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| The mommy makeover is popular. More than 118,000 breast augmentation sugeries were performed in 2006 on women in their 30s. |
U. City women leave their
post-pregnancy profiles behind
Her swimsuit cover up slips easily off her shoulders, and she smiles, feeling less self-conscious this year. As her children drop their towels and head toward the edge of the water, she grabs the sunscreen and her book.
Quickly engrossed in the story, she doesn’t notice that several heads have turned her way. “Are those new?” the looks she gets seem to ask. “Are they real?”
From A to C
Bustlines are rising all over the country, and University City women aren’t lagging (or sagging). Dubbed “the Mommy Makeover,” breast enhancement surgery is keeping local plastic surgeons busy and women throughout the area talking about who’s done it and who’s planning on doing it.
Rene, a 31-year-old nurse at Carolinas Medical Center-NorthEast, went from an A cup to a full C cup last September with the help of Dr. David Klein of Renaissance Plastic Surgery in Concord.
The mother of a 2-year-old said she enjoyed the fuller figure she’d had while she was nursing her daughter. “When I stopped breastfeeding, my breasts completely went away, said Rene, who stands 5 feet, 10 inches and has always had a tomboyish figure. “I said to myself, ‘That’s just not fair.’ I felt like I had the chest of a 12-year-old — I didn’t feel like a woman anymore.”
Surpassing liposuction, breast augmentation is now the top cosmetic procedure, with nearly 330,000 performed in the United States in 2006, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Some 118,500 breast augmentations were performed on women in their 30s, an increase of 9 percent over 2005.
“The fear (about silicone implants) is gone. The controversy has finally been put to rest, and it’s now known that the safety of silicone is equal to saline,” said Klein, who reported performing 165 breast augmentations in 2007 (up 65 percent from 2006).
Dr. Joseph Hunstad, who has been a plastic surgeon in University City for 21 years and is the chief of plastic surgery at CMC-University, referred to “a latent demand” for breast aesthetic surgery. For 14 years there was a moratorium on silicone gel implants, but the Food and Drug Administration lifted that in November 2006.
“It’s popular, because it is so safe and it’s highly effective,” said Hunstad, noting 80 percent of the 115 breast enhancement surgeries he performed in 2007 were with silicone implants. “The vast majority of my patients are going with silicone because they feel so natural.”
Goodbye padding
“I’m not quite used to them yet,” Rene said about her new set, which cost her a little less than $6,000. But she’s please she doesn’t have to wear padded bras anymore, and she’s enjoying bathing suit season like never before.
Breast enhancement surgery is for those women who want to get the shapely figure they never had, as well as those who want to get back the fullness in their breasts they lost after pregnancy and breastfeeding. Dr. Peter Capizzi of Stillwater Plastic Surgery in Huntersville said he did 500 breast augmentations and breast lifts last year.
“Most of my patients tell me, ‘I never expected to be here. I just want to be back to where I was,’” said Capizzi. “For most women, it’s ‘If I look good, I feel good.’ They’re doing it for themselves.”
Capizzi, the chief of plastic surgery at Presbyterian Hospital, is one of two plastic surgeons in the state who use a new cohesive silicone gel implant commonly referred to as a “gummy bear implant,” which is teardrop-shaped and doesn’t ripple. Whereas the cost of breast augmentation with saline or silicone gel implants runs $4,500 to $6,000, surgery using the gummy bear implant is closer to $10,000, said Capizzi.
Mommy makeovers are helping women all over U. City, from librarians and pastors’ wives to teachers and corporate executives. In fact, word on the street is that in the late ’90s an entire cul-de-sac of women in Davis Lake had breast enhancement surgery.
“The biggest misconception is that this is for women who want to show off their breasts — those who want double D’s,” said Klein. “The most common thing I hear is, ‘I don’t want to be big. I was happy with a B cup before having kids.’”
“Breasts lose volume. They often deflate post-nursing,” said Klein. “And they go south because the skin has been stretched and is less elastic, and gravity is pulling them down.” Breast augmentation — often coupled with a breast lift — transforms flat and/or saggy breasts into a more rounded and youthful bustline.
Most of her girlfriends have gone under the knife, said Pam, a 36-year-old mother of three, who had her surgery done by Hunstad last June. Before Pam had children, she was “an average C,” she said, “but when I was breastfeeding, I was ridiculously gigantic.” After three kids in six years, her C-cup bra was filled with loose skin. “I took Dr. Hunstad my favorite bra and said, ‘This is what I want to wear,’” said Pam, explaining she really didn’t want to go bigger.
Pam described her surgery as “a little restoration,” explaining that saline implants and a full breast lift added fullness. “Most of my friends didn’t even notice,” added Pam, noting her $6,500 procedure left her feeling “refreshed and a little more complete.”
Going from flat-chested on Thursday to back to the office on Monday as a C cup is as easy as a three-hour outpatient procedure. Many local plastic surgeons have in-office surgical suites.
Spending the company bonus, stuffing the piggy bank
The choice to size up to a C cup or D cup is a personal one, according to Hunstad, who has performed some 11,500 breast augmentations on patients from all over the country since 1995 and who speaks and teaches internationally. “They don’t want to be Dolly Parton. Most women want to achieve a figure that’s in balance with the rest of their body. Typically, it’s from an A cup to a C cup.”
Interestingly, however, he said breast augmentation size varies by region in the United States. “Women in California and the Southeast tend to choose the largest implants,” said Hunstad, who refers to the months of January through April as “breast aug season.”
It’s the time of year not only when women see the tank tops and bathing suits ahead, but also when bank bonuses are distributed and tax refunds electronically hit bank accounts. “Women are paying for (breast augmentation surgery) every which way you can imagine,” said Hunstad. Whether they put it on a credit card or take out a home equity loan, the cost is within most women’s reach, he said.
“At this stage in their life, they have a house and a decent car — they are financially sound,” said Klein.
And many have returned to the work force (if they ever left), either as an employee or an entrepreneur. After having surgery at Stillwater Plastic Surgery in Huntersville, Christi, 36, who works in sales, said she’d absolutely do it all over again. Christi said she had always felt the size of her breasts — somewhere between an A cup and a B cup — did not “fit” her 5-foot, 9-inch athletic build.
“It was great not having to worry about padded bathing suits,” Christi said about the new C-cup figure she gained six years ago. “I could choose any suit I wanted, and it looked great.”
Pam said what she recently heard from a younger relative leads her to believe that the next generation of women sees breast enhancement surgery as the next step after their child-bearing years are over. “My sister-in-law told me her friends are stashing money away a little at a time away, so that they’ll be ready to have it done,” said Pam. “It seems a lot of younger women are already planning for it. ”