What is a Mastopexy/Breast Lift?
As women age and their breasts “mature”, there is a natural tendency for the breast mass to descend. The skin of the upper breast loses its elasticity and the skin stretches. In addition, the breast tissue itself becomes less firm and decreases in mass or atrophies. This results in a breasts that have “shrunk” and “dropped” or in “saggy breasts”. Plastic surgeons will generically refer to these characteristics in a breast as “ptosis” and will grade a breast by its “degree of ptosis”. Mature breasts are graded on their degree of ptosis by the position of the nipple. Grade 1 is the nipple at the level of the inframammary fold (IMF), grade 2 is when the nipple lies below the IMF, and grade 3 is where the nipple is at the most inferior portion of the breast. Breast ptosis may become apparent to a woman while she is still relatively young after she has had children, or it may appear in middle age. Variables which will affect the degree of ptosis are the elastic qualities of the skin, the nu
