It does make it almost impossible to breastfeed because so many ducts are cut, they no longer lead to the nipple.
Don’t stress about the financial aspect of this until you have a consult with a plastic surgeon.
I work in breast imaging and meet a LOT of ladies who have a reduction. Most cases are covered by insurance. A plastic surgeon who commonly performs breast surgeries should be able to tell you if you’re a candidate for insurance coverage.
One of my coworkers had this done years ago and told me all about her consult experience. She said they basically had her stand topless with arms at her sides, and dont quote me but something like if they hang lower than her elbows or something in relation to her elbows. I forget that part exactly. They also visually compare breast size in proportion to the rest of the body and look for permanent indentations along top of shoulders from bra straps digging in.
Also they inquired about back or neck pain from the weight of her breast.
They should be able to get an answer from your insurance before being scheduled for surgery.
Don’t assume you’d have to pay everything out of pocket unless your insurance denies coverage.
Good luck!
Thanks for the info! It's helpful.I know when I asked my OBGYN about it at my last appointment she told me that she didn't think Kaiser would cover the procedure unless I lost a bunch of weight. Mind you, I'm not an overly large person, but since they still go by the outdated (in my opinion) BMI chart my BMI number is too high for them.
I still want to at least go in for a consultation, I just need to find the time to make an appointment and see what happens.
I'm usually just a lurker over here but I thought I'd give my two cents here on this topic. I had a reduction about 15 years ago and it was one of the best things I ever did. I was a 34J - J like jugs. Like I had no idea bras even went up to that size as the most I could ever find in a store was a DDD. Like @ruadisneyfan2 states, they'll have you stand with your arms down at your side and your nipple line should be in line with halfway between your elbow and shoulder on your arm. That is the lift part, they will talk with you about what your desired cup size in relation to your body. I went down to a D. If I could have went down to a B I would have, but I was worried about taking so much off. I'm only 5' so on any chart I'm going to be overweight unless I'm like 12 years old. But, it's also really hard to exercise when you literally have two dumbbells on your chest.
Thanks for the info! It's appreciated.
I definitely understand it being hard to exercise. I think it's partially why I lack motivation a lot of the time, because a lot of the things I'd like to do aren't that easy with the excess weight on my chest. I'm like 98% positive that we won't be having kids and even if we did I don't think I'd want to breastfeed anyway. I watched my best friend struggle with it and it was a quick nope from me. a family member has kaiser and had this done in april 2022. kaiser (at least in our area) is contracting out for this and wait times to get appointments can be 6 months minimum/surgical another 6 months so you might want to see how far out they are even booking. kaiser paid for the procedure-no weight loss required b/c the surgeon found a medical basis to justify it. we helped with recovery-best investments ever were-shower chair and shower wand, and a transport (push style) wheel chair (less than $100 from walmart online). since the procedure was outpatient we opted to stay with them the night of the procedure at a hotel down the road-it was SO helpful getting them into hotel/home (that anesthesia knocks some folks loopy for a couple of days).
both cases it was straight forward job loss, no employer contesting anything, all paperwork submitted from day one.
we were VERY lucky to find someone who could repair/reinforce without waiting until 2024 (it was next to impossible to even get someone to come out to take a look to let us know if it was safe to walk in vincinity of it). we decided pre-repair that we could either pay a chunk of change for repairing the old hot tub or invest more and go with a new one with a warranty (as impossible as it seemed to find someone to work on the deck it is harder still to find hot tub repair professionals outside warranty work) so we decided to to bite the bullet and order a new one (it will also be more energy efficient which is a plus). we were so pleased with the deck work we asked for a bid, thinking that next year we might consider getting it refinished AND replacing the wood spindles with cables. well.............bid came back, the company has some time available inbetween the insurance jobs they normally do so..............the large hot tub repair is now going to be a much more costly new hot tub, newly reinforced, refinished and cabled deck.
that emergency fund is SO important! my son had a job loss this past february and despite having every iota of documentation EDD wanted/needed to do a claim it took close to 4 months to get a payment. sure, it was retroactive but had he not had an emergency fund he would have been in a world of hurt. he later heard from a another co-worker that their claim took almost a year to process
That's a good point- hadn't thought about that either. Also with DS5 breastfeeding didn't work anyway due to my size, because he couldn't latch properly, so maybe it wouldn't matter anyhow. Definitely something to consider though, I do remember them warning me of that when I went in for a consult at 19. One of the reasons I decided to wait.
Hi fellow shorty! Yes, it was time consuming dealing with insurance regarding the appeals and then PT - which I went into telling them here's why I'm here. They got it and it consisted of me walking on a treadmill for like 20 minutes. Umm if that was all it took to get these things smaller. It just drew out the timeline and eventually they paid for it but just be prepared for it to be a time consuming process. After my reduction I am now able to exercise like a normal person, no more double sports bras or wrestling to get them off. I've even ran a few half marathons. If the insurance doesn't work out, most surgeons offices have payment plans too and while I would rather get insurance to pay, it was so life changing to me that if I had had to pay for it, I would. You will also be amazed on how much easier your clothes fit. It had become so normal to me to have to make adjustments to clothes that it was eye opening. Good luck to you and feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
A lot of our patients who’ve had reductions say they wish they had done it 20 years before.
I have not. I'm not a big muppet fan so it didn't appeal to me. I actually really enjoyed the new version. I definitely feel like you need to be a fan of the haunted mansion in Disneyland though to truly appreciate the movie. It felt like more of a back story on how the haunted mansion became the haunted mansion. More so than the Eddie Murphy version, which I also enjoy.
Did you get your throat swabbed to test for strep? For me, that’s the only thing that makes it hurt to swallow. If it is strep, penicillin would have you feeling soooo much better within 2 days.
