Breast Reduction/Lift Post Radiation

Posted by vegada @vegada, Aug 17 7:47am

Hello all,
I had Stage 1 ER/PR HER2- breast cancer in 2020. I had a lumpectomy, radiation and am currently on Anastrozole. I am considering a breast reduction and lift now 4.7 years post cancer treatment. Has anyone done this? If so, do you know if this raises any further risk for lymphedema or breast cancer recurrence? Any feedback anyone has would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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seathink | @seathink | Aug 18 5:36pm

Hi @vegada ,

I had a mastectomy and then Diep-Flapp on my right side, followed later by a lift/breast-reduction on my healthy breast (the left side) about 8 months after to even things out, so a little different than you are thinking but similar enough. Hopefully you'll get more comments than mine!

My team is not more worried about lymphoma on the lifted side, since the other side is where they took out the lymph nodes. What the lift has done is create more scar tissue and necrosis, making self exams scarier, and it has prompted additional follow up scans to check out lumps and bumps I find beyond my usual routine of alternating mamo+ultrasound and MRIs.

I definitely don't regret the lift - I had been breastfeeding at time of diagnosis and left boob had been huge with milk since the tumors squeezed out right boob's healthy milk-making stuff, so I like being less saggy, but I do wish someone had let me know how much extra monitoring I would need to do for peace of mind.

I hope this helps!