Mastopexy (Breast Lift) in Uberlândia, Brazil

A breast lift without implants repositions the breast tissue and skin the patient already has: it raises the breast and corrects ptosis without adding volume. A breast lift with implants combines a silicone implant in the same operation, indicated when volume has also been lost — particularly in the upper pole of the breast. The choice depends on the amount of existing breast tissue, the degree of laxity and the desired result, all assessed at the consultation.

The reference used in assessment is the inframammary fold, the crease under the breast, and what is measured is the position of the nipple in relation to it. A nipple at the level of the crease corresponds to mild ptosis; below the crease but still above the lower breast contour, to moderate ptosis; below both the crease and the lower contour, pointing towards the floor, to marked ptosis. When the nipple stays above the crease and it is the breast tissue that has descended, it is called pseudoptosis — and a breast whose nipple sits above the crease, with the tissue in its usual position, is not ptotic. A rough home observation can help you decide to seek assessment: without a bra, if the breast covers its own crease and the nipple has disappeared below it, ptosis is likely — the degree, however, is only established on clinical examination. What changes the plan is the reason for the complaint: if it is mainly weight, neck and back pain or bra straps digging into the shoulders, assessment moves towards a breast reduction, which removes volume; if the volume is satisfactory and only the drop bothers you, towards a lift.

No — mastopexy lifts and reshapes sagging breasts without necessarily adding volume. It can be combined with an implant when indicated.

No. A breast lift corrects ptosis without necessarily changing volume. A breast reduction removes breast tissue to decrease volume, and therefore usually includes a lift as well — which is why the term "reduction mastopexy" is used when both reducing and lifting are needed in the same operation.

It usually takes two to four hours, depending on the technique chosen and whether an implant is combined with the lift.

There is no surgical breast lift without an incision, and the internal-bra technique does not avoid the scar. What is described as an internal lift or an internal bra refers to support techniques performed from within, through the same incisions — sutures anchoring breast tissue to firmer structures. They still leave a scar on the skin. Lifting threads, radiofrequency and laser act on the skin and may at most produce a modest, temporary elevation, without removing the excess skin that defines ptosis. Threads also carry complications of their own, such as migration, skin dimpling, fibrosis and extrusion. When the breast has already dropped, the actual choice is between accepting a scar and not operating — a comparison made at the consultation, with the planned scar pattern in view.

A lift is performed in a hospital operating theatre or a clinic with a fully equipped surgical centre and an anesthesiology team — it is not an office procedure. It does not involve days of admission: the usual approach is one night, with discharge the following day, so that pain, bleeding and recovery from the anesthetic can be observed. Whether you go home the same day or stay overnight is always assessed case by case, according to the extent of the surgery, the anesthesia, whether other procedures are combined and your pre-operative assessment — and it is settled before the surgery, at the consultation and the pre-anesthetic assessment, so you can arrange a companion and transport in advance.

Six months of stable weight is the usual criterion, and it is what the published indication criteria in post-weight-loss body contouring describe. The reason is not bureaucratic. Weight regain after this kind of surgery is common: in a follow-up of patients who underwent trunk-based contouring, those who had had bariatric surgery regained on average about 12% after reaching their lowest weight, against about 8% among those who had not. Operating before the weight settles means operating on a body that is still going to change. Body mass index comes into it as well, and not as a detail: in a series of 2,533 post-weight-loss abdominoplasties, patients with a higher BMI had more seroma, dehiscence, hematoma requiring reintervention and surgical site infection. Stable weight and BMI are therefore assessed together, and the target is defined individually at the consultation — in some cases the advice is to keep losing weight before scheduling surgery, which frustrates those who arrive wanting a date, and is what protects the result. Nutritional assessment and stopping smoking are part of it too.

Nutritional assessment is neither optional nor outsourced: the clinic has a dietitian on the team, and every patient has a nutritional consultation, with bioimpedance analysis. This exists for a reason the post-weight-loss body contouring literature documents well. GLP-1 analogues suppress appetite and delay gastric emptying, which reduces protein and micronutrient intake; bariatric surgery, sleeve gastrectomy included, predisposes to deficiencies in iron, vitamin B12 and protein. And protein deficiency is not a detail: it impairs collagen production, angiogenesis and immunity, and is a risk factor for poor wound healing — precisely what is most feared in this kind of surgery. Guidelines describe a target of 60 to 120 g of protein a day, and a substantial share of patients on these medications fall short of it; hence the emphasis on spreading protein through the day, in smaller and more frequent meals, rather than concentrating it. The laboratory work-up before surgery is broad and includes screening for anemia and for the deficiencies most associated with this profile. The exact list is defined case by case and discussed at the consultation, because it depends on how the weight was lost, how long ago, and what was already being replaced.

