Features Overview

Breasts

Dr Rozina Ali refers to the female chest as being an ever evolving and changing landscape that reflects your hormonal and health throughout life. In the same way that pharmacological treatments can alter your hormonal milieu and mood, surgical interventions, used judiciously and in partnership, can bring a lot of joy and longevity to your sexual and social life.

Worldwide, female breast cancer has now surpassed lung cancer as the most diagnosed cancer. For those patients who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, successful treatment is certainly a cause for celebration. But for those undergoing lumpectomy or mastectomy as part of their treatment, changes in the way their breasts look, and feel can leave many women feeling frustrated and depressed. Fortunately, breast reconstruction surgery can help restore breast size, shape, and feel.

Thanks to medical and aesthetic advances in plastic surgery, reconstruction has come a long way. New materials and techniques have made breast reconstruction as natural looking as possible. Dr Rozina Ali has extensive experience, international expertise and achieved great outcomes in breast reconstruction.

The art of breast reconstruction is to create a breast that is pert, shapely, sits correctly on the curved chest wall and feels soft. Whether you require round, shaped, textured, smooth, or microthane-coated implants; or the use of fat transfer, free tissue transfer or an acellular dermal matrix, Rozina is skilled in selecting the right procedure for the right outcome in the right patient.

The female breast tells a story of one's life, of pregnancy, motherhood, diet, lifestyle and much more. Our breasts change throughout the stages of our lives and all, but the smallest breasts will sag, especially associated with the menopause.

Sagging breasts are also referred to as ‘droopy or drooping breasts’ or more clinically as ‘breast ptosis’. Frequently, droopy breasts are asymmetrical, or the nipples sit in a position that looks less than aesthetically pleasing.

The implications that sagging breasts can have on a woman may impact both aesthetically and emotionally. Many women seek to enquire about ways to improve droopy empty breasts and create breasts that are fuller, firmer and perter.

Sagging breasts can be treated by adding volume (fat transfer, implants) and/or reducing the excess skin of the breast envelope and repositioning the nipple (breast uplift.). The approach taken to achieve the best outcome will depend on your specific breast condition, and your outcome preferences. Dr Rozina Ali always pays great care and attention to your tissues and your needs before she will offer her surgical skills to sculpt and mould your tissues.

Tuberous breasts, also known as tubular breasts, are caused when the breast tissue does not grow properly during puberty. The underside of the breast may fail to develop resulting in a high, tight, restricted lower pole and the breast tissue of the upper pole overhanging to give a tubular shape to the breast. One or both breasts may be involved to varying degrees.

Whilst this condition is not very common, nor harmful or painful, many young girls or women who are affected do not seek surgical help since they are too embarrassed or afraid to seek treatment, they don’t understand why their breasts are so different to those of others, or what options, if any, are available to them.

As a woman and as a breast specialist, Dr Rozina Ali is acutely aware of the emotional, psychological, and sexual impact of breast problems. Surgical correction of tuberous breasts typically requires specialised techniques to address the unique characteristics of the condition and achieve symmetrical, aesthetically pleasing results.

Large breasts can make you feel self-conscious and trapped by the limitations of your own body. They can also cause physical suffering and spinal issues, limitations to lifestyle, clothing choices, exercise and socialising as well as emotional and sexual concerns.

Large breasts, (Macromastia) may be determined by genetics, hormone levels or body weight. Breasts can undergo a radical and unpredictable change in size during pregnancy and after giving birth, when the appearance and size can also become asymmetric or irregular.

Menopause and the inexorable process of ageing can also result in breasts becoming larger, heavier and more ptotic (droopy) due to increased involution of the breast tissue and deposition of fat.

A breast expert and aesthete such as Dr Rozina Ali recognises breast reduction as a chest rejuvenating procedure since the breasts are reshaped and lifted as well as resized to suit your needs and preferences.

Asymmetric breasts refers to the two breasts looking different in shape or size. No woman has completely symmetric breasts and it is not uncommon to notice that one breast differs in shape, size, volume or positioning on the chest wall.

