I had such trouble with this myself. I wore a 34DDD, pre DMX, no reconstruction. My measurement underneath is 33. The hospital put me in a Makena bra, size 34-36. I ordered two bras from Masthead, size medium, which were supposed to fit 34-36 as well. They all felt like tourniquets, tbh. I guess because of the swelling. But it hurt worse to have them off, so I made do for about 2 weeks. I ended up with welts along the band, though. Then I got two bras from AnaOno, one size 34, another 36. They were better because they had more hooks to make them adjustable, especially the Rora model. I was still so uncomfortable though, so I bought some Amoena bras, size 36, that weren’t strictly compression bras. Yes, I spent some money, more than I wanted to, because I was so uncomfortable and the welts ended up hurting as much as the incision! It actually broke the skin on one side. I also got one from Meadow. I wore a camisole under it—the nurse told me that trick—to protect the welts. That was great.

Now, 4 weeks out, I can wear the 34s that do not have the full compression, and they feel fine. I really like the AnaOno and the Amoena bras. I know insurance will cover some of it, but I haven’t asked about that yet. So, in my experience anyway, if you can order one in whatever your current band size is and another one one size up, you should be okay. I know some women have gotten by with zip up sports bras they got off Amazon, but I really needed the compression in the beginning. (Masthead and Makena are the compression bras.) If you’d like, I can send you the model numbers of everything I got. There are so many options, I found it overwhelming.

AnaOno, btw, has bras specifically for no reconstruction. And they are not as expensive as the Mastheads.