Usually general anesthesia or general with sedation, determined by the extent of surgery and pre-operative assessment together with the anesthesiology team.

Patients more often describe pressure, tightness and a feeling of heaviness in the breasts than a cutting pain, and it concentrates in the first 48 to 72 hours — which is why pain medication is prescribed on a fixed schedule rather than only when pain appears. From the third to the fifth day most patients manage with simple analgesics. When the lift is combined with an implant placed behind the pectoral muscle, discomfort tends to be greater in the early days because of muscle stretching. Back and neck discomfort in the first week is common and comes from guarded posture and sleeping semi-upright, not from the breast itself. What is not expected is intense or worsening pain, or pain in only one breast — that should be reported to the team.

Not on its own. A lift involves undermining skin, reshaping breast tissue and repositioning the nipple-areola complex — an extent that local anesthesia alone cannot cover safely or comfortably. The standard is general anesthesia, frequently combined with a chest-wall nerve block performed by the anesthesiology team to reduce pain in the first hours. Spinal and epidural anesthesia are not the usual route for breast surgery. There is one exception: small, localised revisions, such as reworking a segment of scar months later, can be done under local anesthesia, depending on the extent. The final decision belongs to the anesthesiology team at the pre-operative assessment, taking your medical history into account.

Relative rest is generally recommended in the first week, with a gradual return to daily activities in the following weeks.

It varies by activity type — desk work is usually resumed sooner than jobs requiring intense arm movement.

Usually after the first few days, once strong pain medication is no longer needed and arm movement feels comfortable.

Return is gradual: light walking is usually cleared first, with higher-impact activity or upper-body training only after medical reassessment.

Yes — wearing a surgical bra for a period is recommended to support the result during healing.

In most lifts without an implant, no. A drain exists to clear fluid from areas of wide undermining, and a lift works in a relatively contained space, with careful hemostasis and layered sutures that reduce dead space. A drain tends to be considered in specific situations — very large breasts, wider undermining, a combined implant or liposuction of the lateral chest, and a history of bleeding. When used, it is usually removed at a follow-up visit within the first few days, according to the volume drained, rather than on a fixed date. The decision may be made during surgery itself and is discussed beforehand, at the consultation, so you know what you may find when you wake up.

For the first weeks, the usual guidance is to sleep on your back with the trunk elevated — two or three pillows, or the head of the bed raised — which helps reduce swelling and avoids pulling on the sutures. Face down is the position to avoid for longest, as it compresses the operated breast and the scar. Sleeping on your side is usually allowed from around three to four weeks, gradually and with a pillow supporting the arm, though the timing changes with the technique and whether an implant was used. It is worth organising the bedroom beforehand: sleeping propped up for a few weeks tends to be more of an inconvenience than patients expect.

Time off is individual and follows the type of work: desk-based activity usually allows a return between seven and fourteen days, while jobs involving lifting, raising the arms overhead or continuous physical effort call for three to four weeks. In the first days what limits you is not the pain itself but the restriction on arm movement and the effect of the pain medication. Tension on the closure is one of the factors associated with a widened scar, alongside the technique used and individual healing characteristics — which is why restrictions on arm effort still apply even when a patient already feels well. The period is set at the consultation, according to the planned technique, and reassessed at follow-up visits.

The usual sequence starts with light walking after the first week, moves to low-impact cardio at around three to four weeks, and only then releases running, jumping and upper-body or chest weight training, generally from six weeks and after reassessment. The order has a reason: impact and pulling through the arms act precisely on the sutures that hold the new shape, and those take weeks to gain strength. A well-supporting sports bra is recommended once impact resumes. The timings vary with the technique, whether an implant was combined and each patient's progress, and clearance is given at follow-up visits.

The term comes from breast augmentation, where it describes a set of measures — dissection under direct vision, meticulous hemostasis, pain control planned from before surgery and early arm movement — rather than a different operation. In breast augmentation that set also includes doing without a drain and a compression wrap; in a lift the support bra remains indicated, because there are skin and breast-tissue sutures to protect. The remaining measures can be applied to a lift and tend to make the first days more comfortable, but one difference cannot be engineered away: those sutures need time to gain strength, which is why restrictions on arm effort remain even when a patient feels well sooner than expected. No timeline is promised — the pace is reassessed at follow-up visits.

