Young girls often desperately want breasts and get tired of waiting for them to develop. Women, however, just want to make sure that their belly button doesn’t end up between them. We all want to maintain a youthful, perky appearance, and we want to get our old bodies back after pregnancy, weight loss, and other body changes.
But sagging breasts are a common and universally dreaded issue. They’re also a misunderstood one. There are many myths surrounding the causes of sagging breasts, and a bit of confusion about how to (and whether you can) fix them. Here is what you need to know if your boobs hang low.
Medically referred to as ptosis, sagging in the breasts refers to a downward shift of the breasts over time. The condition involves a change in the position of the breast tissue and nipples relative to the crease beneath the breast. Sagging is not the same as a change in volume, which involves a shift in the size of the breasts. These are distinct issues, each influenced by different factors, and they require different fixes.
Female breasts contain three types of tissue: glandular, fatty, and connective. The glandular tissue is functional and includes the milk ducts. This is the part of the breast that makes breastfeeding possible. Fatty tissue fills in the spots between glandular tissue. How much fatty tissue you have is what determines how large your breasts are. There is also connective tissue such as ligaments. This is what holds everything in place. It is changes in the skin and connective tissue that generally cause breasts to sag.
Sagging breasts have many potential causes, and your breasts may sag because of one of them or a combination of them. One unavoidable issue is age. As we age, the skin loses elasticity because your body’s production of elastin and collagen decreases. The ligaments supporting the breasts (Cooper’s ligaments) may also stretch, causing the breasts to sag. The constant pull of gravity on breast tissue over time can also lead to stretching and sagging. Larger breasts are more likely to sag due to the increased weight and gravitational pull on the breast tissue and skin.
Some women are victims of genetics. Genetic predisposition can play a significant role in the elasticity of the skin and the characteristics of breast tissue, which influences the likelihood and extent of sagging.
But it’s not just down to genes—lifestyle choices also play a role. Smoking, excessive sun exposure, and poor diet can degrade skin quality and contribute to the early onset of sagging. Significant weight gain or loss can dramatically alter breast size and shape too, potentially leading to sagging due to stretched skin and volume loss.
Hormonal fluctuations during pregnancy and menopause can affect the structure of breast tissue, often resulting in sagging. Here we need to pause briefly and dispel a common myth. It’s true that your hormones can change your breasts during pregnancy, but breastfeeding does not cause your breasts to sag. If you wish to breastfeed your children, please don’t avoid doing so out of fear that it will lead to saggy breasts. This notion is commonly held but is pure fiction.
While there are things you can’t control such as your age or the way gravity pulls on your body, there are things you can do to try and prevent sagging breasts. One is to maintain a steady weight. Keeping your weight stable through a balanced diet and regular exercise can help maintain breast shape and support.
Wearing bras that provide good support can help reduce the gravitational pull on breast tissues, potentially preventing premature sagging. It’s particularly important to wear a supportive sports bra during physical activities to prevent the breasts from bouncing, which can stretch the skin and ligaments. Sports bras are an excellent choice when running and participating in other intense physical activities.
Taking good care of your skin can also help prevent sagging breasts. Eating foods rich in vitamins C, E, and A, as well as antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids, can help maintain skin health and elasticity. These nutrients support skin repair and collagen production. Keeping your skin adequately hydrated is also important, so drink plenty of water. Protecting your skin also means wearing sunscreen when necessary and avoiding smoking.
Strength training is another way to help yourself. Building up the pectoral muscles underneath the breasts with exercises like push-ups, chest presses, and swimming can help improve the overall appearance of your breasts by providing more muscle tone and support. Strong back muscles help promote good posture, and that helps to lift the breasts.
