancer turns a woman’s life upside down. Despite roiling emotions, she must make crucial decisions about treatment and figure out how to manage her life in the face of a new reality. Not least among her concerns are the financial ramifications of her illness, particularly if she will need a mastectomy. […]

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Pregnancy and breastfeeding take a toll on women’s breasts. So does extreme weight gain and loss, smoking, aging, and excessive sun exposure or eating a nutrient-poor, high-fat diet. Extreme fluctuations in breast size due to pregnancy and weight changes combined with the natural effects of gravity over time, however, are the primary culprits in causing […]

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Pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding often brings great joy but it can also alter a woman’s body so much that sometimes she feels like she no longer recognizes herself. During pregnancy and breastfeeding, the skin of the breasts and abdomen stretches and loses elasticity, sometimes leaving stretch marks and loose skin. The breasts may sag and […]

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Every year, hundreds of thousands of women in the United States receive breast implants, either to reconstruct a breast lost to cancer or for cosmetic purposes. But three out of four reconstruction patients will experience at least one complication and many will be unhappy with the way their implants look and feel. Women who have […]

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In the midst of the emotional turmoil of realizing that she has cancer, women are faced with critical decisions about treatment. For a woman who must undergo mastectomy, the predicament is further complicated by the array of options available and the decisions she must make about whether, when and how to have breast reconstruction. There […]

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According to the National Cancer Institute, the risk of breast cancer is approximately 12% for women in the general population, which means that one in eight women will develop breast cancer at some point in her life. But the risk is considerably greater for women who inherit a mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene […]

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Many women with very large, heavy breasts suffer years of physical and social discomfort – neck, back, and shoulder pain, rashes under the breasts, difficulty finding clothes that fit, unwanted attention. Breast reduction surgery, or reduction mammoplasty, effectively addresses these problems and improves appearance. Breast tissue and breast skin is resected and the nipple-areola complex […]

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The body’s reaction to surgery depends on many factors, including the type and location of the surgery, the aftereffects of anesthesia, and the patient’s overall health. Beyond the variation from person to person, however, all surgery is trauma to the body – the entire body – and induces a common and predictable response beyond the […]

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Breast reconstruction after mastectomy is a very subjective experience. Different women who undergo the same type of breast reconstruction may have very different perceptions of newly reconstructed breasts depending on the starting point. In general, the best result in breast reconstruction today is achieved with natural tissue, in which the patient’s own body, usually the […]

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For all the joys that motherhood brings, pregnancy can also change a woman’s body in ways that can be physically and emotionally disorienting. For some women, exercise and weight loss will bring back their pre-pregnancy bodies. But sometimes the body has been stretched out so much that it cannot be restored with diet and exercise. […]

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