It tends to lighten and mature over the months, though it never disappears completely — sun protection helps its aesthetic evolution.

The scar pattern follows how much skin has to be removed. In mild ptosis it can stay around the border of the areola — the periareolar pattern. In moderate ptosis, a vertical line from the areola to the breast fold is added. In marked ptosis, or where there is a large skin excess, a horizontal line hidden in the fold is added as well — the inverted T. A short scar is therefore not a matter of preference: short-scar techniques exist, but they only work when little skin needs to be removed. Forcing a shorter scar than the case allows tends to flatten the breast shape and to widen the scar itself. The planned pattern is shown at the consultation, before surgery.

A lift is closed in layers. The deep stitches that hold the new shape of the breast tissue and take tension off the skin are internal and made of absorbable suture: they stay in place and are absorbed over weeks to months, with nothing to remove. In the skin, when absorbable suture or a continuous subdermal stitch is used, there is also nothing to take out; when non-absorbable suture is used, removal usually happens between day seven and day fourteen, often in stages — the areola first, then the vertical line. Feeling small knots or threads working their way out of the scar in the following weeks is common: these are internal stitches being extruded, and they should be shown at a visit rather than trimmed at home.

Redness, firmness and a slight ridge along the scar line are the expected phase of healing, most visible between the third week and the third month, and they subside slowly over twelve to eighteen months. What distinguishes this from infection is the combination: redness spreading beyond the scar, local heat, pain that increases instead of easing, purulent discharge or fever call for a same-day review. Follow-up care commonly includes silicone-based tapes and gels and massage once cleared. A scar that keeps growing after the third month is assessed as hypertrophic or keloid and has its own treatment.

It's a possible, usually temporary risk that should be discussed individually at the consultation according to the planned technique.

The complications described most often are: partial opening of the wound, especially where the scars meet in an inverted T, the point under most tension; a widened, firm or hypertrophic scar; residual asymmetry between the breasts; gradual loss of projection, with the tissue descending over the years; altered sensation in the areola and nipple, which usually improves over six to twelve months but may remain permanently reduced; seroma, hematoma and infection. When an implant is combined, capsular contracture and implant displacement are added. Most of these are managed in the office, but some require a second operation — and the possibility of a revision exists in any breast lift, which is not in itself a sign of error. Smoking, diabetes, obesity and previous breast surgery all raise this risk.

It does, as does any surgery under general anesthesia, and the risk is considered low in breast surgery performed alone — low is not zero, and it is precisely this risk that justifies much of the pre-operative preparation. Individual risk is estimated beforehand using scores that combine age, body mass index, use of contraceptives or hormone therapy, smoking, personal or family history of clots and expected operating time. Depending on that estimate, measures include compression stockings, intermittent pneumatic compression during surgery and walking within the first hours are routine in every case; the score then defines how long prophylactic anticoagulant medication is used. Adding other operations at the same time lengthens anesthesia time and with it this risk. Pain or swelling in one leg, shortness of breath or chest pain call for immediate contact with the team.

It is a possible and uncommon complication. With most lift techniques, the areola and nipple stay attached to the breast by a pedicle — a band of tissue carrying the vessels that supply them — and necrosis occurs when that blood supply is insufficient, which may affect an area of skin, the edge of the scar or, more rarely, the nipple-areola complex. The risk factor most consistently described is smoking, including vaping; others are uncontrolled diabetes, marked ptosis requiring a long pedicle, previous breast surgery whose scars altered the blood supply, and adding an implant in the same operation, which increases tension on the skin. A lift without an implant is therefore not the riskier option — it usually demands less of the skin's circulation.

Venous thromboembolism prophylaxis is used in every patient, not only in those at higher risk. It has two parts. The mechanical one is routine: anti-thrombosis compression stockings and intermittent pneumatic compression of the legs, used during the operation and in the immediate postoperative period, until early ambulation — the third pillar, and the reason the team insists on short, frequent walks from the first hours. The chemical part is individualised: how long enoxaparin is used is defined by the Caprini score, a validated instrument that adds up factors such as age, body mass index, expected length of surgery, hormone use, smoking and personal or family history of thrombosis. None of these measures eliminates the risk, which is why asymmetrical pain or swelling in a leg, shortness of breath and chest pain need immediate assessment, not waiting.

The lift is long-lasting, but natural aging and gravity continue to act over time.

