Why I'm Glad I Had Breast Reduction Surgery After 50

Whenever I visited my mom’s condo, I was reminded of my 12-year-old self, in an 8x12 picture, posing for my softball team photo. I was so flat-chested that a long-ago boyfriend said I looked like a boy in the picture. And a visitor to my mom’s place saw that picture of me and said, “Your grandson is adorable!”

When I hit puberty at age 13 I quickly grew into a C-cup, where I stayed for many years until I had my daughter at 36. My breasts grew progressively larger and droopier, along with weight gain and loss, until they reached triple-D status in my late 40s. It was hard to find tops that fit, and I felt that I always looked heavy because of my large chest.

Considering breast reduction surgery

Over the years I had talked to friends and family about the possibility of breast reduction. It seemed expensive and rarely covered by insurance, so I never followed through with it. But the thought of it always intrigued me.

In 2022, a good friend of mine mentioned that she needed to replace her implants, as they were 20 years old. She had the surgery and raved about her surgeon. When I told her I had considered breast reduction, she mentioned that he often did breast reduction surgeries, too. Plus, she said she knew of a program that would allow me to pay in monthly installments with no interest.

In the last few years, I started doing triathlons, and it was a struggle to swim, cycle and run with triple D’s, so I was now much more open to the surgery.

Before I moved forward, I talked to my husband. He told me he would be fine with the surgery. He is a butt man, not a breast man, and very supportive in general, so I wasn’t surprised.

The procedure costs were around $10,000. That is in line with the average cost of a cosmetic breast reduction, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The average surgeon’s fee is $7,800 with additional fees for anesthesia, hospital or surgical facility costs, and other costs.

​Older women wanting smaller breasts

I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was part of a trend. 

I asked Lynn Damitz, the chief of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and director of Aesthetic Surgery at the UNC School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, why she thought breast reduction surgeries had increased so much during and after the pandemic, especially for older women.

A good portion of Damitz's breast reduction surgery patients are over 50, and that number has been rising since the pandemic. She said that more than 25 percent of her breast reduction patients had Medicare or Medicare Advantage insurance. 

Damitz offered several possible reasons for the increase in older patients who wanted this procedure. First, more people were working from home and were able to better manage the postoperative restrictions on stretching and lifting. Second, she said people weren’t leaving their homes as much, and were able to keep surgeries more private. Third, smaller breasts were becoming popular on social and traditional media. Breast reduction became trendy.

A New York Times article on the increase in breast reduction surgeries mentioned "an army of ordinary women" posting about their breast reductions on TikTok, saying that "the growth area in cosmetic breast surgery is in making them smaller."

Although the fastest growth in the surgery has been in younger women, the procedure has become more common for older women as well. From 2019 to 2022, cosmetic breast reductions in the U.S. increased by 42 percent for women age 40 to 54; and 31 percent for women age 55 to 69. In 2022, women 40 and older accounted for more than half of these procedures, according to the ASPS. Women over 50 who choose breast reduction surgery have often been living with negative symptoms for years, says Damitz, who is also the ASPS board vice president of health policy and advocacy. Now that they are older, many feel free to do something for themselves, instead of looking after others.