As we age, some parts of our bodies start to look a bit saggy. Women have a particularly difficult time with this, since saggy breasts can be prominent.
When you have saggy breasts, you have the so-called ‘ptotic breasts’ (the ‘p’ is silent so you pronounce it ‘totic’). This is a perfectly normal occurrence and it’s a result of lack of skin elasticity due to the aging process.
Why do breast sag over time?
Drooping or saggy breasts is an inevitable process.
There are routine cosmetic surgery procedures, like breast lift or mastoplexy and they are frequently requested at Body by Kotoske. But what exactly leads to saggy breasts?
The most noticeable breast sagging occurs because of a process called ‘breast involution’. Breast involution happens due to shrinking of milk ducts or the milk-making system because it is no longer required.
Milk ducts shrink after weaning or post-pregnancy if the mother didn’t breastfeed. Oh, and it’s also common during menopause. So when this type of tissue starts to shrink, your breasts will start to look ‘deflated’ or empty which leads to sagging.
There can be many causes of breast ptosis, like:
- Gravity
- Not wearing good enough support
- Smoking (this actually causes the thinning of your skin)
- Over-stretching of the skin, caused by either weight gain or pregnancy. You can lose weight in an astonishing amount of time, but your skin doesn’t bounce back so quickly
- Weak collagen – We summarized this numerous times, that collagen is vital for the elasticity of your skin. If you stretch your skin too many times e.g. frequent weight fluctuations or many pregnancies, the collagen in your skin gets weaker and skin becomes less elastic.
- Breast laxity or ageing of breast glandular tissue
And even though there’s nothing you can do to stop breast ptosis, the amount your breast will sag over time is primarily determined by your genetics e.g. how elastic is your skin and how dense are your breasts.
Breasts contain both ‘heavy’ tissue like mammary glands and fatty tissue. Depending on the ratio of these two components, some patients could have denser breasts than others. Denser breasts may sag faster and further as you get older, but of course that’s not the only factor that can influence this process.
Types of saggy breasts
Depending on the sagginess of your breast, breast ptosis can be classified in 4 different groups:
First is the MILD ptosis which is less visible and only causes some mild shape malformation of your breasts
Second is the grade 2 or MODERATE ptosis where the bra that you’re wearing is no longer providing the necessary support so doing some activities, like running, is a problem.
Third is the SIGNIFICANT ptosis or the grade 3 ptosis. This type of ptosis causes an actual breast size change and it’s a result of a pregnancy of significant weight loss.
And lastly, we have the grade 4 or ALLTROPHIC ptosis, where the collagen is so weak that it barely provides any kind of skin elasticity.
Patients that seek cosmetic surgery help in order to fix their breast ptosis, usually have either moderate or more severe forms of ptosis.
If you noticed that your breasts are getting a bit saggy or that your nipples are pointing south, and you would like to rectify this, contact Dr. Kotoske today and schedule a consult. He will review the severity of your breast ptosis and recommend the best way to fix it.