It can change it, and it is worth understanding what changes. A breast lift repositions the breast and removes skin, but it does not stop the tissue from gaining and losing volume again: in pregnancy the breast enlarges, during breastfeeding it enlarges further and then involutes, and the skin stretches again through that cycle. The effect varies and cannot be predicted case by case — some patients keep much of what was achieved, and others see sagging return or lose volume in the upper pole, and may seek a revision later on. The surgery does not affect fertility, and becoming pregnant afterwards is neither contraindicated nor subject to a mandatory interval; the usual advice is to wait for complete healing and stable weight. If you intend to become pregnant soon, postponing the lift enters the conversation, so as not to operate twice — and those who have completed their plans for pregnancy tend to keep the result for longer. On breastfeeding after the surgery, the answer is in the specific question on this page.

With most techniques, no. The areola and nipple remain attached to the breast tissue by a pedicle that preserves vessels, nerves and part of the ducts, and many patients breastfeed after surgery. It cannot be guaranteed: a lift removes and repositions tissue, and there is a risk of reduced milk production or difficulty with latching. The exception described in the literature is the free nipple graft technique, reserved for rare cases of very marked ptosis, which divides the ducts and rules out breastfeeding — if that is the technical alternative in your case, it is stated clearly before surgery. If pregnancy is planned, the other side matters too: pregnancy and breastfeeding after a lift can change the result obtained. The best timing for surgery is part of the consultation discussion.

Right after surgery the breast tends to look higher, more projected and fuller in the upper pole than it will be — that is swelling and skin tension, not the result. The most obvious swelling subsides over the first three to four weeks; the tissue settles and drops slightly over three to six months, the phase known as settling; the scar keeps maturing for twelve to eighteen months. Slight asymmetry between the two breasts is common during this period and usually evens out. That is why the result is not judged in the first month.

When there is regret, two expectations come up most often in patients' accounts: the scar, which turned out more visible than the patient imagined, and volume — anyone expecting a full upper pole without an implant tends to be disappointed, because a lift redistributes the tissue that is there rather than adding volume. A third reason is timing: judging the result in the first month, while swelling remains and the scar is at its worst. That is why the consultation insists on the planned scar pattern and on deciding about an implant before surgery. If the scar is unacceptable to you, that is clinically relevant information and it changes the plan — worth saying plainly.

Sagging of the male chest exists and has its own names. When breast tissue is enlarged, the condition is gynecomastia, and surgery is planned to remove tissue and skin while leaving the areola small and in a masculine position — it is not the female breast lift. After major weight loss, the main problem is usually excess skin, and the scar pattern changes with how much there is. For trans men, masculinising chest surgery is a distinct procedure: it removes the breast tissue and repositions or grafts the areola, with its own planning and a different scar. In Brazil it follows the criteria of CFM Resolution 2,265/2019, including assessment by a multidisciplinary team, and is not handled as an aesthetic procedure. Each of these is assessed individually, and using the correct name for the procedure changes the conversation about technique, scar and recovery.

Surgical fees are always private — Dr. Lorena does not operate through health insurance. What is possible, when a genuine, documented medical indication exists — such as correction after major weight loss, or breast reconstruction on clinical grounds —, is to guide the patient and attempt to have the health plan cover part of the hospital admission, which may include the operating room, the hospital stay and materials, according to the terms of her policy. Authorisation is the insurer's decision and cannot be guaranteed; the team advises on the documentation required and on how to proceed.

Yes, where there is a reconstructive or functional indication — for example breast reconstruction, or contour correction after bariatric surgery, on clinical grounds. Surgery for purely aesthetic purposes is not covered by the SUS. Dr. Lorena is a plastic surgeon appointed by public examination to the Hospital de Clínicas of the Federal University of Uberlândia (HC-UFU) and preceptor of its plastic surgery residency, and she operates on SUS patients there. The route, however, does not run through this site or the private practice: the patient must register at the primary care unit (Unidade Básica de Saúde) nearest to where she lives, be assessed by a doctor there and, if there is an indication, be placed in her municipality's regulation queue. The surgeon cannot choose who is operated on through the SUS — the order follows the queue and the rules of the system strictly.

We do not publish isolated before-and-after pairs. Resolution 2,336/2023 of the Brazilian Federal Council of Medicine allows results to be demonstrated, but only within a set that also includes unsatisfactory outcomes and the complications described in the literature, across different body types, age ranges and stages of healing, and with no editing of the images (art. 14, II). An isolated pair of photos does not meet those requirements and also implies a guaranteed result, which the same resolution prohibits (art. 11, XII). At the consultation the expected outcome is discussed from your own anatomy — what is reasonable to expect, what is not possible, and what the risks are.