There can be a number of reasons why this happens such as genetics, pubertal development, hormonal changes, breast feeding or disease/trauma. The breasts may also see temporary differences in size during menstrual periods, as water retention and increased blood flow when ovulating can result in the breasts becoming fuller and more sensitive.

For some, when both breasts don’t look the same, they don’t feel ‘normal’ and it can have implications on their well-being with a strong need for this bodily feature to fit in with what is expected. Rozina has a long career and expertise in all aspects of chest reconstruction whether  following trauma, breast cancer or gender realignment and is well versed in the art of the possible.

Using multiple modalities including implants, acellular dermal matrix, tissue flaps, fat transfer and tissue manipulation (breast uplift, breast reduction) Rozina can restore  lost confidence and deliver a more natural and aesthetically pleasing appearance to any chest.

A small proportion of women in the years following breast surgery can develop a condition called capsular contracture. This is where a capsule or scar tissue develops naturally around any foreign body (breast implant); a safeguard deployed by the body to protect you from foreign materials.

If capsular contracture occurs, the capsule will toughen in texture. This hardening of the tissue will cause the capsule to tighten around the implant and squeeze it. This may cause the shape of the breast to change, becoming distorted and adopting a higher position on the chest.  It can become uncomfortable and, in some cases, even painful, it does not make you otherwise unwell.

Should such a complication occur, the diagnosis is clinical and multiple options are available, from removing the implant and some/all of the capsule to releasing the capsule and replacing the implants, changing the type of implant, plane of insertion and/or adding fat transfer.

The circular area of pigmented skin that surrounds the nipple is known as the areola. It is an area of specialised skin containing hair follicles and glands known as Montgomery tubercles. The texture of the skin is different to the rest of the breast. Like every breast, every areola is unique in size, shape, and colour. Enlarged areola, asymmetric areola, herniated areola, or lesions of the areola lead many to seek clinical attention.

Dr Rozina Ali offers treatment to male and female clients and has developed several specialised techniques for areola reduction and areola reconstruction. Treatment involves a short local anaesthetic day case procedure.

Whilst concerns with the appearance of the nipples are common, many men and women do not seek treatment until later in life.

Treatment for enlarged nipples involves a short local anaesthetic day case procedure to reduce length, reduce girth or symmetrise appearance. For inverted nipples, a short local anaesthetic day case procedure to evert the nipples and a suture to keep them everted, is required. A fat transfer procedure can also help with inverted or small nipples. Accessory nipples can occur along the milk line (from axilla to groin) in both men and women. Treatment involves a short local anaesthetic day case procedure to excise the accessory nipples/breast tissue. Nipple reconstruction or nipple share (nipple transfer) is a specialist area of expertise and is very much Rozina’s forte. Treatment involves a short local anaesthetic day case procedure.

The size of a woman’s breasts is unique to her alone, and there is no one size that is more ‘normal’ or attractive than another. The breasts will generally have grown to their full natural size once puberty has finished (17yrs+).

Throughout our adult lives certain factors can affect whether the breasts will continue to increase or decrease in size. Breast size is generally determined by our genetics but also by weight gain/weight loss. Breasts that have become larger through pregnancy and breastfeeding, will almost always shrink back to their original size or less in some cases.

If a woman is unsatisfied with her breast size or appearance, then breast enlargement and enhancement is possible to restore both volume and confidence

Gynaecomastia refers to the firm or fatty swelling of the male breast which results in an undesirable appearance. It can occur due to a number of factors, but most commonly through weight gain, medication or an imbalance in hormone levels (this may occur at some specific physiologic stage in life, including during the ageing process when testosterone levels see a natural decline).

There are of course those who take lots of care of their physique, yet still suffer from gynaecomastia. Statistics show that up to 60% of men worldwide, and between 30%-60% of male adolescents, will suffer from Gynecomastia at some point in their lifetime. It's most common for teens between age 13-17 and for males over 60 years old.

In some cases, surgery might be required, and the most common techniques are liposuction (removal of extra breast fat) and breast tissue excision using a peri-areolar incision. To understand if a surgical procedure can help you, book a consultation today.