Many myths and misconceptions surround the topic of sagging breasts. We’ve already debunked the myth that breastfeeding causes sagging, but there are a few more myths to address. Another common myth is that wearing a bra prevents sagging. Wearing a bra during rigorous activities that cause the breasts to bounce can help prevent stress on connective tissue. But a bra does not prevent the natural changes that occur with aging and gravity, so daily wear isn’t crucial. If you’re more comfortable without a bra, wearing one isn’t a sag-preventing necessity.
It’s also a myth that exercise can completely prevent sagging. Exercises that strengthen the chest muscles can improve the appearance of your breasts by enhancing muscle tone behind the breast tissue, they can’t prevent sagging entirely. Sagging is primarily influenced by the skin’s elasticity and ligament health, which are affected by age, genetics, and hormonal changes. Exercise can’t fix sagging breasts, either. Although it can improve breast appearance, exercise cannot reverse stretching in the skin or ligaments.
The notion that small breasts don’t sag is also untrue. Smaller breasts might sag less visibly because there is less gravitational pull, but they can still experience changes in elasticity and shape over time, particularly after major weight loss or hormonal shifts. It’s also untrue that young breasts don’t sag. Sagging breasts are more common as women age due to the natural loss of skin elasticity, but younger women can also experience sagging. Factors such as significant weight loss, larger breast size, and certain lifestyle habits can contribute to earlier breast sagging.
Lastly, it’s a myth to think that you can completely prevent breast sagging. While you can help to minimize sagging through measures like good skin care, some sagging as you age is normal and expected. Your breasts will likely sag to some extent as you age, even if you do what you can to prevent it.
Surgical interventions are commonly sought for significantly sagging breasts and are the most effective treatments. There are also non-surgical options that may help improve the appearance of mild to moderate breast sagging. These approaches primarily focus on enhancing skin quality and providing better support to the breasts.
One option is to schedule a professional bra fitting. Wearing a properly fitted bra can significantly improve the appearance of sagging breasts by providing adequate support and lift. A professional bra fitting can ensure that you choose the right size and style for your breast shape and size.
Further, there are various creams and lotions available that claim to firm and tighten skin. Look for products containing ingredients like retinol, collagen, peptides, or antioxidants, which can improve skin elasticity and appearance. While these won’t drastically change breast sagging, they can help improve skin texture and firmness.
Radiofrequency, ultrasound, and laser treatments are also available. These treatments all strive to stimulate collagen production in the skin, leading to improved texture and a slight tightening effect. While typically used on facial skin, these techniques can be adapted for use on the body.
While all these options may provide some relief, their effectiveness is limited, and they’re largely designed to mask the problem rather than solve it. If you really want to fix sagging breasts, the answer is breast lift surgery. During a breast lift, your surgeon will remove excess stretched skin and reposition your breasts so that they sit higher on your chest. Your beasts will look perkier but will not be larger.
Although they will fade with time, it’s important to understand that a breast will leave visible scars. Surgeons generally choose one of the following incisions for a breast list:
A breast lift can work wonders for correcting sagging, but it’s critical that you find and consult with a qualified plastic surgeon. They can help you understand what type of breast lift will work best for you and help you envision realistic outcomes for your surgery.
Sagging breasts can happen to anyone, young or old. Although there are some things you can do to reduce the severity of the sag, eventually age and gravity come for us all. A supportive bra and some strength training may make your breasts look a bit better, but truly repairing sagging breasts requires a breast lift. And if you want to fix sagging breasts, surgery is available and likely more affordable than you think.
But as is true of any plastic surgery, it’s about doing what makes you feel good. It’s about how you feel when you interact with the world. If sagging breasts are making you feel self-conscious and shattering your confidence, it’s time to consider fixing the problem. The goal is to be comfortable in your own body so you enjoy being the happiest, healthiest version of yourself that you can be, whatever your age.
Below we’ve included two actual breast procedure before and after cases of real Mia Aesthetics patients. The first case (Case 1999) details a breast lift with silicone implants. The second case (Case 2003) details a standard breast lift. In both cases, our surgeons were able to correct the sagging breasts and exceed the patients’ expectations.
