Studies have found that breast reduction surgery, along with many other cosmetic surgeries, offers significant improvements to a patient’s quality of life. Recently, some researchers decided to test whether breast augmentation might offer similar benefits. Their results, which have been published in the July issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, revealed that breast augmentation can offer significant improvements in patients’ quality of life.
The most popular cosmetic surgery in the United states, breast augmentation is a procedure that increases the size of the breasts with silicone or saline breast implants. Currently, more than 300,000 American women undergo the procedure each year. While the prevailing stereotype is that breast augmentation patients are simply being vain, the results of this study suggest that breast augmentation actually offers substantial quality-of-life benefits to women.
Breast Augmentation and Quality Of Life
The new study involved a questionnaire that evaluated changes in health-related quality of life for 41 women who underwent breast augmentation surgery. The women completed the questionnaire six months before and after their breast augmentation surgeries.
The questionnaire measured six aspects of quality-of-life. Women were asked to rate their satisfaction with these aspects of themselves on a scale from 0 to 100.
What Did The Study Find?
Breast augmentation can provide a range of positive benefits. According to the study authors, “Cosmetic breast augmentation can have a significant and profound positive impact on a woman’s satisfaction with her breasts [and] her psychosocial and sexual well-being.”
- satisfaction with breasts rose from 27 to 70
- psychosocial well-being increased from 45 to 78
- sexual well-being rose from 35 to 72
More than 80 percent of the breast augmentation patients reported “significant improvements” in satisfaction in these three areas. These large gains, according to an ASPS press release, are similar to the types of improvements seen after hip replacement surgery.