Fat Transfer Breast Augmentation

The first thing to know is that the public image of an ideal breast volume and shape, has been largely shaped by media pres­sures, which ignores natural human vari­ations of size, shape and proportions.

While most female breast devel­op­ment will be complete by the age of 18 years, weight gain, weight loss, preg­nancy, breast feeding, will cause many changes to the dimen­sions of the breast.

If you have reason to believe that you would feel happier if you had better volume and shape to your breasts, if you prefer to wear padded bras, you might be a good candidate for breast enlargement.

There are basic­ally 2 ways of adding volume to the breast, either using Breast Implants or through the use of Autologous Fat Transfer or Fat Transfer Breast Augmentation. In some case both proced­ures are combined.

The ques­tion can be answered after a consulta­tion, where your surgeon will eval­uate the volume or capa­city of the breast. If you have lost breast volume after breast feeding, your breast skin envelope will gener­ally be roomier, compared to a young female who has a relat­ively flat chest, and a very taught skin envelope. The roomier the breast skin envelope the more capa­city there exists for fat to be filled into the space.

An ideal Fat Transfer Breast Augmentation patient there­fore will have adequate fat deposits on her tummy, flanks, thighs, and will also have a roomy breast skin envelop.

Both proced­ures are done with the idea of increasing breast volume, while this is done using your own fat tissue in the former, a Silicone Gel Implant is used to increase breast volume, size and shape in the latter.

As we discuss in our pros and cons section, fat transfer and implants are not inter­change­able oper­a­tions. The best outcome of a fat transfer breast enlarge­ment is gener­ally a one cup size increase in breast size, this limit­a­tion does not exist with implants.

The oper­a­tion is done under local anes­thesia, and while the breast will feel swollen, tender and appear bruised for 2–3 weeks, it won’t be very painful. Dr Prashant will always advice you to be prepared for more than one transfer as there is a limit­a­tion to how much fat can be trans­ferred at one time.

There are several limit­a­tions of fat transfer, the first being the avail­ab­ility of excess fat in your body, if you are under­weight and extremely slim there will not be enough fat to harvest. We cannot take the fat from another person and transfer it into your breast!

The other limit­a­tion is the room­i­ness of the breast skin, as explained above.

The pros of fat transfer to the breast are that you get a very natural, lifelong enhance­ment of your breast, without any obvious scars.

The cons of breast augment­a­tion with fat transfer is that the outcomes are not as predict­able as those of a breast implant. This is to do with the survival of the fat tissue in the breast, there might be between 30 – 40% loss of the trans­planted fat.

Another con of fat transfer to breast, is the limit­a­tion of how big the breast can be made. The general consensus is that a successful AFT Breast Augmentation will give you one bra cup size increase.

You might need multiple sittings of fat transfer to achieve implant level breast enlargement.

You can return to work in about a week following the procedure, you will be advised to wear support bras and avoid heavy exer­tion and exer­cises for 2–3 weeks.

The result you get from your fat transfer will last you for your life, as long as you keep your weight constant. You will reduce or increase the result on the basis of weight loss or weight gain.

Dr Prashant gener­ally advices his patients to wait for 3–6 months before eval­u­ating their results following fat transfer breast augment­a­tion. You can see the before and afters in our website results section.