How do you measure for a compression bra BEFORE double mastectomy?

Good Luck! And guess what? I feel completely normal with my stuffed bras. No heavy breasts and no bouncing when I ride my horses.

@rebeccadixoThanks for the tip. I'm having a masectomy in January and will need what you mentioned.

I got a couple of compression bras from the surgeon and visited a privately owned bra boutique for cancer patients. I got 2 bras that looked lovely but both rode directly on my incision. Then I found that Dollar General have $5 stretch bras that are much more comfortable and they have slits for adding volume. They stretch so much that I can step into them and for $5, so I bought several because they have wide waist bands that keep the bra from directly riding on my incision.

I will be brief, speaking from my own experience. I bought a compression bra yet had physical therapy after my double. This was for lymphedema education and while having the therapist working on me.
She had me use a sports bra but cut the long sponge like soft foam to insert into my sports bra. It was much more comfortable than the compression bra and worked like a compression bra.
Sizes are difficult. Frankly, I ditched my compression bra as it felt burdensome and uncomfortable.
Talk to a physical therapist prior surgery.
Heres what she cut for me… 11 years ago and i still keep it.
The “T” cut is so the foam wraps under my armpits and a bit behind my back.
Also consider redlight therapy and a mini tramp. I bought the one step from Amazon. Jumping a few times a day for 10-20 mins will help move the lymphatic fluid and I joined a spa that had redlight therapy.
Some Planet Fitness places have one, but planet fitness was not in my area years ago so I went to a tanning spa.
There are home redlight therapy machines available today.
Just research the higher rated ones.
I have not dealt with lymphedema.
I believe these measures were helpful.
Best to you.
I hope this helps and will relieve some of the stress with all the overwhelming information we get.
One day at a time, ladies. Dont borrow trouble.
God is WITH you in this.

@janetnd

Here’s the name

I did not have a mastectomy but I needed one after my lumpectomy- I went into a Woman’s boutique that was made for fitting pre and post surgery. Might ask around. I’m in TX and the one I went to had several locations

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.