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Overview

Women choose breast surgery for many reasons: to restore and reconstruct, to reduce, and to enhance their bodies. A recent national survey by the National Women's Health Resource Center explored women's motivations for breast aesthetic surgery, and found that life-changing events, such as childbirth, significant weight loss or divorce trigger changes in a woman's mindset, inspiring improvements around health, fitness and, for 42 percent of women, physical appearance. Of those women motivated to improve their appearance, nearly half (45 percent) said they would consider plastic surgery to do so. The survey also found that 88 percent of women believe that their breasts contribute to their overall feeling of femininity and more than 90 percent cited the desire to reshape their breasts following a major physical change like weight loss or childbirth as the primary reason they may consider breast aesthetic surgery. So it's not too surprising to find that breast augmentation replaced liposuction in 2006 as the most commonly performed cosmetic surgery in the United States.

Overall the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery estimates that more than 380,000 women in the U.S. had breast augmentation surgery in 2006, a five percent increase over the previous year. While total cosmetic surgical procedures increased 98 percent between 1997 and 2006, the number of breast augmentation procedures jumped a staggering 279 percent during the same period.

Breast augmentation, in which implants are used to increase the size of the breast, is just one of several breast-related cosmetic procedures. Others include breast lift, or mastopexy, breast reduction surgery and breast reconstruction, in which women who have undergone lumpectomy or mastectomy after breast cancer have their breasts reconstructed.

To learn more about the safety, benefits and risks of breast aesthetic surgery, as well as how to choose a qualified plastic surgeon, use this Breast Aesthetic Surgery Tool Kit presented by the NWHRC.

This resource is part of an educational initiative sponsored by Allergan, Inc., maker of the NATRELLE™ Collection of breast implants.