Question:

My 17-year-old daughter has very large breasts even though she is not fat.  Is she too young for breast reduction?  She is so self conscious that she dresses in over-sized clothing and refuses to play sports.  It is affecting her life daily. 

Answer:

I think your daughter sounds like an excellent candidate for breast reduction surgery.  Gigantomastia, which is a term that is used to describe very large breasts, may be the condition that your daughter has.  In any event, she does have symptomatic macromastia or large breasts and this is very common in post-puberty adolescents. 

She will be symptomatically improved immediately and if her growth spurt is over the results of the surgery should be permanent.  However, there are a small percentage of patients who do get recurrent gigantomastia even after breast reduction surgery but the risk of this small. 

I would discuss surgery with her pediatrician and I think that surgery would positively affect not only her physical outlook but her mental outlook as well. 

Posted by:  Dr. Siporin